With Google coming up with over 790,000 results when you type in wedding photographers in Berkshire local award winning Berkshire wedding photographer Mark Seymour helps with some great tips for you on how to choose your Berkshire wedding photographer in 10 simple steps!
Finding the right wedding photographer in Berkshire is really important since stunning wedding photos are one of the most significant souvenirs from your wedding day. Selecting the appropriate wedding photographer is crucial since they will be the ones to record your memorable natural moments that you’ll cherish forever.
A key aspect of your wedding day is selecting a wedding photographer who shares and understands your sense of style and vision. When considering how to choose a wedding photographer in Berkshire, there are many considerations to take in mind, including wedding photography style and price. You are likely to find a wedding photographer who can create your ideal pictures, regardless of your aesthetic tastes or the scope of your budget.
1. Know Your Wedding Photography Budget
This is a real difficult one as you’ve probably never booked a wedding photographer before so it may be worth just contacting 2 or 3 professional wedding photographers whose style you like for an idea of pricing. This will let you gauge the market price for the style you like.
Wedding photographers often at first glance appear expensive as you may think why are they charging up towards £2000 for just a few hours work but its worth considering the following.
Professional camera gear is expensive and you’d want your professional wedding photographer to not only have the right gear from cameras to lighting for your wedding but also a full set of backups just incase something happens.
You’ll also expect him to have you covered with both professional indemnity and public liability insurances
And finally they will probably take a few days to both cull and edit all your wedding photographs delivering to you a final set of great highly polished natural moments telling the story of your wedding day.
So whilst your initial wedding photography budget is important its worth being a little flexible and sometimes wedding photographers can be slightly flexible and maybe offer in extras so there’s no harm in asking if there’s some movement with the options on offer but it should be said there’s little point negotiating with a wedding photographer that is double what you’d hope to pay .
A good maxim to start at is to try and budget 10% of your wedding budget to wedding photography as its one of the few tangible memories you will have once your wedding day has ended
2. Your Wedding Photography Vision
It could be your first wedding or you may be tying the knot for the second time later in life so just start by looking at as many photographers styles and you’ll soon see styles that appeal more to your vision and how you would like your wedding day documented.
Award winning Berkshire Wedding Photographer Mark Seymour is a mix between pure documentary with a splattering of modern classic for your family groups and wedding portraits. Check out his portfolio
Once you’ve identified your style and vision for your wedding photography make a short list, do a little research on each one normally by typing in phrases such as “Mark Seymour photography google reviews” and then contact them to check out their availability and prices
Always pick a photographer who’s style you want and not a photographer you like personally but who’s style is different from what you want as its not the best idea to hire a more posed wedding photographer and ask them to do lots of natural candid and documentary wedding photography.
3. Whats Their Style
Why it’s so important to consider the style of wedding photography you want.
Most experienced wedding photographers will be able to adapt to a range of tastes, but the best wedding photographers like many creatives have an individual style unique to them.
Most high end wedding photographers specialise in a certain style of shooting and have different approaches to how they will photograph your wedding day. Pure documentary wedding photographers prefer a behind-the-scenes and hands off approach capturing moments as they unfold on your wedding day, whilst some still may prefer a traditional and more organised structure to the pictures they create for you.
Mark Seymour mixes a blend of pure documentary fly on the wall approach for most of your wedding day but adopts a contemporary feel to your more posed family wedding groups and the relaxed photos of you together
Natural, Documentary & Reportage Wedding Photography
Reportage wedding photography also known as candid, photojournalistic, reportage or documentary wedding photography. Your photographer will stand among and around you and your guests capturing candid and spontaneous shots. Reportage style is all about reactions and emotions, so you can expect your photos to tell the real story of your day. It has a very authentic feel as it doesn’t involve any posing.
Traditional Wedding Photography
Traditional wedding photography is a totally posed look you’ll where you have traditional group shots of the couple and the wedding party. In days gone by this was the only style and involves total direction from your photographer, it’s very time-consuming and can end up taking over your wedding day unlike documentary style where your day will be yours to make memories with your friends and family.
The one advantage of traditional posed wedding photography is that if you book a great photographer of this style you will have beautifully lit and crafted posed images from your day.
Creative Wedding Photography
Creative or Contemporary photography generally means more big staged dramatic and unique photographs that are posed by the wedding photographer, they feel more like fashion or editorial photography and its often combined with informal reportage photographs.
This style is ideal if you want styled fashion shoot type couple photos as seen on bridal front covers and an artistic approach to your shots. You’ll need to find a photographer with the same creative outlook as you and be prepared to spend time with your photographer often away from your guests.
4. Get Recommendations and Read Reviews
Tip No 4 in How to Choose your Berkshire Wedding Photographer in 10 Simple Steps is Word of mouth which has always been one of the best ways to find a good wedding photographer so if you know anyone of your friends or someone in the family thats recently used a wedding photographer thats a great starting point especially if they were happy with the service and quality of the photographs they received.
Other really good places to get recommendations from are other wedding suppliers especially wedding venues.
