How to choose a wedding photographer in Italy, and what to tell them before the day

The best ten photos tell you nothing

Every photographer has ten perfect photos. They are on the website, and they are beautiful. The trouble is that your wedding will not be ten photos: it will be twelve hours. Ask to see at least one complete wedding, from the guests' arrival to the last dance; two is better. That is where you see how someone really works. Look for:

• the evening photos, in low light: they are the hardest, and they say a lot;
• the group photos: everyone in focus, nobody with their eyes shut, grandmother not cut in half;
• the guests, not only the couple: the children, the hugs, the people laughing at the table;
• consistency: from start to finish it looks like the same wedding, with the same colours.

Style before price

Before asking for quotes, decide what you like. Spontaneous storytelling or guided poses? Natural colours or heavy editing? Style does not change with instructions: a photographer who works one way will keep working that way at your wedding. Choose someone who already takes the photos you want, then talk about price. Do it the other way round and you end up paying less for photos you do not like.

The same goes for video. If you hire two people, ask whether they have worked together: people who know each other do not fight over the same corner during the vows.

A photographer from home, or one from here?

Couples who marry abroad face an extra choice. A photographer from home knows you and speaks your language; one based in Puglia knows the light here and can see the place beforehand. Both work. If yours is flying in (we are 50 minutes from Bari airport), three points matter:

• Travel and accommodation written into the quote.
• Arrival the day before, to walk the masseria at the hour of the ceremony and the aperitivo. The first look at a space should not happen with you in front of the lens.
• A back-up if a flight is cancelled: who covers the day, and how.

The questions to ask, and the contract

The rule we give every couple: what is not written down is not included. Ask at the first meeting, then put it all in the contract:

• how many hours the service covers, and from which moment to which;
• who actually comes, and whether there is a second shooter;
• what is delivered, in which format and by when; when the first previews arrive;
• whether the album is included or extra;
• how the files are stored, and for how long;
• what happens if they fall ill, or if the date moves;
• where and how they may publish your photos.

The shot list: wishes, not directions

Two to four weeks before the wedding, give the photographer the final timeline and a shot list. It is a wish list, not a script. Write down what you do not want to miss, such as your grandmother arriving, the cake, the brother who flew in from far away; not thirty poses to tick off in order. A photographer with a script in hand looks at the paper, not at you.

For family photos you need precision instead: a list of groups with names, and one person on each side who knows the faces and goes to fetch them. The photographer does not know which one is your aunt; your cousin does. When two families meet for the first time at the wedding, this matters twice as much. And allow for the fact that, at the moment of the group photo, someone will just have taken off their jacket.

Margins and light: the photographer works with the sun

Good photos take time. Leave real margins in the timeline: 20-30 minutes for family photos, 30-40 for couple portraits. Here couple photos usually fall during the aperitivo in the vineyard, in the last hour before sunset: Mario has the times month by month in sunset times for wedding photos. Those forty minutes of light are the same for photo and video, so get the two talking beforehand. Photo and video agree on the light, not on the moment: the sunset waits for neither of them.

Your guests' photos help too: the guests' app has a live gallery with a photo hunt, so what they shoot ends up in one place. It does not replace the photographer; it adds angles they cannot see.

Four things not to do:

• Do not choose from a social media profile: ask for a complete wedding.
• Do not ask the photographer to run the day as well: everyone to their own job.
• Do not forget who must be in the photos, and who is better kept apart.
• Do not cut the margins to make up for a delay: catch up elsewhere, never on the light.

If your photographer does not know the masseria, tell us when you arrange your visit: seeing the spaces at the hour of the party is worth more than a hundred photos. Write to us here. Where the photos fit in the day is in wedding day flow.

← All journal articles