Wedding Photographers Are Not All The Same

Most bride and groom’s don’t have a real understanding of the differences between the wedding photographers in Northern Ireland and what they offer. We know from chatting to other wedding photographers that we aren’t the only one’s that are surprised that couples often assume that all wedding photographers can take the same photographs.

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Assuming that all wedding photographers can take the same photograph is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when trying to find a photographer for your wedding. The reason that we can’t and don’t all take the same photographs, is because we all have different styles and we all have different levels of expertise and creativity.

Different Types Of Wedding Photographers
in Northern Ireland

For couples getting married in Northern Ireland there is a huge range of choice when it comes to choosing a wedding photographer, so it can be a bit of a minefield trying to sift through everyone and find a photographer that fits exactly what you are looking for.

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Documentary Wedding Photographers

This is the category that we would fall into. We will spend the day documenting everything as it happens and without having much influence on what is going on around us. We will of course still get some photos of you with your family and some beautiful portraits of you both together. Their are also wedding photographers that shoot only documentary and don’t do portraits or family photos etc. but there isn’t too many of those in Northern Ireland. Documentary style wedding photographers tend to try and use natural light as much as possible but will use both on camera and off camera flash when needed. Images tend to be edited with a view to looking natural, with colours and tones edited to suit their individual style. The aim is to provide images that look modern and fresh whilst still being timeless and capturing moments over posed set up photos.

Fine Art Wedding Photographers

This style of wedding photographer will mainly take lots of heavily posed and orchestrated photos throughout the day. They will require a lot of time for portraits and some can produce beautiful work, but they will require a commitment from you to give them lots of your time on your wedding day. The images they produce will be heavily edited before you receive them. They will often use lots of off camera flash and each photograph will take some time.

Traditional Wedding Photographers

There isn’t as many traditional style of wedding photographers around any more as they have become less popular. A traditional wedding photographer works similarly to a fine art wedding photographer in that they will need a commitment of time from you as they tend to shoot most things heavily posed. Unlike a fine art wedding photographer they don’t really tend to edit images other than basic adjustments like cropping etc. They also tend to use on camera flash for most of their photos which has it’s own look, some can find this distracting.

Hipster Wedding Photographers

This type of wedding photographer shoots and edits their images around whatever the most popular trend is at that particular time on social media. At the moment that would mean lots of out of focus photos that other types of photographers would consider as not deliverable to clients. There is also a bit of a trend at the moment for wonky horizons and strange angles. Images are also edited around whatever the trend is that particular time. If you choose a hipster wedding photographer it can however mean that while your images will fit that particular moment they can look dated very quickly as new trends develop. Just as one example we did some work for a couple recently, their wedding was 2 years ago, and they had opted for a hipster style of photographer at the time. While they loved their images when they got them, they realised after that they wanted photos that would be timeless so they got back in their wedding dress and suit and booked us to reshoot all of their portraits.

The Journeyman Or Budget Wedding Photographer

This is the type of wedding photographer you will always find in Facebook wedding groups, posting multiple adverts every day. The adverts they post often suggest they don’t shoot a lot of weddings as they tend to use the same images over and over again or use images taken at workshops and content days while under the instruction of other photographers. While they tend to have been around for a long period of time they don’t ever seem to have developed a consistent style of photography so the work they produce can be a real mish mash of different types of styles but more often than not they tend to be more traditional in their approach to photographing a wedding. They tend to focus on providing a cheaper option for couples that are more interested in deals and offers because photography is not a priority for them when it comes to their wedding. They are often extremely cheap compared to the other options available. Often this is because they are able to cut corners by only marketing themselves using free methods and by investing less when it comes to things like equipment. These are often the types of photographers you will find in all inclusive packages provided by venues. The photographers that fall into this style provide a great option to couples who just want some photos to remember the day or who have a very tight budget.

The Newbie

We were all newbie photographers once and it is difficult to run even a moderately successful wedding photography business in Northern Ireland. The costs of running a business properly has absolutely sky rocketed in recent years, so newbie wedding photographers can come and go very quickly as many find the financial rewards not as appealing as they expected. Newbie wedding photographers will often have a bit of a mix of photography and editing style while they try and define what works best for them. If you decide to choose a newbie wedding photographer their can be a little more risk involved as they will lack experience. Some can do a fantastic job and because they are establishing themselves and building a portfolio can be cheaper than other options, on the flipside of the coin some can be very bad. Most newbies work as wedding photographers part time while they try and build their business which can sometimes mean that their other job has more importance. This can cause issues with things like not being able to get the time of work and last minute cancellations for the couple.

