Quality over Quantity
Like most other things, when a compromise must be made, it is always better to choose quality over quantity. So think twice before hiring someone who promises everything in your wishlist (photo, video, albums, an additional photographer, photo booths, photo sessions that require lot of equipment and then assistants for carrying those) at a price that seems too good to be true. Hire someone with solid credentials and have him do what he can fit into the budget you have. If a reputed photographer has a minimum 8 hour package but is willing to do 6 hours to fit your budget, it is certainly a better choice than having someone with an ordinary portfolio (or maybe none at all) for the full 8 hours. If you think about it, the last 2 hours is all about everyone dancing on the floor. You might be able to do without professional photography coverage for those 2 hours.
RAW vs. JPEG (or un-edited vs. edited)
OK, this sounds technical. But when you have your wedding photography on a budget, you need to make the extra effort to understand this stuff. When photographers quote a package it usually includes the edited images. But editing images is a big effort. The editing time for photos from a 8 hour wedding could be 8 hours. Any photographer worth her salt would shoot in RAW, and export the edited images to JPEG – the format you know and love. As you can understand, when you are on a budget but have somehow found a great photographer who still isn’t booked on your big day, you can propose for accepting the RAW images but along with the un-edited JPEG images. And maybe with just a few edited images. Without the right editing software, you would not be able see the images in RAW and that is why you need to ask for un-edited JPEG images so you know what you are getting. Guard the RAW files with your life, or better find a good cloud storage, so that in future, at a time that is right for you, you can ask the photographer to edit your images. I am not sure if any photographer would agree to work this way, but hey, what is there to lose by asking?
Wedding Albums
Wedding albums are costly. It is a lifetime asset and it takes a lot of effort to design an album. Plus there is the cost of printing. Remember, as long as you would have edited high resolution images, the album could be made at a later point exactly the way you wanted.
Wedding Video
Do you really want it or need it? Many couples with deep pockets do not think video to be a necessity in their photography budget. Video editing is a laborious process. I doubt anyone on a tight photography budget would even think about video. For whatever reason, if that is not the case, consider having just the raw footage. Preserve it and then defer the editing for the future.
Formal Photo Sessions
An 8 hour wedding may be too short for having formal photo sessions that require lighting equipment. It takes time to set up the groups – and each group is photographed multiple times to make sure everyone in the group is looking just right. As you can imagine, the bigger the group, the longer it takes for the photographer and the assistant to complete the job. So on a budget you would have to make do with groups in natural light. But do not fret. If you have followed my advice of quality over quantity, you would have the photographer who could produce photographs you would love and would never feel sorry that your wedding venue didn’t look like a film studio.
Cheap Wedding Photography
A wedding is a dream come true. If cheap is not an appropriate word to qualify your wedding ( I hope it is not) then please do not get service from those who advertise cheap wedding photography. Or someone who cannot advertise at all but peddles the service on craigslist for $499. You pretty much know what you are getting into. Rather consider if someone you know can do a favor on your big day. Maybe the most important day on your life is the only reason to burden a friend with such a responsibility.
In summary, I hope, for the sake of your memories and my business you do not have wedding photography on a budget. But here you are, just in case you do.
