The most important thing to consider when it comes to deciding on your photographer is how compelling their work is to you. You should choose the photographer who has the ability to tug at your heart strings and cause flutters of excitement at the prospect of your own wedding photos. You’ve invested so much into a single day that it would be a waste to hire a photographer whose style fails to speak to you.

A shot that captures the excitement and energy of the dance floor at this Chicago wedding reception.

QUANTITY OF QUALITY

A common misconception is that anyone with a DSLR and the ability to press a button is qualified to take wedding photos. Since you are on this site and exploring your professional photography options, you should congratulate yourself for knowing that to be false. Yes, it’s true that cameras and editing software have grown so sophisticated that anyone can take nice pictures with zero photography knowledge or experience. However, the ubiquitous presence of cameras in our lives has made it ever more important to hire a professional with a rare talent for capturing the special and fleeting moments that make a photo magical. After recovering from your wedding, you will face the onslaught of thousands of smartphone pictures, DSLR snapshots, and possibly hundreds of Facebook photo tags. Among this plethora of photos, there will probably be only a handful that are high quality in technical execution (exposure, composition, angle, lighting, etc.). Even fewer are photos that are both high in quality and capture a special moment. With a professional wedding photographer, you are guaranteed to get your fair share of great photos. At 2Swans Photography, we usually end up with over 1,000 images, which get edited down to a reasonable amount of a few hundred. Quantity of quality is why you should hire a professional.

Bride and mother have a quiet moment as she gets ready on the morning of the big day.

PHOTOGRAPHY STYLE

Many people do not realize that every photographer photographs differently. It’s natural to assume that two pictures taken of the same scene ought to look the same, right? Nope, not exactly… Photography is not merely a device for recording; it is a highly subjective form of expression. The notion that photographs cannot depict the world objectively has shaped much of fine art photography in the 20th century. In fact, its expressiveness and ambiguity are what make photographs such a powerful and transcendent form of communication! With that said, it is important to select a photographer whose approach and style most closely resonate with you. You’ve put so much thought into every little detail of your wedding with the goal of reflecting you and your partner’s personalities. Hiring a photographer whose style feels foreign to you would undermine all of those efforts. A simple analogy would be like having Ke$ha blasting during your ceremony when you wanted Pachelbel.

To further demonstrate, take a look at the three pictures below taken by three world renowned photographers who use the same medium (color negative film) but with vastly different looks.

Terry Richardson

William Eggleston

Rinko Kawauchi

GO WITH YOUR INSTINCTS

To put it simply, go with your gut feelings. Hire the photographer to whom you feel the strongest connection. Of course, there are considerations aside from the aforementioned ones, but remember that your wedding happens once in a lifetime. Leave your precious memories in the hands of someone you trust.