The Jack Of All Trades

With this type of photographer their are usually 3 different types. You have photographers that now offer other services like video and content creation and videographers who now offer photography etc. There are also photographers who usually don’t shoot weddings and specialise in landscape or commercial photography but will occasionally shoot the odd wedding. This type of photographer in terms of style will also fall into one of the other categories. Personally we think it’s much better to choose experts in their fields over jack of all trades, but master of none type vendors but couples sometimes think that going down this route will be cheaper and easier in terms of making arrangements, often that is not the case though. Often with these multi service type photographers are bringing in someone else on the day to shoot photo or video, sometimes its just luck of the draw who you get depending on availability. This means a real mix of inconsistent styles. You can read more about why we think experts are better in this blog post. Should I choose expert wedding vendors?

As you can see their are many different types of wedding photographers in Northern Ireland and even within those different types, they all have different ways of doing things. Every wedding photographer will take different types of photos based on their own individual style. When choosing a wedding photographer if you have seen someone whose work you like, and you get a good feeling from them, the safest decision you can make is to book them. Assuming any photographer can produce the same thing will only lead to disappointment.

Price Is Not Always A Good Indicator
Of A Wedding Photographers Ability

Just because a wedding photographer is at the average cost or even expensive it does not always mean that this is an indicator of experience or ability.

Their are a few photographers out there who based on their portfolio that you can see on social media and on their website look like they have good ability, are creative and experienced and being priced at around the average or even higher lends a level of authority. In reality however they are relatively inexperienced and their real wedding work just simply is not that good. Wedding photographers call these guys, the “Fauxtographers”.

It is easy for experienced photographer to spot these as we can see that their portfolios are mostly made up from workshops while under the instruction of other photographers or from styled shoots and content days. Sometimes they even use photos from weddings they have been at as guests, again an experienced photographer can spot this easily, but its much more difficult for a bride and groom.

When it comes to working at a real wedding these guys then really struggle to reproduce the work that you see in their online portfolio, you never get to see it as they don’t post their real work to Instagram or when they do it is heavily curated. At a real wedding you don’t have the make-up artist and hairstylist alongside you all day, you don’t have another photographer giving you instructions and you are working with real people not professional models.

It can be really difficult for couples to tell these guys apart from the rest. Here is a few hints and tips:

  • Avoid basing your decision only on what you can see on social media especially Instagram. Images used for social media are highly curated and there is no way of knowing if what you are seeing is from a real wedding or not.

  • When viewing a wedding photographers portfolio on their website, count the number of different couples you can see. There isn’t a right or wrong number, but if you see only a few that probably means they are not that experienced.

  • Can you see a range of different photos showcasing a whole wedding day from getting ready right the way through to the dancing on their website?

  • Styled shoots etc. tend to be mainly images of just the fake couple. Can you see lots of photos were guests are also included?

We showcase lots of different weddings we have photographed on our website so that couples can look through our work at their leisure and get a real feel for how we do things and our photography style. You can find our online portfolio here.

Real weddings gallery

Do Wedding Photographers Need A Qualification?

There is no such thing as passing an exam and earning a qualification to be a wedding photographer in Northern Ireland or anywhere else that we know off. Yes, some wedding photographers do have photography related qualifications but that does not necessarily mean that they are the best option for you to choose as a wedding photographer.

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We have a friend who is a wedding photographer and who has a Masters Degree in photography but he would tell you himself that his degree was completely useless in relation to being a wedding photographer. His degree was more based on learning about the history of photography rather than providing him with any practical help with becoming a professional photographer. He mostly regards his degree as a waste of time.

Photographers can also gain ”qualifications” from the many different photography associations and organisations. We have been members of a few, none of the qualifications have any standing, Usually these types of “qualifications” are earned from submitting a very small portfolio of work, that is sometimes judged by people from outside the organisation, but often by people within it, and it can often be a bit of an old boys club. We know lots of very good wedding photographers that have them, we also know lots of pretty bad wedding photographers that have them as well. These types of qualifications are basically worthless and never really held any interest for us. The very best wedding photographers in Northern Ireland are self taught and have learned their skills through years of experience and learning.

Should You Book An
Award Winning Wedding Photographer

There are lots of ways to receive an award as a wedding photographer in Northern Ireland, we have received lots of them, but in all honesty awards do not mean that much. There are awards available for individual images, awards for providing a high level of service and lots of different categories within each awards programme.

