5 Tips for finding wedding photographers in Charlotte NC
Tip #1 – How long has your potential wedding photographer been photographing weddings as a lead wedding photographer cornwall? How many weddings do they have under their belt? A seasoned wedding photographer will be able to capture your day beautifully and will be able to roll with the flow of the day, be able to think clearly in hectic situations and be used to producing beautiful work consistently and quickly. A seasoned wedding photographer is going to be very familiar with how your entire wedding day will unfold. They will know what to do when the unexpected happens, and it happens. If your wedding photography is one of the most important things to you, then you need to make it the highest priority to find a wedding photographer with several years of experience as a lead wedding photographer. Are you looking for a wedding photographer in Charlotte NC, or one that is here but is willing to travel to a destination wedding or out of state wedding? You may live in Charlotte and want your engagement session done in your home city but your wedding may be in another city or state, maybe even in the islands. If you want the same photographer to do your engagement session and your wedding, then it is something to consider. A lot of wedding photographers offer complimentary engagement sessions. It is a great way to get to know your wedding photography team and become comfortable in front of the camera.
Tip #2 – When looking for the perfect fit for your wedding photographer, there are some things to consider. There are several approaches to wedding photography. Do you know what style you like? This is a list of the various styles and what they provide. The two most obvious are traditional and photojournalistic.
Traditional style consists of a lot of posing. With a talented photographer, this is not such a bad thing. They will know the best poses for your body type to help you look your very best in your wedding photos. Your portraits can have a feel of high fashion, an editorial look. They will orchestrate a lot of your photos throughout the day. They will work off of a strict timeline for your wedding day. A talented photographer will know how to pose you without appearing stiff. You will look natural.
Photojournalistic or Documentary style is more relaxed. The approach is more of a storytelling of your wedding day. They capture very candid moments between you, your family and guests. This style typically takes the approach of being a fly on the wall, you do not notice them throughout your wedding day. They capture lots of laughter and tears, photograph with telephoto lenses and go with the flow of the day. They capture everything happening during your ceremony and reception so that you would not see so when you get your photos, you have a wonderfully full view of your entire wedding day.
Contemporary style is a great combination of Traditional and Photojournalistic. You get the best of both worlds. This type of photography strives to capture the emotion of the day in a storytelling way while also providing beautiful family portraits and a great editorial feel to your romantic portraits. It is a more relaxed approach to the wedding day. A wedding is one of the few times you have your entire family together looking their best and talented wedding photographer can incorporate beautiful family portraits with a photojournalistic feel to them.
Artistic style is another approach. This type of wedding photographer is looking for the unordinary, this type of photographer will use reflections, photograph with a tool bag full of tricks, shoot with foreground in mind, look for moody light, make moody light, photograph underwater anything and everything artistic. Post processing will have an artistic flair to it as well.
If you love a mixture of the above, then you have your work cut out for you to find the perfect wedding photographer for your day. If you are looking for a wedding photographer in Charlotte NC, this type of photographer does exist. Look through portfolios, be prepared to invest a little bit of time to find your perfect wedding photographer. Ask lots of questions during your consultation about how the wedding photographer approaches wedding days. What style do they provide?
Tip #3 – First looks are becoming a very popular trend for wedding day coverage. A first look is a very private and intimate thing for the couple. You see each other for the first time in your wedding attire before the ceremony. You share this moment with each other. Your wedding photographer will capture this moment in a photojournalistic way with telephoto lenses and will allow this moment to unfold naturally. It can be a very emotional moment for the couple. Then when the ceremony starts, you can take in the entire ceremony, walking down the aisle and enjoying the moment with all of your family, friends and guests. It takes off some of the pressure. It is not for every couple; some still love a more traditional approach. It is something to consider though and it does give you the opportunity to get most of your wedding party and family formals done before the ceremony so that you spend minimal time after the ceremony with portraits and can get on to your party! Many wedding photographers in Charlotte NC have galleries you can view with first looks to determine if this is something you want to do.
Tip #4 – What products are you looking for? Most wedding photographers in Charlotte NC do provide the digital files with print release to them. These are in the form of digital proofs that have basic edits with some full edits. But honestly, how many people actually print more than a few prints of their wedding day images? They are posted onto social media outlets to share with friends and family then the USB finds its way into a drawer where it sits.
Most people live very busy lifestyles today and don’t make it a priority to print their personal or professional photos. Do you want print product? A wedding photographer can provide a beautiful wedding album of your day that is more of a storybook of your wedding day as it unfolded. They have experience designing these and will provide you with an heirloom product that you, your children and even grandchildren will enjoy for years to come. Some wedding photographers also provide canvas gallery wraps, wall groupings that tell your wedding day story, framed canvas and framed metal prints.
Many of the wedding photographers in Charlotte NC offer a variety of beautiful wall art and storybooks featuring your wedding day. Printed product receives additional edits so that the images have a finished look to them. Albums and wall art can be purchased as a photography package or they can be an add on after the wedding date. You generally get a better price by purchasing a collection up front. Some photographers also offer online wedding galleries where your guests, families and friends can order prints from your wedding day so you don’t have to try and send out digital files to everyone that asks. This takes the burden off of you.
If print product is important to you, then you will want to look for a wedding photographer that provides custom collections built for what you want, not cookie cutter collections. This way you get what you want for your printed product.
Tip #5 – Copyright vs print permission. Copyright means that your photographer has given up the rights to the images they captured and cannot use them for publication or advertising, cannot share them on social media and cannot post them in their blog or on their website. There seems to be some confusion on this topic over the last few years. Print permission means that the photographer retained copyright of the images they captured, but the client has permission to print these images anywhere they like. Hopefully this gives some clarity to the subject. Copyright to the client’s images can be obtained from the photographer, but be prepared to pay a hefty fee if this is something you really want. In essence, the photographer cannot use the images they captured of your wedding day to promote their business in any way. This costs them in business so it will cost you to obtain the copyright of the wedding day images they captured.