Finally one of the most important and one that cannot be stressed highly enough Look at on line reviews from real weddings that they have photographed with google reviews being amongst the best.
5. See a Portfolio
Whilst seeing an online portfolio page is a great starting point please remember these are the photographers best wedding images. Its relatively easy to assemble a good “best of portfolio” if your photographing towards 5o weddings a year and have been a professional wedding photographer fro several years !
A better option to as is can I see a complete wedding that you’ve delivered to a recent couple !
Nearly all wedding photographers have on line galleries for every wedding they have photographed so just ask politely to see a couple of these and you will see the true style of that wedding photographer.
We’ve reached half way in our How to Choose your Berkshire Wedding Photographer in 10 Simple Steps
6. Arrange a Meeting
Your wedding photographer will be spending the whole day with you and with you in some of your most intimate and special moments , so you need to make sure that you gel and feel totally comfortable with them.
Have a list of pre prepared questions to ask them about wedding photography and think to yourselves would they be at ease with our wedding guests and more importantly are we at ease with themselves. Ensure you feel they really understand what sort of wedding pictures you want?
Its so important that the more relaxed you both are around your wedding photographer, the more at ease and natural your wedding photos will look.
Whilst its always best to meet in person many couples with busy lives prefer to hook up for a quick on line meeting using Zoom, Skype or Google Meet. These are all great ways to have a quick chat with your potential Berkshire wedding photographer.
The advantage of meeting in person is that you can see and feel actual products such as prints and wedding albums that they have to offer.
If you do decide to meet in person its always better to meet in a quieter place such as a local hotel as coffee shops can be quite noisy at times
7. Do They Know Your Venue?
Whilst not a deal breaker it surprising how important it can be if your wedding photographer knows the venue and the planners at your chosen wedding venue can be.
The advantages of knowing a local venue are most importantly you know where to go and where the best spots are for particular times of the day on your wedding day. This ensures your wedding can run more smoothly
8. Narrow Down Your Shortlist
Tip No 7 in How to Choose your Berkshire Wedding Photographer in 10 Simple Steps is Meet your wedding photographer. You may meet with a couple of wedding photographers before choosing the one for your wedding day.
Make sure you feel comfortable with the person you want to be your wedding photographer and that you are comfortable with the price / package they are offering you . Get everything confirmed such as how many photographs you are likely to receive along with he hours of attendance and check about little extras such as wedding albums and pre wedding engagement shoots.
Finally ask how your photographs will be delivered to you and how long after the wedding you should expect them along with the time an album should take to be delivered.
Once you’ve considered all these things you should be in a great position to choose your wedding photographer, oh and don’t forget to trust your gut as its normally right !
9. Book an Engagement Shoot
Although not essential its always a great idea to book a pre wedding shoot with your chosen wedding photographer for a couple of reasons.
1, It lets you get an idea of what you’ll be doing on the day so far as couple shots
2, It lets you spend quality time on a one to one basis with your photographer getting to know them a little better. Remember the more relaxed and comfortable you are with them the more natural and relaxed your wedding photos will be after all they will be spending the whole day with you.
3 Engagement photo shoots or pre wedding shoots are a great way to get some beautiful pictures of you both together in a more natural environment in the relaxed clothes you normally wear at the weekend. Also you could choose a photograph that reflects the both of you for you on your wedding or save the wedding date invitation
10. How to Choose Between Two Wedding Photographers?
So you’ve narrowed your choice down to just two great Berkshire wedding photographers.
The final Tip in How to Choose your Berkshire Wedding Photographer in 10 Simple Steps is The right photographer should be respectful and have the social know-how to blend into your wedding, yet still be bold enough to seek out the shots they need. They should be asking you lots of questions about you and your wedding as well as wanting to get to know you both be really genuinely excited about your big day.
You may of course just selected the one but if you do have a shortlist of a couple of great wedding photographers you’ll now need to make that final choice.
Why REAL Wedding Photography Experience is key
What makes a good wedding photographer? Never underestimate the value of experience. We’ve heard and encountered many stories where the latest on trend photographer or a photographer with great social media skills has been booked over someone a little older with more real life experience and not been entirely happy after the event.
Please take into account both experience, awards and most importantly reviews and you wont go wrong in finding your perfect wedding photographer.
Now you’ve read How to Choose your Berkshire Wedding Photographer in 10 Simple Steps it’s time to browse. Take a look at tips on How to plan your wedding day and how to entertain your wedding guests and if you still undecided on your wedding venue here are some of Berkshires best wedding venues
How to Choose your Berkshire Wedding Photographer in 10 Simple Steps
Following this advice above is a great way to get on the right path with choosing your Berkshire wedding photographer
“It shouldn’t just be filled with super stylish couple photos – there should be a good spread of photographs of the whole wedding day; from bridal preparations, the ceremony, and natural moments at the drinks reception and speeches showing that your wedding photographer knows how to cover all aspects of the day.”
If you’d like any more info or just to have a chat about your wedding I’d love to hear from you .