Award Winning Wedding Photographers

While off course for the photographers receiving an award is a nice recognition of the work you do. However just because you are an award winning wedding photographer does not mean that you are the best photographer for every couple. Just as one example we have a friend who is a wedding photographer and is easily one of the best photographers in Northern Ireland but has never won an award.

If you are a couple choosing between photographers the work they produce and how it makes you feel is much more important than any awards they have won. Choosing a photographer who has won a lot of awards does not mean that they are the best wedding photographer for you.

Anyone with a good camera can
be a wedding photographer!

It always amazes us that people can sometimes think this. In all honesty we are quite techy and we love gadgets and new things so we are always upgrading and changing our equipment to the latest and greatest, even when it often just means just getting very marginal improvements.

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Having the best camera equipment available can help make the process of getting images easier. Improvements over the last 5 years even with technology, has meant huge increases in things like auto focus performance for example. However a good photographer can get great results even using mediocre equipment, a bad photographer with a good camera will still produce bad results, they will just get those results easier.

Not everyone appreciates photography and of course that is fine. Sometimes couples who don’t appreciate photography will just ask a friend who has a nice camera to photograph their wedding and this often leads to disaster. We are members of lots of online photography communities and this is something we have seen a lot. The couple decide that photos on their wedding day aren’t important to them so they ask a friend who they know has an interest in photography to photograph their wedding, their friend usually photographs things like cars, landscapes or macro but agrees to doing the wedding because they don’t want to let their friend down. Then come the actual wedding day everything goes wrong and the couple end up with very poor results, and even though they weren’t that bothered about photos from their wedding, when they see the awful results they are devastated and it can cause issues with their now former friend as well. We often see posts online from people that have a nice camera who have been put in this situation and are completely stressed out and unable to deal with it. A friend with a nice camera is not a good choice to photograph your wedding.

When it comes to equipment, of course it is important in some ways. When we photograph a wedding we bring along 6 camera bodies and anywhere from 10-16 lenses, plus a mountain of other equipment including lighting etc. This isn’t because we will use all of that equipment on the day, it is so we are prepared for every situation and have redundancy, if some equipment fails on the day. We know other photographers consider that massive overkill, and it probably is, but as we work as a husband and wife team, so we need double the amount of equipment.

Great photographs need amazing light and the knowledge and creativity needed to make best use of it, the equipment used will always be a distant second to the expertise and skill of the photographer. When it comes to weddings in particular experience level is also vitally important as weddings are a very different genre to other types of photography.

Weddings Are Not Just One Day’s Work
For A Photographer

Brides and groom’s don’t usually understand the time needed for a photographer to shoot and complete a wedding. We often get comments from wedding guests etc. saying how “it must be a handy job working a few days a week”, because they have no understanding of what a wedding photographers workload for each wedding is actually like. We have described the workload for a typical wedding below:

  • Time spent during the booking process dealing with the clients questions and setting up the booking itself.

  • Calls and emails before the wedding confirming the timeline details.

  • Photographing the wedding.

  • Making multiple back ups of the images from the wedding.

  • Culling the images from the wedding. (Removing images which aren’t usable, duplicates etc.)

  • Editing the images from the wedding and album design.

  • Delivering the images to the bride and groom.

Having discussed this other wedding photographers on average a wedding photographer will spend between 60-70 hours on each wedding. Much of this time is taken up during the culling and editing phase, we have covered this in more detail in this blog post. Do wedding photographers edit all photos? For a lot of people that would represent nearly 2 weeks worth of work.

Tips For Choosing The Right
Wedding Photographer

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  • In the first instance look for a wedding photographer without considering your budget. Instead look for a photographer whose work provides you with an emotive reaction.

  • One you have narrowed down a list of photographers whose work you love. Check for any inconsistencies. Is it obvious they have photographed a lot of weddings? Is it obvious they have the experience needed to deal with any situation on a wedding day?

  • To avoid any potential scammers, unfortunately this can happen. Can you easily find reviews? Can you easily find contact information such as their phone number and address? Are they active on social media?

  • Reach out to check availability, pricing and what is included if you book them.

  • Once you have went through the process above and find those within your budget, you should find that your list of potential photographers for your wedding is a lot smaller and it may come down to just one or two. At that point it then comes down to how you feel about them. Are they friendly and provide lots of information when you contact them?

  • Once you have confirmed your decision contact them to book. Your wedding photographer can only photograph one wedding a day so availability can be limited and you don’t want to miss out. Every week we have to tell a couple that has been in contact that we are no longer available, because someone else has booked their date.

We hope this blog post helps with your decision making process when trying to find out the differences between the various wedding photographers in Northern Ireland and the numerous different types available.

Tommy + Laurene