How to Interview Your Photographer

Spring is in the air and thoughts turn from surviving the winter to the wonder of wedding season. Will the bridesmaids be wrapped in tulle? Will you have a buffet-style dinner or plated service? Is it better to have your wedding and reception in the same space? Who will take your wedding photos?

Naturally I'm most concerned with how people will answer that last question.

Bridal magazines and Web sites often recommend that you aggressively stalk your prey with a page long list of questions engineered to go straight to the heart of the matter. Do they know what they're doing? Does this photographer have backup equipment? How long will it take for you to get your photographs after the wedding? Have they ever show a wedding while bungee jumping off a bridge?

Generally the list of questions is coupled with advice to try and find every discount you can and not to be shy about it. After all, it's a negotiation and you want to get the best deal for your money. There's nothing wrong with that of course, but it's the wrong way to approach your photographer.

Like other prey animals, photographers can be very skittish when it comes to loud noises and sudden movements. A pleasant meeting at a local coffee shop can quickly become a mad scramble for escape as you recite questions from a list about ISO and f-stops, and whether or not you can knock $200 off the package price if he doesn't use any flash. Before you know it, the plain that seemed teeming with professionals is almost empty save for a few people with kit lenses, no business plan and a smile.

Successfully finding a photographer is about more than strong-arm negotiations and getting all the essay answers filled out in your blue book. Getting your great photographer takes patience and just the right amount of cunning. Ultimately it's about understanding your prey and to do that you need to know a few things.

Your Photographer, The Artist:

First of all, your wedding photographer thinks of him- or herself as an artist. Contrary to what movies might tell you, wedding photographers are not issued a BMW and luxury penthouses as as soon as we hang up a shingle. Building a brand and a business starts with a passion for the work because when you're first starting it's a struggle to break even.

Of course you want an artist, you want a photographer that takes their craft seriously not someone who thought wedding work would be a great way to meet girls and make some money on the weekends. In the end hiring an artist means that you'll get great images you can treasure for a lifetime, that will resonate with you on an emotional and aesthetic level.

What this means for your conversation is that your ice breakers shouldn't be about your budget, but about what you found appealing in the photographer's portfolio. After all, you're hiring this person because you want their pictures so talk to them about why. The next step for stroking your artist's ego isn't just to talk about what's happening at your wedding, but how you think they can capture it or how their work fits in with what you're imagining for your wedding.

Your Photographer, The Entrepreneur:

Remember when I said that a photographer wasn't in the business because they thought that photographing weddings was a great way to make money? I may have been fibbing.

Wedding photography can be a great job because you get to make a living following your passions, but the most important part of that equation is making a living. Running a business takes a lot of accounting, tracking every transaction and trying to find a place where you can afford to do the work and keep yourself satisfied at the same time (all while remaining competitive in the market place).

So while your photographer loves photographing weddings, they aren't doing it out of the kindness of his or her heart.

When you're talking to your photographer, just as you would treat them as an artist you should also treat them as a business person. No one is going to do their job for half their asking price, and if they are it should raise a red flag. After all, would you show up to work on your day off without getting paid or even at half pay?

Can you get some discounts or extras if you're smart about it? Sure. Should you hinge everything on discounts and giveaways? Not at all.

Your photographer wants to see that you value his or her services, that you think the work is important an d you're  willing to take the prices seriously. You don't have to book someone you can't afford, there are photographers for every price range, but discounts don't just happen just because. A photographer has to pay the bills too.

Your Photographer, The Human Being:

At the end of the day, the most important thing is to treat the photographers you meet with as you'd want to be treated. While you're entering a business relationship it's one that is intensely personal and intimate, even if it's just for one day. Just think, the photographer is going to be there as you're getting ready and he or she is going to be there as you're running out in the car to head off to your honeymoon. You are tied to your photographer in ways you're tied to few other vendors and for many the relationship continues beyond the wedding day.

When you have a good relationship with your photographer as a person, you get better photos. Not because they like you more - they're a professional - but because you're both relaxed and comfortable with one another. That great rapport is worth quite a lot, and it's something that the bridal lists often forget about.

So remember when you're meeting with me or any other photographer, value the art, the business and the person and you'll be putting your best foot forward.

