Your wedding day approaches and whether you are going in for a traditional Hindu wedding, Sikh wedding, Muslim wedding or Christian wedding ceremony or a simple ceremony at City Hall, one of the important decisions you have to take is about the kind of photography you want. After all, this is one of the most significant days of your life and you also want it recorded for a lifetime!

Now begins your search for the right kind of wedding photography and sure enough you have advice coming (solicited and unsolicited) from everyone that has ever been to a wedding/seen a wedding, considered going to wedding or in general consider themselves a storehouse of knowledge about weddings. And needless to say everyone seems to know someone who has a nephew/uncle/brother/sister who will do it “really cheap”. Meanwhile, you being the diligent person that you are, have also done your search/research on the internet and shortlisted wedding photographers whose work you like. But price is an important consideration and you are on a budget (isn’t everybody??)

All the months of preparation whether it is a Hindu wedding, Sikh wedding, Muslim wedding or Christian wedding comes down to this one day. It is a once in a lifetime experience that you cannot replicate. After the wedding day has come and gone, the only tangibles left to remind you of the momentous occasion are your wedding dress, rings and the wedding album. And years later you can still share the memories with your children and children’s children. Do you remember going through the pictures from your parents wedding and getting teary eyed? For your own wedding then do you really want cheap  4×6 prints in reflective plastic sleeves(not to mention how the prints get stuck to the sleeves at the first hint of any moisture) ? Do you really want “digital uncle Bob”, a guest who may at times be too busy meeting other guests to record that once in a lifetime moment? Besides he is doing you a favour anyway so can you really demand more from him?

The decision to hire a wedding photographer having been made, you now have to decide if it is worth spending extra on the best wedding photographer  or do you just go with one of those amateurs who keen to build their portfolio and are willing to shoot your wedding for $500! After all, given how great even entry level cameras are these days, anyone can take great pictures, right? WRONG! Consider some of the advantages of hiring a professional

1. Camera – Compared to a entry level camera (<$600, max of 12 megapixel) that is great for taking snapshots at a family picnic, the Professional Photographer has high end cameras (>$2000, 21 megapixel) which are workhorses and more reliable during an important event like your wedding. More megapixel means better enlargements. Pro cameras and lenses come with features that allow for great pictures even under poor lighting conditions. Check out this poor bride’s story
2. Lenses – An amateur will use the lens (cost <$300) that comes with the camera as a kit. Again great if you want pictures of a day at the beach. The Pro Photographer will use high end lenses (cost approx. $1400 per lens) resulting in sharper, clearer pictures and more vibrant enlargements. A camera is as good as it’s lens.
3. Lighting – An amateur will use the on camera flash and let the camera judge when to use the flash and when not. The on camera flash gives ugly, harsh shadows. Think about it – how often do we walk around with a light popping over our heads? Pro photographers understand lighting and use external studio lighting. They do everything in their power to make sure that you look as radiant in the pictures as in real life.
4. Knowledge/experience – The amateur is still learning at your wedding. In all fairness the digital camera today does a pretty fine job of taking the picture, but tricky lighting situations, good compositions and anticipating pictures are still alien to the amateur. A pro understands lighting, posing techniques and will spend the time understanding the key aspects of the ceremony so he can concentrate on anticipating and getting the picture. So when you go with a Pro Photographer you are benefitting from his or her years of experience as well as all the investments they have made in upgrading their knowledge.
5. JPEG vs. RAW format – An amateur will shoot in JPEG format where the camera decides what data to keep and what to discard often losing a lot of the richness and the textures. A pro will shoot in RAW format and then create the best image using the right software. JPEG is like serving your guests a microwavable TV dinner. Sure it will fill their stomach but will be hardly memorable. Creating an image from the RAW format is like lovingly creating a meal from only the best and freshest ingredients – not just satisfying hunger but soul satisfying.
6. Post production – The only work the amateur will do is to download the images on a CD/DVD and hand it to you. The real work of the Pro Photographer starts after the last picture has been clicked. Editing, selecting the best image, post production processing all mean that for every 2-4 hours of shooting, the pro will spend 10 hours on post production work. The results then speak for themselves.

7. Back up – The amateur will usually have only one camera and no back up equipment. May not even keep backup copies of your pictures once they have been put on a DVD and given to you. The Pro Photographer prepares for every eventuality – back up equipment and once the pictures are taken there are multiple backups so there is no chance of you losing your pictures. Horror stories abound of pictures lost when equipment fails or computer crashes and that is one stress that you really don’t need.
8. The images – The amateur will hand over the DVD with the hundreds of images – unedited, JPEG, under/over exposed- and you will have the unenviable task of going through all of them, selecting the good ones and figuring out how to share with friends and family. The Pro Photographer will help you select the best images. Most will also offer you an online gallery – so much easier to share with friends and family.
9. Prints/albums – You can always take the DVD of images to discount store and get 4X6 prints made to put inside plastic sleeves in an album and this is probably what your amateur will ask you to do. The Pro Photographer, on the other hand, can design a one of a kind storybook album – one that tells the story of your wedding. Sure, you will have to spend a little more but when you consider the painstaking effort that will go into designing, editing and retouching each picture to create a flawless album, it is totally worth the money.

In the end if one looks at all the investments made in equipment, in computers and software and their constant upgrades, the actual time that really goes into each wedding (not just the time the photographer is clicking), the seasonal nature of weddings and the fact that most couples want to get married on Saturdays limits the number of wedding that can be done then the packages offered by Pro Photographers seem really reasonable. The decision really is yours. Do you want to go with a professional who will guarantee quality or do you want to go with “ a weekend warrior” – someone for whom photography is more like a hobby, someone who works other jobs during the week and your wedding is just pocket money? Think about it.