San Diego Photographer - Headshot photography, Commercial photography, Event Photography, Portrait Photography, Wedding photographer

Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! This is a very exciting time as well as overwhelming. A lot of decisions need to be made from the location, catering, flowers, DJ or live band, finding that perfect dress, and of course the photographer. When all is said and done, the special day has come and gone, what you have left to remind you of all those unique and special moments from seeing each other for the first time, the exchange of rings that represent your love for one another, the celebration with family and friends, the bouquet toss, to the moment you depart to begin your life together are your wedding photographs.
With all these decisions to be made to create the wedding day you’ve been dreaming about here are a few things to help make one decision: how to pick the right wedding photographer for you.

Always ask to view a complete wedding. It is very easy to show potential clients “the best of…” but this is a false representation of ones work. By viewing a complete wedding you can get a much better idea of what you will end up with after your wedding. By viewing a complete wedding you can really get a feel for the style of their work. Do you want a more traditional take on your wedding or do you prefer a more artsy or journalistic style or would you love a mix? It is important to communicate what you want and expect to your photographer.
Make sure you see not only WEB images but also prints and especially enlargement prints. This will really help you to get an idea of the quality of the photographers’ equipment and their ability to use it. Enlargements (8x10 and up) will start to look grainy and or blurry when pushed to far where the Web images may seem to look perfect. (More on this later)
Are the photos technically good as well as artistically? This is important because if your photographer is new, uses poor equipment, and or relies on automatic settings too heavily this may be a clue to more important issues such as the photographers’ ability to create archival prints. (More on this later)
Are the images captivating? This may be affected by your monitor but when compared to other galleries you should be able to get a good sense.

Are the images dull or flat? Photos may appear grey or the blacks washed out and/ or the whites muddy.
Does the color seem off? The photos have a strange tint.

Does the photographer have the skill to shoot a variety of people? Are there only pretty people or are there also “normal” people in their galleries. Almost anyone can take pretty pictures of pretty people.
Are the photos in focus? I see out of focus images on other photographers’ websites quite often. This may be hard to tell but if you look for it and look close (look at the eyes) you should be able to see if the images are less sharp than they could be.
Are the photos over “Photoshopped” / retouched? If so the photographer may be using Photoshop to repair the gaps in their skills. Make sure you are looking a good selection of “straight” photos. It is easy to hide technical mistakes with “artistic” effects. You may like these effects however the final print will be better is the original is better.

There are A LOT of photographers out there who just got into photography with the new digital photo craze. Just be careful you are not paying someone to learn photography. View their galleries with a critical eye and remember if they are WAY too cheap you are likely only getting what you pay for. The other flip of the coin is you shouldn’t feel as if you need to pay a fortune to get the best. We only charge our clients what we would be willing to pay. We keep our prices a low as possible without sacrificing quality because that is our wedding present to you.

            I cannot speak for every digital camera and every type of film but the short (very short) story is. Some digital cameras are as good as or better than film cameras. A lot of this has to do with the skills of the photographer, the lenses they use, and how they shoot. Some photographers have gone back to film and / or bad mouthed digital because digital has less room for error that film does. If you would like more information about this I would be glad to answer your questions.
            Digital offers in many circumstances: Immediate (or close to it) viewing, faster turnaround, the ability to shoot more images giving you more photos, and the ability to capture that EXACT moment more often.
            In the hands of a true professional photographer I would choose digital over film for wedding photography.

