10 Things to Consider before Hiring your Wedding Photographers

Here's the top 10 Things to Consider before Hiring your Wedding Photographers. Enjoy!

I am a professional newborn, event and wedding photographerss, a Professional Member of Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI). I like to share a few pointers to couples who first start out planning their wedding. The purpose of this article is to give (you) bride-to-be and/or groom-to-be more information to think about before making their decision on the photographer.

Here are few questions for thoughts...

1. Does the wedding photographer have their ABN?

Running a photography business is just like any other business. Professional wedding photographers would have registered for ABN. Having an ABN does indicate that this photographer is serious and should have been in the business for some time, hence having an ABN. The simplest way to know if a business has an ABN is via their web address. For example, www.scottgohphotography.com.au, having the “.au” indicates that this business has an ABN. An ABN is a requirement to register a web address ending with “.au”

2. Does the wedding photographershave insurances cover for their equipment?

I have seen professionals/semi professional who accidentally drop/damage their camera while on the job. What happens if these photographers demand $ from you as you may be liability to a certain extend for what had happened?

3. What sort of camera equipments are they using?

I am aware that only professional/amateur photographers know what is good or bad. Personally, I used top grade Canon lenses with top-tiers camera bodies (with equally good backup). I believe all my clients deserve to be in front of my L-series canon lenses for the price that they have paid. L-series lenses are the "Luxury" series normally used by professionals. Of course I am aware that there are other third parties lenses that perform as good as the Canon L-series. If your ceremony is in a church that flashes cannot be used, then the L-series fast lenses may be the only capable lenses to capture your wedding in low light condition. Do you want to pay >$1000 and found that the photographers are only using beginner DSLR with kit lens for your wedding?

PS: Here is the link to my professional equipment.

4. Do they have equally capable camera backup?

Malfunction in camera is rare these days but it can happen. Do you want to risk your wedding with photographers without a solid backup camera? If they do have backup camera, is it as good?

5. Does the camera body have memory card backup function?

I am only familiar with the Canon camera body series. Only the Canon 1d-series and the latest 5D camera bodies have backup facility. With a click on the camera shutter, the photo can be saved in 2 different memory cards. If 1 card is lost, I still have the next. Not only can camera fail, memory cards can fail as well. What is going to happen if your photographer tells you that your wedding photos are lost because the card is corrupted? There is a few ways to prevent this from happening but different photographers are different.

6. Does the wedding photographer offer a backup photographer?

Photographers are not made of machine and we do get ill. So what happens when your only wedding photographer is really sick and are not able to photograph your wedding? Will there be a replacement?

7. Who owns the copyright of the photographs?

Strictly speaking, the photographers own the copyrights to all the photos that he/she has taken. In the past, it's a common industry practice that photographers do not release these copyrights to clients and you have to pay more to own the copyright for your own usage. But this still exists with some traditional photographers. I believe that wedding moments are yours to keep and yours to share, hence no restriction are put on the photos that client received. Clients are free to distribute them and use it for any purposes. Make sure you ask this question. wedding photographers

8. Watermark/Logo and High resolution images?

Some wedding photographers (being a businessman who runs a photographic business) are smart enough to label all photos that are given to their clients with the photographer's watermark/logo. Extra payment will be needed to get a copy of the images without their logo. We provide our clients with high resolution images without any watermark/logo.

High resolution is a very subjective issue. Photo resolution differ from camera model to model. Our high resolution images are at least 2000 pixel width. If you really want good size resolution photos. Do check with the wedding photographer what is the resolution given.

9. Colour vs B&W? wedding photographers

I heard from people that their wedding photographers gave them images either in B&W or colours. With a single image, you either receive a B&W or Colour photos (not both).

I believe that clients deserve all the images in both Colour, B&W. We also provide a third set of processed edited which we call "Artistic". Hence, with a single same image, our clients will receive it in Colour, B&W and Artistic style (All processed). You can always convert a colour photo into B&W or artistic. But you can never convert a B&W back into colour.

