Do We Really Need A Professional Photographer?

These days, with marvellous level entry cameras on the market, and the fact that every second person’s brother-in-law takes really great pics, one does start to second guess the whole wedding photographer thing.

That, and the fact that experts advise that you set aside around 10% of your wedding budget for the photographer. Of course, if you boost that figure to 25% you’ll get the additional luxuries that include larger album options, smaller copies of the album for parents, additional prints etc. etc.

So just what is the difference between the brother-in-law of your friend with the smart camera, and the professional wedding photographer?

My brother-in-law really is a professional wedding photographer. He and my sister-in-law work as a team (they do weddings in England, so this isn’t a marketing scoop for them).

That’s just one of the major differences – the team thing. When they work a wedding, they can spend up to seventeen hours on their feet making sure they’ve caught you and your wedding at every conceivable angle – from your early morning dressing session to the late night reception. Having two of them work the wedding means that what the one doesn’t capture, the other will. Most professional photographers have an assistant.

The team work also makes for those awesome ‘flipside’ pics – the ones that make a wedding so memorable – of you and friends that you weren’t aware were on film, versus the ‘let’s all stand in a row for the photographer’ pics that, whilst essential, don’t do it for you in quite the same way.

They’ve also got equipment to make you quake, it all looks so intimidating. And whilst you may roll your eyes (why worry about all that when a good DSLR does it all for you?), the fancy equipment definitely enhances the final photographs, and the quality of the pics is better.

They also know, after having worked weddings for a while, just which moments make a wedding, and they don’t miss them. None of that ‘stop, wait a moment’ stuff where you have to re-enact cutting the cake because brother-in-law missed the moment.

They also spend hours in post-production, so that only the best pics make their way back to you, smartening up the ones that don’t quite make the grade, evening tone etc.

So, what was that again about why you need a professional?