Brides
and grooms of today have an extremely busy lifestyle. If
juggling their ca reers, school, family obligations, and
courtship wasn't enough, on top of that they have to plan
their own weddings. Designing a perfect wedding is every
bride’s dream. Still screening hundreds of vendors
and hiring the best few can be a time consuming, confusing,
tiring and grueling experience. Finding the perfect photographer
for picture-perfect memories that will be cherished by generations
to come is on top of every bride’s priority list.
Brides can considerably reduce their workload and research
time by following these few valuable tips.
Ideally, all couples should personally visit all the photographers
in the 200 mile radius from them or even nationally. Unfortunately,
we all know that it is easier said than done. Following
ideas should greatly help today's couples save lots of legwork.
Compiling
a list:
First step is to compile a list of all photographers in
the area. Recommendations of friends and family alone are
not enough. You should start your research from scratch.
1) Getting recommendations from your family and friends
is the starting point.
2) Getting referrals from other service providers already
on your list would also help.
3) Looking up advertisements and business directory listings
in leading desi publications like India Abroad, Indian Express,
News India Times, Desi Talk, Little India, Desi Match, Gujarat
Times, Divya Bhaskar, Sher-e-Punjab, Tiranga, Gujarat Darpan,
Urdu Times, South Asian Insider and several others.
4) Visiting all Desi Bridal Expos in your area.
5) Consulting wedding planners and coordinators.
6) Going through website search engines and general desi
websites.
Narrowing
down the list:
Once you have compiled a comprehensive list of photographers,
the second step is to narrow down that list.
1) A brief phone interview will give you a lot of insight,
a list of questions is being provided in the next section.
2) Ask them to mail or e-mail any catalogs, brochures, flyers,
write-ups, samples, etc. they might have.
3) Visit their websites and compare their talents.
4) Don't miss the opportunity to visit any desi Bridal Expos
and meet several vendors under one roof.
5) Parents and relatives can visit selected photographers
on your list and further narrow it down.
6) Finally you need to visit the runner-ups in person, discuss
package options, evaluate their personality and see if you
have a good chemistry with them.
General
questions:
After finding out the photographers’ availability,
evaluate their qualification, talent and professionalism
by asking them all the right questions via telephone or
e-mail:
1) How many years of experience do you have photographing
weddings?
-Other genres of photography are not relevant to your needs.
News, advertising, fashion etc. are very different
from weddings.
2) How many weddings have you photographed?
3) Do you have an educational background in photography?
Any degrees, courses, seminars?
4) Is this your full-time career or a side-business?
5) Do you have a studio location or do you work out of your
home?
6) Are you a registered business with the city or state?
7) Do you have a website where I can get an idea of your
work?
8) Do you come to show your work to us, or do we have to
come to your studio for home?
-Bride and groom’s families should make time and go
to the photographer’s place. You'll get a better idea
of
his photography skills, working environment, personality
and be able to see more samples or maybe
equipment too.
Evaluating talent:
1)
What is your style of working? Are your portraits traditional
or photo-journalistic? Do you put equal emphasis on ceremony
shots?
-You want a photographer who blends both the styles. Just
one is not enough for the Wedding Genre.
2)
How many ways do you take portraits? Do you bring the portable
studio set up?
-In order to maximize, your photographer should use the
landscaping, his/her portable studio set-up, banquet hall’s
lobby and staircase areas, every possible way.
3)
Do you make time to go to a park or beach in case the banquet
hall does not have great landscaping?
4) How many ways do you take family group shots?
Do you take table-shots?
-At least three out of four ways should be there- outdoor,
studio, stage/mandap background and table shots.
5)
Do you come early for the portraits? Do you charge
by the day or hourly rate? Do you stay until the end?
– A photographer should invite the bride and groom
at least two hours before the Jaan (Barat) arrival time.
You should
get some portraits done while the make-up is fresh. You
don't want to be restricted by hours either. He/she should
be the
first one to come and the last one to leave, without any
extra charge.
6)
Will you be personally photographing my wedding or will
you be sending someone else?
-If you've heard a great deal about a particular photographer,
you want him to show up personally, but if you are shopping
late and he's unavailable, you should see his partner’s
or associate’s work as well and evaluate it.
7)
How many pictures will you take? How many of them will end
up in my proof album?
-This is a good way to tell how much of a perfectionist
he or she is or let's say how much in control of his techniques
he is. Experience ensures a minimum wastage rate and least
amount of lost memories.
8)
What happens on the wedding day, say if you fall ill or
cannot make it to the wedding?
-He should have other associates whose work you also approve
of. This can only work if you don't have a very hot date.
As in that situation all of them may already be booked.
You can keep your fingers crossed and at the same time a
true professional should be able to take some medicine for
temporary relief and keep going. These situations are one
in a 1000 and its suggested for the brides not to think
too negative.
9)
Do you bring an assistant with you?
