These days wedding photographers don’t come cheap. Photographers know that of all occasions, the wedding occasion is one of the most important to capture just right. The more clients a photographer has, the more reputable they are, but also, the more expensive. Of all the parts of a wedding to plan, the choice of a photographer is one of the most important because it will be the photographer’s responsibility to make sure this memory lives on forever. The photographer is responsible for what future generations come to think of your big day, and more importantly, what you will remember. Finding a cheap wedding photographer is a very hard task because you don’t want the cheapness to be evident in the quality of your photographs. Below are a couple of tips for choosing a cheap wedding photographer:
1. Make sure they have a website. These days, there’s no excuse for photographers to avoid the world wide web. Photographers who aren’t online and up-to-date with the current mode of communicating to the world may also not be up to date with the current trends of wedding photography.
2. Choose a photographer who also does wedding candids. Wedding candid pictures are the way to go. These are pictures that are stolen throughout the moments of your big day. If they aren’t familiar with wedding candids, or if they are unwilling to do wedding candids, this is a sure sign they are not the most up-to-date wedding photographer. Gone are the days when wedding albums only contained the formal, emotionless group pictures of everyone from Aunt Ann to the parents of both sides of the couple lining up on perfectly symmetrical sides of the bride and groom like a little family militia. These poses are standard, but the problem with them is they are rather posed, lacking in real emotion. If anything, your big day is jam-packed full of emotions, and you want a photographer who is familiar and diligent about capturing those moments!
3. It would be preferable to have multiple photographers. Choose one professional photographer and a couple friends who would be willing to take purposeful pictures throughout the ceremony with a digital camera. Most people have a couple of friends who do photography as a hobby. Contact those friends. The theory behind this is the more photos you have to choose from, the more chances of getting great pictures!
4. Although more clients reveal a great track record of success, the most revealing thing you can look at to gauge the quality of a photographer’s work is to look at their body of work online. If you are unfamiliar with what to actually look for in terms of quality, take a peek at some top end photographers to use as your standard. The thing you want to ask yourself when you look at a photographer’s portfolio is:
Does this photographer capture the emotion that I want him to capture at my wedding?
Does he capture the joy as well as the solemnity of the occasion?
Is he diligent in finding as many possible angles and perspectives in my wedding?
Does he make the bride look as radiant and as beautiful as you want to look?
Are his shots and poses creative?
You can also ask married friends if you can take a look at their wedding photos, see if you like what you see, and ask for recommendations and contact information of the photographers they used.
Below are some top wedding photographers, so you can have an idea of what to look for in a quality photographer:
5. Now that you have an idea of what to look for, the best place to find cheap wedding photographers is Craigslist (craigslist.com). Select your city, type in wedding photographer and specify to look at jobs. Then search for “services provided.” Go through the classifieds of this site and just make sure to follow the above rules and look at their website and online portfolio!
