Here’s a great article to help couples who are looking at photographers for their wedding. The part of the article that struck me the most was the difference between images actually capture on the wedding day in the “heat of the moment” versus those captured on workshops/model shoots, etc.
When you have 1 day or 7 days to work with incredibly hot, gorgeous women whose makeup has been overly done for the shoot, the “bride” is a size 1, and the “groom” is also a professional model who knows exactly how to act, pose, stand, and be confident standing in front of a camera, you have an experience in front of you that is not equal to the reality of a wedding day. A potential bride sees these images, and does not know how to decipher if they were a real couple from a real wedding or not. When you have several days and all the time in the world to take pictures of models at workshops, you are doing yourself (the photographer) a disservice to your craft.
Think about it. My clients are not models. They have no idea how to pose. They are rarely size 1, they are insecure about being in front of the camera, it is typically hot out in the summer, the groom is sweating due to his tux in July heat, we only have 1 hour to hit 2-3 locations because they don’t want to miss the cocktail hour, the wedding party is not cooperating, I am hot, I am stressed beyond belief and can barely work myself out of this puzzle and if I don’t get kick-ass images for my clients, then their investment of thousands of dollars, expecting compelling imagery, has gone to waste. I will be in trouble. You better be able to deliver. You do not have days. You have 15 minutes to a few hours.
I think it is extremely important to ask the photographers you are considering when their portfolio images were captured and to take this information into consideration when choosing.
Here’s the link: http://kevinweinstein.com/blog/article/on_photography/
Tim
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