-Some need one and some don't. Some have self-sufficient
lighting equipment. In that case it hardly makes any difference.
10)
How many of photographers come as a team?
-Usually you don't need more than one photographer. In case
of overlapping of events or if the bride and groom wish
to have separate photographers, you should always insist
on both of them being from the same studio to avoid rivalry
and to ensure proper coordination and cooperation.
11)
What is your turnaround time?
-Professional, artistic and quality work takes time. Remember!
A good photographer, is a busy photographer, is a slow photographer.
Two to three months for proofs and four to the six weeks
for enlargements should be the range of turnaround time.
Technical Q & A:
1)
What format of equipment (camera) do you use? 35 mm or medium
format (120 mm)?
-Photographers have their favorites and they tend to put
down the other formats. In a ten-point comparison 35 mm
comes out triumph for desi weddings. Mixing them both may
not be a bad idea either.
2)
Have you gotten into digital photography yet?
-Digital cameras may not be hundred percent perfected yet.
New technology always has bugs in the beginning. The comparison
between Film & Digital is whole another article. The
bottom-line is that Film gives you everything Digital does
and a whole lot more… once scanned Film/Negatives
are totally in a Digital Format.
3)
Do you use multiple-flash technology? If yes, to what extent?
-Lots of photographers do use them nowadays. How many are
needed differs depending on each banquet hall’s interior.
How long the photographer has been doing it for also makes
a difference, since experience perfects the lighting formulas.
Multiple flashes are usually non-interfering and if used
properly they eliminate most shadows and dark areas.
4) Can I pick and choose which proofs and enlargements I
want via Web?
-New technology is great but sometimes more expensive. Choosing
your proofs on the net can prove to be more costly than
taking them all. Because rolls printed in totality are more
cost effective than scanning all the negatives, posting
them on the web-master and then printing the selected ones.
5)
Do you provide Picture CDs?
-Transferring all images on a Picture CD may be a better
solution than Internet proofing. You can share
your images via e-mail. Picture CDs are more cost effective
and very useful.
6)
Do you provide Machine Prints, Computer Analyzed or Custom
Handprints?
a) Machine Prints: a term used for prints made by most one-hour
labs, drugstore labs and one day services.
b) Computer Analyzed Prints: a term used for professional
prints, analyzed for color and density on a computer screen
before being printed. These are recommended most strongly
over others.
c) Custom Handprints: printed on a traditional enlarger,
slightly more costly and mostly unnecessary for South Asian
weddings. Obviously more individual attention to each print
is given. Recommended only when necessary.
7)
Do you offer black and white photos?
-Most photographers do offer them. With today's technology
it’s not even necessary to shoot black and white rolls
separately. Digital Technology allows printing of black
and white images from color negatives at slight additional
costs.
8)
Are hand printing, digital special effects, airbrushing,
and filter effects available?
- All photographers or their labs can offer these features
digitally. These are not major issues. You should primarily
look for artistic talents when hiring a photographer and
not get too impressed by the latest gimmicks.
9)
Do you bring back up camera and lighting equipment with
you?
-They should bring back-ups to everything: their
camera, flashes, lenses and lighting equipment.
Talking
Business:
1)
What are your most popular packages and how much do they
cost?
-Select a photographer on merit basis. (Again critiquing
a photo-portfolio is a whole another
article). Every photographer will offer you any package
you desire, but price will obviously differ
according to their talent. I would always take less quantity
of better work than more of mediocre work.
2)
What are your payment terms?
-Most photographers would except 25% as deposit; 50 % on
the wedding day, the remaining 25% on
delivery of the product. Then again this shouldn’t
be a big issue. Slight variation is always there.
3)
What are acceptable methods of payment?
-Cash, check or credit card? One should refrain from paying
cash to avoid sales tax. Without sales
tax, your contract doesn’t hold much legitimacy. Proper
contracts and invoices must be drawn out.
4) Do you charge for overtime?
-If I were you, I would never be bound by restricted hours
or transportation charges. Usually their minimum packages
should cover all the complexities of the assignment.
5) Do you have liability insurance?
-Some Banquet facilities require for all the service providers
to have and provide proof of liability
insurance in order to protect their guests against injuries
from the equipment. Soon, every hall will
be requiring it.
Sumit Arya has photographed more than 800 South
Asian Weddings since 1986. He holds a bachelor’s degree
in Photography from City College of New York. He can be
reached at 732-754-1894 for an appointment. Complete Wedding
Planning Consultations are available at his office located
in Avenel, New Jersey.
Sumit & Shikha Arya are the Founders of ‘Association
of South Asian Wedding Professionals’ and ‘Dulhan
Inc.’. They are the organizers of the ‘Dulhan
Expo: South Asian Bridal Show’ and publishers of the
upcoming international magazine ‘Dulhan’.
For further information please visit www.DulhanExpo.com
or call 1-866-4DULHAN.
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