The importance of hiring a professional wedding photographer

Hiring a professional wedding photographer is one of the most important decisions you make for your wedding.

The problem is, not everyone hires a professional.

Many brides and grooms today find a friend with a camera to photograph their wedding. Maybe that friend has a good camera. But a friend with a good camera who knows little if anything about professional photography is only going to result in disappointment.

A good camera with an inexperienced photographer rarely produces beautiful images. It is important for the person behind the camera to understand composition, lighting and posing. Your friend with a good camera who is not a professional wedding photographer will not understand this.

Last year I met a man who was going to get married in the fall. I talked to him about doing his photography. He was interested, but he didn’t want to spend the money. Instead he chose to go buy a $400 camera with a kit lens and he asked a friend to take the photos.

Don’t risk getting bad wedding photos

One thing he really wanted from his photos was the blurry background that is in many portraits. It’s called bokeh.

I never saw him or talked to him again after the wedding, so I don’t know how his photos turned out. But I am 100 percent certain he didn’t get the bokeh he wanted in his photos. That’s because I’m sure his friend didn’t know that bokeh is achieved only with specialized lenses, specialized apertures and distance between the camera and the subject. Only a professional wedding photographer would know how to achieve it.

A friend with a camera will likely have just one lens and may not have the proper lighting equipment, let alone know how to operate the equipment.

A wedding is just not the right place to risk not getting good photos.

I get the cost issue. Some people just don’t have much money for a wedding. My belief, though, is it might be wiser to reduce costs elsewhere to have more money for the photographer.

A professional photographer will ensure that your once-in-a-lifetime moments will not only be captured, but done so with great style and attention to artistic touches. Your photos will be emotionally vibrant and ready to display, not just casually posted on social media then forgotten about.