10. Lastly, Engagement/Pre-wedding Photography?

Test them out. Couples love to show their love to their friends and relatives. Photography is a form of expressing this. This is often mistaken for engagement party photography. Photos from the engagement session can be shown in a slideshow in wedding receptions. It can be printed onto album to showcase it in the reception or canvas printed in the living room. Couples will often learn how to pose together comfortably. By having experiences photographing together before the wedding day helps minimising photography stress during the actual wedding day. Posing in pairs is different to teenager studio photo shoot. Poses are photographer style dependent. It is (always) enjoyable with memories that will last you forever. It's often a way to know your photographer (wedding) and perhaps conclude any strengths and weaknesses of the photographer whom you are entrusting your BIG day to. Yes, can you test the photographer before the big day? wedding photographers

Are you still unsure? It is often worth testing your wedding photographer out in an Engagement session before the actual wedding day.

In conclusion, I hope i have shed some lights in helping you deciding on a good and reliable photographer. Enjoy your hunt for your wedding photographer. By the way, South Australia does have some very good professional photographers!

Cheers, Scott

Member of the Wedding & Portrait Photographer International (WPPI) Wedding Photojournalist Association (WPJA) [The only international member in South Australia] Accredited member of the Australian Institute of Professional Photographers (AIPP) 0416500989

(How to) Dance Gangnam Style in Wedding Reception

Gangnam Style in Wedding Reception | Scott Goh Photography Gangnam Style has made it's way topping charts around the world. It's also getting into wedding receptions. If you are the bride, groom or guests attending a coming wedding, do not fear. The article seeks to teach you a few tricks to rock and roll on the dances floor with Gangnam style.

Firstly, let have some background on the Gangam Style. Just in case you are being asked, what the song is all about... Below is a copy from Wikipedia on Gangam Style.

"Gangnam Style" is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip and exude a certain supposed "class." The term was listed in Time's weekly vocabulary list as a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul's Gangnam district. PSY likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended in a twisted sense of humour by claiming himself to be "Gangnam Style" when everything about the song, dance, looks, and the music video is far from being such a high class.

Next, let's have a look at the official PSY youtube video. Take note of his dance steps.

Finally, below is link to a news article containing a pdf (in www.news.com.au) that teaches you how to dance Oppa Gangnam Style. Follow the step-by-step guide and refresh what you learnt from the original YouTube video.

FREE DOWNLOAD: how to dance G-Style (1.6mb PDF)

It only takes a few tries before you can master these moves. It is easy and catchy! Here's some photos from the last few wedding receptions.

Come join Scott Goh Photography on Facebook.

If you are looking for a wedding photographer, do consider our service. Although we keep saying that we are Adelaide Wedding Photographer, we travel because we love travelling!

Scott Goh |Adelaide Wedding Photography

How sharp are we?

Of course, as a wedding photographer, sharpness is one of the factors to a good photo. Here's an example of how sharp our photos can be. In any photography courses, you will learnt that composite, rule of 1/3, lighting etc are also keys to a good photo. In this instances, I like to focus on my photo quality, sharpness.

Achieving sharp photos must first start with good quality lenses. This is the sole reason why I use high end quality equipment. You cannot make a poor image quality good but you can make a good quality photo poor.

Sharpness can be quite subjective. I don't pixel-peep. Pixel-peep is a term where photographers go into great details (zooming in) into a photo and see how sharp the photos are. With each of my photo, I know where the focus is locked. During my editing process, I do look for overall sharpness of the focused point/plane. Sharpness can be "adding" via post-processing as well. In the near future, I hope I will have the time to give a tutorial on How to sharpen your image with photoshop.

On the other end, you can also have photos that are too sharp. People want to look best in photo. They want to look good with smooth skin complexion. In this case, sharpness have to be smoothen out with post-processing to get rid of bumps and humps. This is generally the case for fashion/modelling photography.

Outliers: There will be photos that sit outside this technicality. Often, movement on dance floor are captured by dragging of shutter speed to create the feel of motion.

Different camera models will have different megapixel. Hence, sizes of photos from different camera will be different. Camera models can contribute to the sharpness of an image but these days, this is often not the case.

Professional Equipment

Adelaide Wedding Photographer Professional Equipment list