Your homework BEFORE knowing what questions to ask your wedding photographer

Before you start writing down all the questions you should ask, you need to start by doing your homework. A lot of the questions that get listed in online guides are – well – kinda dumb and just there for a quick way to put content onto a blog. Most photographers put a lot of information on their websites and you need to take the time and look through all their resources as a part of your pre-interview prep. If you don’t do this and just ask random questions during the interview and the photographer knows that the answers to most of these are already in the plethora of existing information, you may inadvertently be giving them the impression that you don’t actually care about many effort and you may not pass their vibe check. Here’s the things you shouldn’t ask: Can I see your portfolio? Yeah – you can, it’s called a website! Aside from showing you some full wedding galleries , a photographers portfolio IS their website How long have you been shooting weddings? This should be on their website and if it isn’t, they’re obviously trying to hide something. That’s a red flag. Also, it doesn’t matter how long someone has been in the industry, what matters is how many weddings they’ve shot. Do you often shoot larger/smaller weddings like mine? You can tell from their portfolio and blog what they prioritize shooting. If you’re having a big 250+ person wedding and that photographer is only showing micro-weddings or intimate weddings, you already have your answer. Even if they do shoot them, they don’t want to tell the world that they do because they don’t fit the ‘esthetic’ they’re trying to promote. If you or your wedding isn’t represented on the website then find someone who will represent you. Do you specialize in indoor or outdoor events, or both? This is a completely useless question to ask your wedding photographer because you’ll be able to tell based on what it is they show on their website! If they’re posting 90% outdoor weddings, that’s what they feel most comfortable with in terms of approach and esthetic. If they tell you otherwise, you need to be concerns about why they’re telling you something that they’re not publicly showing on their site. How would you describe your style? The style of the photos – the way they look – is visible to you, the viewer. Just look at their photos – are they bright? Dark? True to colour? Faded? You can see this yourself. Just like asking a photographer if they specialize in indoor vs outdoor, we need to normalize not asking questions that we can clearly see the answer to. If you want to ask the photographer about their approach (do they pose, guide, just keep things candid, etc.) then phrase it accordingly. Do you shoot digital? Film? Both? They should be very evident on their website; digital is the standard these days and some photographers proudly offer film and promote it online. If they don’t talk about film on their website, you have your answer. Do you also do videography? Again, this will be on their website. Nobody hides an entire form of service from the world and only tells people about it during consults. May I have a list of references? No – this is what online reviews are for. If they don’t have any, that’s a red flag.