Choosing a Photographer
By: Daniel
Why should you choose a professional photographer when you need or want to have images of yourself or of loved ones made? Well, the same reason you would pick a surgeon to operate on you rather than an auto mechanic. The surgeon is well trained, has the right facilities and tools to perform a task that helps ensure your safety and well-being. You would choose an auto mechanic if you wanted complex work done to your car for the same reasons.
In this day of cell phone cameras, YouTube Certified Pros and self-proclaimed “experts” several facets of photography are often overlooked. A true professional will have the proper training, professional equipment, and the know how to ensure the best possible image is delivered to you. Cell phone images are great if you only view them on a cell phone, tablet or computer—with their backlit screen—making images look better than they are. And even with that, chances are the images are not well posed or lit. Because the person with the phone doesn’t have the tools to pose someone, i.e., the knowledge--and a phone can’t utilize off camera lights, ISO, apertures and shutter speeds. And images on Instagram don’t reflect how good the image is due to their small size. Images tend to look good when they’re not much larger than a postage stamp.
The same goes for the amateur who will take your picture(s) for little or nothing. They will typically have amateur equipment, (camera and lenses) and often little to no training in posing and lighting. You’ll get a photo, but a professional photographer makes an image by placing the subject and themselves in the correct location, posing them in the right way and lighting them adequately based on the pose and the environment. The right camera and lens can make a considerable difference in the quality of the image you receive. In addition, a professional will know how to post process your images to make sure they’re light or dark enough, sharp enough, and the color and contrast is good, along with correcting any blemishes, stray hairs, etc., without changing you into a waxen figure. And what if that person with a phone was asked to enlarge the photo into an 8x10 or 11x14, 16x20, 20x24, 24x36, 30x40? Have you ever seen what an image from a phone looks like enlarged to that size? Awful. One word—awful, or you could say horrible. An amateur rarely, if ever, works with a professional lab that can print images on various media; so that if you want a framed, 24x36 image on canvas you will receive a beautiful print to hang on your wall.
As a professional, I’m fully licensed, and insured. I have a studio and studio lighting so that I can create studio images in addition to location shots. I know how to light indoors and out, so you won’t hear me say, “Oh I do natural light photographs, I have no need for flash.” I too can shoot in only natural light, but time, experience and training have shown me that knowing how to light someone with a reflector, or off camera flash renders a better look and saves me from spending a whole lot of time in post-production adjusting what I could have done simply with additive light. As a pro I’ve made my bones through training, experience, learning from the best, and then teaching my photographic knowledge to others. I have a studio; professional equipment and I deliver professional results.
So, when searching for a photographer ask if they’re licensed, with the city, county and state, and if they carry liability insurance. Ask if they have a website and a portfolio of prints, not just Instagram or other social media postings. Ask if they have a studio and how long they’ve been in the business and how they learned photography. Look at their work. Determine if it’s professional quality. If they can’t produce all of the above, you’re talking to someone who should not be charging for their work—they’re not a professional photographer—and could be violating the law by charging you and/or advertising their photographic services. It’s people like this that often give us real photographers a bad reputation. Don’t let price override value. Remember: a cheap photographer is never good, and a good photographer is never cheap.
