Questions To Ask Your Friend Before They Photograph Your Wedding Day

If you are planning to get married soon you are probably horrified at the cost of everything to do with weddings. One way of cutting costs, that you may regret forever, is by asking a friend to be your wedding photographer. Lots of people now own a digital camera that's capable of producing good quality images, and think 'how hard can photographing a wedding be?', the answer is 'a lot harder than you think'. Ask your friend some of these questions before you make your decision:
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<br>(1) Do you have a professional quality camera that will be able to deal with all the difficult conditions encountered during the average wedding?
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<br>(2) Are you a trained and experienced photographer? Can you change all the settings in two seconds, and know you've got everything right, when you have one chance to take the shot and it can never be repeated?
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<br>(3) Can you compose aesthetically pleasing photos very quickly under difficult conditions? Are you good at posing couples and putting them at their ease?
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<br>(4) Do you have the high quality, fast lenses that will be necessary for the low light conditions of a church, the right focal length for a portrait, or have the macro function needed for close ups of rings and details?
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<br>(5) Do you have a professional quality flashgun and know how to bounce, balance and fill with it?
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<br>(6) Do you have studio lights, stands and umbrellas, that may be needed if the lighting conditions aren't perfect, it starts to rain or get dark?
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<br>(7) Have you had all your equipment serviced recently? Do you have plenty of memory cards and spare batteries? Will you check and charge everything before the day?
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<br>(8) Do you have backups for all your equipment, i.e. at least two of everything, so you can carry on if one camera fails or you drop a lens during the wedding?
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<br>(9) Do you have the technical knowledge, software and computer equipment to process the photos, correct the colour balance and density of each image, enhance them in Photoshop and produce professional quality prints?
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<br>(10) Are you prepared to spend a day or two after the wedding doing this for nothing?
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<br>(11) Will you mind working really hard all day, without stopping, when the other guests are enjoying themselves, having a drink, a meal and a chat?
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<br>(12) Will you visit the venue, call the priest to check the photography policy and suggest a photography schedule for the day?
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<br>(13) Are you very familiar with the structure of a wedding day? Will you know exactly when and where you will need to be to capture essential shots?
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<br>(14) Do you have commercial insurance to cover you, and possibly prevent the bride and groom being sued, if you have an accident at the venue?
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<br>(15) Will you be comfortable organizing large groups of people and getting them to listen to you, without upsetting them, when they want to wander off and have a drink and you have one minute to take a photo?
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<br>(16) Will you be able to keep calm when you are running out of time, the light is going, the couple are distracted by guests taking photos with their point and shoot cameras, the caterer is telling you to stop because the wedding breakfast is ready, and you really, really need another good shot of the bride and groom.
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<br>(17) If you miss a vital part of the day, take bad photos or end up with no record of the wedding day at all, how will it affect our friendship?
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<br>You may have guessed by now that I don't think it's a good idea to use an amateur photographer for one of the most important days of your life. You might save yourself some money, but, when the rings have been exchanged, the cake's been eaten and all the guests have gone home, the only record of the day that you'll have are the photographs. You could also be putting a strain on an important friendship. My advice would be, if you are looking to cut costs on your wedding day, don't start with the photographer.
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<br>About the Author: David Perris works as a <a href="http://www.luckydogphoto.com" rel="nofollow">professional wedding photographer in Brighton</a>. Advice and examples of work on the website and current weddings on <a href="http://www.luckydogphoto.com/blog/" rel="nofollow">the Sussex wedding photographer's blog.</a> (c) David Perris 2009
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