Ask to see at least three recent full wedding galleries. This will help you determine if the photographer can handle every situation that arises during the day. Three weddings can give you more confidence that they can do it consistently. With today’s template sites, a photographer can shoot three weddings, build a website and appear to be professional. If your photographer has been shooting less than two years it is less likely that they can handle some of the difficult situations that might arise, however, a more experienced wedding photographer would know what to do.

Does your photographer have in-depth knowledge of your cultural traditions? If not, are you confident that he/she has shot enough cultural weddings to handle yours. A professional photographer with experience in your culture can handle more things that are thrown at them combined with a working knowledge of your traditions. For instance a photographer who has never photographed a six hundred person Indian wedding is less likely to get key shot during the ceremony. 

Experience in other categories doesn’t matter (i.e. fashion) The hottest fashion shooter in NYC probably can’t shoot a good wedding. The same is true for friends, friends of friends or your uncle Harry. A professional photographer has invested thousands of dollars worth of camera gear, computers and software to perform their jobs. The pro consumer camera dude with a camera they picked up at Costco, sorry, but they are just going to disappoint.

Experienced photographers have back-up equipment! Make sure yours does too! Yes, you need to ask.

The Real 411: Look at their work and make sure it’s not over Photoshopped. Will their style be hot in 10 or even 50 years? Vintage and textures are in at the moment, but it’s a fad that will pass and then your photographs will look gimmicky. Will you want your whole wedding looking like that? Remember, the star filter was cool at one point…so 1980′s! Over Photoshopped images are usually a mask to cover up bad photography, use your discerning eye to look for less than acceptable work. Great photographs speak for themselves. Photoshop should be use in enhance an image not cover up the mistakes.

Ryan Phillips & Robert Evans are professional wedding photographers with over twenty years of experience photographing weddings. They are sharing their knowledge with the hope that everyone has fun taking their wedding pictures and the end result is amazing…