To Photograph or Not To Photograph?

To Photograph or Not To Photograph?

August 14th, 2006 @ 9:22 am by Mrs. Bluebell
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While we obviously care a great deal about having a million fabulous pictures of our wedding, we are currently weighing the pros and cons of hiring a professional photographer. We have several friends who are very good amateur photographers, and one cousin of my mother’s is definitely professional-quality (although he focuses on travel photography, not weddings or people).

Is it really worth the extra X thousand dollars for someone else to take pictures in addition to everyone we already have? We were thinking of offering to pay for film and development for the people who are really fantastic (& use real film), and asking the digital users to consider themselves to be “our photographers” and maybe asking that this service be their gift to us, or even paying them a bit.

I think we’d end up with a ton of amazing pictures if we did this. But then I see some professional pictures (like all of Mrs. Firefly’s, swoon) and wonder if this is really an area we should be stingy on. I want to have all those gorgeous pictures too!!!

I guess the question is: Is this an area where you would ever consider going the DIY route? I don’t care about formal portraits really, but I care a lot about having beautiful pictures. I’m also very picky and don’t like the majority of the cheaper photographers out there, so we can’t really compromise by getting a cheap photographer.

Is it worth several thousand dollars to be extra sure we have artistic gorgeous photos, or should we just stick with our friends and cousin who we would take great if not absolutely perfect photos?

Please also comment with any thoughts you have about how you chose what to do, and advice you might have for us! Thanks!

What are you doing for a photographer?

Nothing - I figure everyone will take pictures, so we can just get those from people. We might get disposables to put on tables to encourage people, but there will be no designated photographer.
Something like what you described above - there will be several people who we specifically ask to take extra pictures. We may or may not offer them some sort of financial incentive to do this, but we won’t be “hiring” them officially.
We will be “hiring” one friend/family member and putting him/her in charge, although he/she is not a professional.
We will be “hiring” one friend/family member who is a professional and/or in art school or the like.
We will be hiring the cheapest professional we can find who is decent. The most important thing is to have a record of the event, so the level of artistic quality is not as important as being sure that everything is captured.
We care a lot about having artistic photographs that match our sensibilities and are choosing our professional photographer based on the quality of his/her photographs. If this means upping our photography budget more than we wanted to originally, so be it - having beautiful pictures is a top priority for us.

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38 Responses to “To Photograph or Not To Photograph?”

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Guest

Miss Lily

I think that everyone is probably quite different in what they want with regards to photos. For us, having a pro there whose style we love is really important. But I’m sure if you know people with good photo skills you can go that route too. You probably just need more people doing it if they are friends so they can have fun and not always be snapping away… Good luck!!!

8/14/06 @ 9:27 am (reply)

Guest

Turtle

Originally, we were going to book this guy who’s amazing down in the outerbanks, nc. I thought he would be only available for a couple hours (less $), so I had also asked my good friend and amateur photographer to take some pictures. She was so flattered, but later I found out that the photographer may have already been booked….

You can find someone who can do pros for a few hours, and then ask your friends to fill in for the rest. Definitely save money. I feel ya; I’m really really picky on pictures too.

8/14/06 @ 9:29 am (reply)

Guest

We’re dealing with the photography issue too. For us, the pictures are probably the most important part of the wedding (besides actually being married by the end of the day!) and so we don’t want to compromise on it. We don’t have unlimited money though so we’re just going to interview different ones until we find one we like and who can work with our budget. Good luck!

8/14/06 @ 9:36 am (reply)

Guest

Becky-O

#6 - We’ve choosen a pro photographer who I totally love. Heck, we picked our wedding date around her availablity. For me, pictures are the only thing that I’ll actually take away from the wedding, so I wasn’t going to skimp on this vendor. I wanted the best!

8/14/06 @ 9:36 am (reply)

Guest

Miss Daisy

i’m #6, for sure.
even if our friends and family are amazing photographers (a couple somehow are!) i really want them to enjoy the wedding. also, i wonder how great friends/family would be about capturing lovely moments in the ceremony a) while remaining unobtrusive (a particular skill found in many high-end pros) and b) while getting to really share/be in the moment.

indeed, during wedding planning, i always said that photos are the one thing i would splurge on since they are the second of about two things that you actually get to keep and enjoy after the wedding (the marriage itself being the first), but that’s not true exactly. the reason? because i pretty much said that “if i could only splurge on one thing…” line about, oh say, fifteen wedding-related things. but i *meant* it most when i said it about hiring a photographer. really!

8/14/06 @ 9:39 am (reply)

Guest

sweetpea

my friend is a professional photographer, so i guess i am lucky! i think pictures are important. I think if you may want to ask the cousin travel photographer to take some engagement photos and see if he can photograph people in a photojournalistic way. he may only do travel photos, but if he’s a professional, he probably has a good eye. taking engagement photos would be a good preview to your wedding photos.

8/14/06 @ 9:40 am (reply)

Guest

Miss Bluebell

Poor Mr. Bluebell…I’ve been leaning more towards getting a professional lately but he thinks it’s just one more expense when all these other photos we could get for free would still be amazing. So I linked him to these comments and I’m bullying him now.

8/14/06 @ 9:48 am (reply)

Guest

laurie

another #6-er

After all is said and done, all you have are your memories and your photos. An so, we hired a photographer that we are confident could capture our day perfectly. If I had a friend/family member who was a great photographer, I might have considered asking them… but I would also want them to enjoy the day and not be “put to work”.

