I get asked pretty often why it’s important to hire a professional photographer for your wedding. We all have friends with nice cameras that might be more than willing to take photos on your wedding day – and that might be a great route for you to go depending on what you’re looking for. This blog post will highlight reasons to hire a professional wedding photographer to capture your day.

Natural Light Experts

Wedding photographers are experts in natural light. But what does this really mean? This means that we know exactly where to place you, and exactly which direction to face in order to get the most flattering photos, with the best backgrounds. Wedding days are full of a variety of lighting scenarios – direct sun, golden hour, clouds, or nighttime. We have the expertise to take good looking photos in all of these scenarios.

Posing

How your photographer poses or prompts you during your wedding day portraits makes a HUGE difference in how you feel about your photos. Professional photographers know how to capture your genuine emotions on camera in a way that is also flattering. Most people are a little self-conscious about some part of their body. A professional wedding photographer will know how to showcase your best features while flattering the areas you’re worried about. As a result, you will LOVE the way you look in your photos and want them hanging on your wall for years to come!

Lighting Equipment

As I mentioned before about the changing light scenarios during a wedding day – once the sun goes down it’s too dark to take photos without additional lighting. Professional wedding photographers bring all of their own lighting equipment with them so they can capture those moments you don’t want to forget – like your first dance, or your cake cutting. Using professional level lighting equipment takes a lot of practice – but it allows photographers to take show-stopping photos at night.

None of the photos below would have been possible without extra lighting equipment!

Culling and Editing

Professional wedding photographers may take thousands of photos on your wedding day! That’s A LOT of photos to dig through. Often-times we take a similar photo several times to make sure we get the best angle or make sure we get a shot with everyone’s eyes open!

As your photographer, we take care of culling through the thousands of images so you don’t have to. We go ahead and eliminate the ones where someone is blinking, or the photo turned out blurry, or anything that makes the photo super unflattering. We eliminate the photos that you would have eliminated anyways so you’re not bogged down digging through bad photos trying to find the good ones.

I personally deliver around 1,000 photos for a full wedding day. Those 1,000 photos encapsulate all of the good photos from your entire day so you don’t have to worry that I’m keeping any photos from you. Culling through the photos is a professional service – you’ll be glad to not have to dig through photos you wouldn’t have liked anyways. Remember, we were there for your day, so we won’t keep any important moments from you.

When you hire a professional photographer, you’re also hiring them for their editing skills. A professional will know how to take a photo from good to GREAT with their editing. A professional wedding photographer will edit ALL of the photos they deliver to you. Here’s a few examples below that show the difference editing can make!

Timeline Help

A professional wedding photographer will know how to keep your wedding day running smoothly. They will help you plan your timeline around your exact needs and to allow enough time for all the photos you’d like. If things start to run behind, a professional will know how to get things back on track without the quality of your portraits suffering. They will be able to capture everything they need efficiently. They will also know exactly where to stand throughout different parts of the day to get the best shots so you can rest assured that you’ll have all the important moments captured on camera.

BONUS: Professional Quality Products

I couldn’t help myself – I had to give you a bonus tip. Professional photographers will have access to professional print labs that produce high-quality products. If you want any large artwork for your walls or an album, it’s best to order through your photographer. They will make sure the color is printed correctly and highest resolution images are used. They will guarantee that you’ll receive high-quality prints, canvases, or albums.

There’s plenty of other benefits to hiring a professional wedding photographer. I hope this helps you make a decision that’s right for you and your wedding day. I’d love to hear your feedback or other reasons you can think of in the comments section below!