The Bald and the Beautiful: Talking to Your Photographer About Photoshop

It doesn't always go perfectly on your perfect day.

With planning you can solve a few minor problems, a hairdresser to fix fly aways and a make up artist to cover up a number of sins but there are always little things that creep in. A small band aid, flesh colored and hidden on the groom's neck — his hands nervous while shaving on his wedding day — to those watching from the pews it was indistinct but in the photos it shows all too well.

These temporary flaws are easy enough to correct with enough scrubbing. A good photographer is also a good editor, skilled with digital painting to cover up those band aids and blemishes missed by makeup (or acquired after during all the brushing and crying and confusion during wedding preparations). No one misses them because in their minds they've already gotten rid of those superficial blemishes.

But what about permanent parts of a bride and groom? The scars and physical traces of life, love and suffering (as well as genetics for male pattern baldness) that put character into someone's face and body, keeping them from looking like a Barbie doll, perfectly plastic. It can be difficult to talk about what you want airbrushed out of sight and out of mind.

Photographers are not plastic surgeons, few will ask you to tell them what you don't like about yourself. It's an especially awkward conversation during a first meeting when a photographer and a couple are first getting to know one another, no one wants to feel judged or be found wanting. Your photographer, especially if you haven't signed a contract yet, also doesn't want to accidentally slight you about a sensitive subject.

So how should you start talking about retouching with your photographer?

Many bridal resources suggest a list of questions for your photographer about their gear, their experience and their techniques. Inevitably the conversation turns to post-processing and here is where you can start to talk about how you'd like to see yourself in your wedding memories.

Ask your photographer about how much retouching they like to do. Are they like real photojournalists, barely leaving a trace of digital editing on their work? Do they draw their inspiration from magazines where everyone is picture perfect, some unreal and idealized version of themselves? Then you can talk about your preferences.

From there you can get more particular. Broadly speaking there are three major concerns for post-processing people: the skin; fine lines and wrinkles; beauty marks and scars.

Skin, even on the best of days can sometimes have uneven tones and textures. Often these go unnoticed day to day, makeup can help even things out but sometimes as the day wears on skin problems can show through. There are a lot of great programs that photographers can use to help even out skin tones, it's simply a matter of deciding what makes you unique and what you want to see. Your skin can go mostly untouched, gently evened out or smoothed over to magazine-style perfection.

Most find the latter unappealing. As with a lot of airbrushing being too heavy handed can render you almost unrecognizable and suddenly your wedding photos are not about you but some CGI version of yourself.

Wrinkles can be a mark of distinction, of wisdom and experience but just as often they're an unpleasant reminder of the aging process. The process of planning a wedding can also be wearing so as much as you rest beforehand you might find yourself with slight bags under your eyes and a few stress lines that will disappear after some time away on your honeymoon.

These can either be softened or eliminated entirely.

The same applies to scars and birthmarks. While they can add character to a face or body, some people are self-conscious about these marks and would rather not see them in their ideal portrait.

There are a host of other issues, and once you start talking about a few of the larger ones it's a lot easier to say that you'd like to see your arms slimmed down a touch and to swap out their husband for Colin Farrell (or to at the very least fix that bald spot that he keeps denying).

Meeting Your Photographer

So you've narrowed down your choice of photographers down from thousands of potential candidates to just a handful. Their images are stunning, the prices seem right and they're available on your date.

Like online dating everything that seems perfect on paper might not work quite as well as you hoped in real life. After all this is a person who is going to swing into your life on your special day and be right there the whole time, so it helps if you can feel comfortable with them. And like online dating the next step is to get together and talk about your wedding, yourselves and your potential photographer.

You pick a time, you pick a place and cross your fingers that it works out and you can put the awkward meetings with virtual strangers behind you for good.

So what do you talk about? You don't want to just learn about what they do and how they do it, you want to get a feel of who they are and how relaxed you can be together.

For clients there are a lot of questions to ask about what's going to happen, and they can be gleaned from bridal magazines [realsimple.com] and Web sites [ivillage.com] and even friends that have had good, bad or just indifferent experiences with photographers over the years.

The process isn't one way however.

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