Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! You’ve probably dreamed of this day for years but how will you remember it when it’s over? Hiring just any photographer could be one of the worst mistakes you’ll ever make. Not all photographers are created equal, some have more experience than others, some have better equipment than others and some have more training than others. Interviewing and selecting the best one for you is difficult but we’ve created the “4C’s of Choosing Your Wedding Photographer” to help guide you through this process.
The first “C” is clarity. When looking through portfolios and albums, check to see how clear the expressions are. Are you able to see details in the photograph? Can you clearly see what emotion the image conveys? Only professional grade lenses will capture the highest clarity for your precious wedding images.
The second “C” is composition. A well-trained eye can capture images that are beautifully composed. Look for signs that the photographer is capable of composing your story in the way in which you’ve envisioned. Are there feet & arms cut off in the sample books? Too much floor or ceiling space in the samples? Many times what you see in the books is what you get in your album so make sure you’re certain this person can compose not only beautiful photographs but also interesting angles, points of emphasis and soft lighting techniques to provide you with the best possible photographs.
The third “C” is creativity. Are the images creative and different from the traditional posed images seen in your parents and grandparents albums? Do they show an element of art and design like magazine ads? Are there options to add bordered prints, sepia prints or hand-coloring into your package? Look for someone who is fun and creative to capture your day in a way that will stand apart from all of your friends albums.
The last “C” is caring. Is your photographer friendly and considerate of you and your fianc s wishes to not see each other before the wedding? Will he or she get along with your friends and family on the wedding day? You’ll want to make sure you build rapport with your photographer because many times, the photographer is the one wedding professional you’ll spend your entire day with. During your wedding, he or she will be present at your most private moments. In addition to having experience and knowing what to expect, a caring professional will seek to guide you through your special occasion without running your entire day.
About the Author
Erin Hession owns and operates a national wedding photography company, www.ErinHessionPhotography.com and she is the owner of the National Association of Better Bridal Businesses. (www.nabbb.com) She enjoys traveling and photographing weddings and events all over the world. Check out her site to see if she is available for your upcoming wedding or event!
Enticing title, huh? No, we won t be discussing nude photography, at least not today. Rather, this article will, hopefully, shed some light on the tremendous image quality advances of today s digital cameras.
Imagine taking a developed 4×6 snapshot of your child s birthday party and scanning it into your computer. If you printed the resulting photo, you would notice some considerable degradation of the image quality. The interesting fact is that most JPEG images are comparable to the quality of the scanned and reprinted image. Surprised? The JPEG image format is, by all means, acceptable for most consumer and even some professional purposes. JPEGs are definitely the best choice for sharing in email and even for printing on photo paper to place in an album or share with family and friends.
If, however, you are a camera geek (like me), you are simply not going to be satisfied with anything less than perfection from your images. In that case, you will definitely want to consider purchasing a camera with RAW image format capabilities. Working with the RAW format is the equivalent of working with a color or B&W negative. You have substantially more technical and creative control. The downside is that the RAW image format requires significantly more storage space on your media cards and demands more advanced photo-editing capabilities, which means investing in more powerful software with integrated RAW image editing functions (i.e. Adobe Photoshop CS2, retail cost $649). But, in my humble opinion, it is well worth the higher learning curve and expense.
Serious photography hobbyists and certainly those who may want to sell their photographic work will benefit tremendously from the superiority of the RAW format. The good news is that several reasonably priced prosumer digital cameras now offer the RAW image format. The Canon Digital Rebel XT 8 MP camera (est. retail $650) offers both JPEG and RAW formats. Likewise, the Sony Cybershot DSCR1 10.3 MP camera (est. retail $850) offers RAW image capture and an impressive array of features. For die-hard Kodak consumers, the new Kodak Easyshare P880 8MP camera (est. retail $500) offers a wide-angle optical zoom and RAW file support. Last, but not least, the Nikon Coolpix 8700 8 MP camera (est. retail $600) offers RAW mode image recording and many of the features commonly sought after by professional photographers.
So, if you are in the market for a new digital camera, you owe it to yourself to check out the latest, surprisingly affordable innovations in RAW image capture. I doubt you will be disappointed.
Balsman Photography, LLC
Kim Balsman is the owner of Balsman Photography, LLC, a small, professional photography studio in Longmont, Colorado. Kim s background is diverse, including formal education in communications and law at Truman State University and the University of Houston, as well as professional photography studies at the New York Institute of Photography. Kim spent more than a decade working as a paralegal, practicing in numerous legal specialties with law firms in Texas. Throughout her career, Kim has written thousands of legal documents but prefers the creativity of writing short stories, novels and journalistic pieces. Some of her work has been published in corporate magazines. Kim has lectured at entrepreneurial symposiums and educational facilities and led an initiative to help small printing franchisees compete for demanding legal document reproduction business. Kim enjoyed a brief career in real estate as a Century 21 agent in New England, grossing more than $2M in sales in a matter of a few months. She now devotes her full time to her photography business and writing.