8/14/06 @ 9:49 am (reply)

Guest

The only thing I would caution you about if you hire a professional AND have friends who are amateur photographers is that sometimes your amateur friends get photographed in the professional pictures. That happened to a couple I know - I was looking through their wedding album and there would be a gorgeous shot of the couple at the altar, but then in the background, you see their amateur photographer/friend taking a picture of the couple, too. Things like that just ruin an otherwise perfect picture.

My advice if your friends are taking pictures: stay out of the professional photographer’s way!

8/14/06 @ 10:00 am (reply)

10.

Guest

Mrs. Firefly

Another vote for #6 , photos (and video!) were very very important to me. My sister’s husband has a cousin who used to be a wedding photographer. She took some amazing shots at their wedding, but these pictures supplemented the pro pics rather than replacing them. I also wouldn’t friends to feel like they had to “work” at the wedding. I agree with Turtle — perhaps you can have a photographer for a few hours and then ask your friends to fill in the rest of the time .

8/14/06 @ 10:12 am (reply)

11.

Guest

Your 6 choices are highly directed. The only “hiring a professional” are finding the cheapest one and saying to-hell w/the budget, we want what we want. I think what most people do is find the best artistically-matching photographer with a budget-reasonable cost. So somewhere between 5 and 6.

8/14/06 @ 10:12 am (reply)

12.

Guest

This is the one area aside from the honeymoon that is really for US, so I wanted to make sure we got a good photographer.

The ceremony, the location, the reception, etc., etc., is all being done for our family. We’ve gone out of our way to accommodate everyone’s wishes. The pictures are ours to remember the day forever.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to compromise too much between cost and quality. We chose a fantastic studio and selected the apprentice photographer, who was at least a thousand dollars less than the head photographer, but has a similar style and the same quality packages.

8/14/06 @ 10:15 am (reply)

13.

Guest

Out of our budget we spent the most money (aside from the venue) on our photographer IMO photos are something that will last forever & they completely capture the moment. Our photographer was an EXTREMELY important decision - but everyone is different..

8/14/06 @ 10:17 am (reply)

14.

Guest

SuzyCat

We’re hiring a friend who goes to school for photography. I think she’s an awesome photographer and would love to see what she can do with our wedding.

We almost did do the “have everyone take nice photos with good cameras and such”, but then I also see those fantastic pictures people have and I’d be afraid I wouldn’t get anything like that for just our friends taking the shots.

8/14/06 @ 10:18 am (reply)

15.

Guest

Miss Bluebell

a - Sorry you felt that way. I guess what I was trying to get at was if you had to choose one or the other, is the budget more important or the quality of the photos. I assumed everyone would interpret the “decent” a little differently, but the implication was that you would still find a photographer you were happy with even if it wasn’t your dream photographer. So given those options, would you (or future voters!) choose the best photographer for your budget, or refuse to compromise on your photographer even if that meant going over budget?

8/14/06 @ 10:19 am (reply)

16.

Guest

Chrissie

We are doing none of the above. My FI is a Web designer, so he did a trade with a friend of his who owns a photography business. Free Web site design in exchange for free wedding pics!

8/14/06 @ 10:19 am (reply)

17.

Guest

Miss Bluebell

D - that’s a good idea! But since we’re getting married in the middle of nowhere (going to have to pay travel fees even for the closest vendors) we have pretty limited options…. I feel like if we were getting married in a city this would be a much easier decision because we would probably be able to find a photographer we liked for a reasonable amount! But so far I’ve only found three photographers out of the…7 in the area that I like. And the cheapest of those 3 is still a lot more than we were hoping to spend… (Well, Mr. Bluebell was hoping to spend $0, so anything is more than that! )

8/14/06 @ 10:21 am (reply)

18.

Guest

aylee

That all depends on you… how important your wedding photos are to you. Here are some warnings that I can think of on the top of my head for having your friends photograph your wedding:

- too many friends taking pictures can create chaos. i love taking pictures at weddings, but i have to step aside if the pro photographer is close by. you should set one friend as the “main” photographer and make sure everybody knows. your friends may compete for the spot or if they’re too nice and let each other take turns, they may miss out on a lot of important moments while they’re saying “go ahead, i’ll go next.” etc.

- just like what JG said, some people tend to not notice other people who are taking pictures and sometimes end up in the picture they’re not supposed to be in.

- wedding photography is very different. if your friends never shoot a wedding, it may be difficult.

If you prefer your wedding photos more the “posed” style than the photojournalistic one, the first two warnings won’t really apply.

8/14/06 @ 10:51 am (reply)

19.

Guest

milka

I would just like to say, I dislike the conflation of price and quality that is so common in weddingland. We’re all brainwashed to believe the more we’re paying, the better the quality and this belief helps the industry and rips off brides. The famous fabulous fotogs with blogs all started out at lower prices. Plus half their appeal comes from fancying up their pix with photoshop tricks.

We hired a pro wedding photographer just because we knew we could rely on him to get the shots that brides want. However, if you think you can get what you want hiring a friend, go for it!! How special to have someone you know and love documenting your day.

And I would also suggest talking to the photogs in the area about your budget. Tell them what’s up and see if they can meet your needs. For most vendors, a sale at a lower price pt is preferable to no sale. Good luck

8/14/06 @ 10:57 am (reply)

20.

Guest

Miss Spider

i think pro photog is the way to go. consider that if you have multiple guest taking pics, it might become a bit of a push and shove competition to “get the shot”.

sometimes guests capture beautiful candid shots from a spectator angle but unless you designate 1-2 main guest photogs, it may become chaotic.

good luck~!

8/14/06 @ 10:58 am (reply)

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