Megapixels - How many do you need? There is much debate about this. The short answer is that the photographer should be using a professional camera and not a consumer or “prosumer” camera since a true professional camera has (as a rule) a better sensor capable of capturing truer color and a greater tonal range. You do not need to know these terms but know that they are important. As for megapixels, I recommend 16mp or more for an 8x10 to 11x14 print. (Most wedding enlargement prints are within this range.)
What if the camera doesn’t have enough Megapixels? Quite a few photographers have been “up scaling” their images to make prints larger than their equipment can produce natively. This will lead to grainy, pixilated, and soft prints. Though this may be fine for your day to day photos but is not the quality you should be paying a professional Wedding photographer for.
Tiff vs. JPG vs. Digital Negatives most pro cameras can shoot all three. Here is the breakdown

A jpg is a compressed image and in the compression process some detail is always lost. If no editing is to take place a jpg may be acceptable. However be warned that every time a jpg is edited and resaved it WILL LOOSE MORE DETAIL. All images sent to a printer will be need some editing.
Tiff files maintain all the information at every pixel and are therefore preferred by all professionals and necessary if any retouching, cropping, or resizing (up or down) is to take place.
A digital negative also known as a RAW file maintains ALL the information captured by the cameras sensor. The TOP professionals’ only shoot RAW. These files offer the highest level of photographic quality. These files require development in special programs the same way film needs to be developed in a dark room. These files should be converted to tiff files before they are given to a client.

NOTE - I only shoot digital negatives and convert them for my clients to tiff or jpg (depending on their needs and budget). I believe this is the only way to deliver images that are as good as or better than film images.

Some photographers offer a CD at the end of the shoot. It is likely that these photographers have their cameras set to record jpg rather than tiffs or the much preferred RAW. Converting RAW files takes time and I offer my clients a number of options. To get them their images as fast as possible without sacrificing quality. Let me know if you are in a particular hurry and need your images more quickly.
CD-ROM or DVD? Not to bore you with numbers but a CD holds 700mb or less. An 8x10 tiff is roughly 25mb. That means that if your photographer shot more than 28 photos they will not fit on a CD and you will need a DVD to hold them, unless your photographer is giving you JPGs and/ or multiple CD-ROM

Prints
            I know your head is spinning but I would like to spend some time talking about prints and printing because after all nothing is more important than actually looking at your photos. There are many ways to print your photos but I will only delve into the process I use.

            I send all of my prints to a lab for printing because there is no way to achieve the quality I demand from a home or small business size printer. The process my Lab uses is an emulsion print similar to film emulsion. These prints have all of the tonal range and durability of a film print. In my opinion there is no better print out there.
            Also my computer is color calibrated to the labs printer so that your photos always come back from the lab exactly as I intend them to look. This may seem to be a lot of work for such a small detail but it is an example of how dedicated I am to quality.

            Something that we feel is very important is the presence of a second photographer. Every wedding we book includes 2 photographers. Why is this so important? One photographer can always be where the other one isn’t. Since you can’t be two places at once we believe that two is better than one! That’s double the special moments being captured for you! Also (lets hope this never happens) if something happens to one of the photographers and or their equipment you will still have the other photographer there saving your memories.
            We believe that your guests’ enjoyment is very important and so we shoot with your guests’ enjoyment in mind. We spend as little time blocking anyone’s view as possible. Our goal is to get the great wedding photos we are known for without your guests even noticing we are there.
We are there for YOU!!! We will do everything we can to make sure your wedding day is WONDERFUL.
            We currently work almost exclusively with digital equipment and shoot only a digital negative. This allows us to maintain superior image quality all the way from capture to print. We also have a smooth workflow so you are not paying for wasted time.
EVERY IMAGE WE SHOOT IS BACKED UP AT LEAST TWICE. Too often a client will call me in a panic saying they lost their prints and or disks. Rest assured I still have all of your photos and can get you another copy. There is no need to worry.

Final Word

My reputation as a great guy and outstanding photographer is very important to me. My promise to you is that I will treat you as if you are the only client I have because that is the way I would like to be treated. I also promise to deliver the best photos possible because that is what I demand of myself. If you have any question about any of the topics in this article (or anything else I can answer) please feel free to contact me directly @ 858-496-9629. You need a photographer of my skills because there is no second chance to photograph your Wonderful Wedding Day.