How to Pick a Good Photographer
Custom photography is a big investment. Not only do you pay your photographer, but you spend time researching locations, talking with them about time and place, and finding outfits. You may buy new clothes or shoes or accessories for your family. You may choose to get your hair and makeup done. It's all an investment, and you want to make sure you get the most out of that investment and pick a good photographer. You want to make sure you not only love your pictures, but that you love your experience as well.
You can all but guarantee that experience and result by doing a few things.
First, vet your photographer. They have a website with lots of information, including price. So many people see one picture as the header and go directly to price. I urge you to stop and look at all of their galleries. Every single picture they deliver is not going to be that hero image that they have on the front of their website. Go through their portfolio to see the other kinds of images they may deliver. I would also recommend checking their instagram. Many photographers only update their websites once or twice a year, but most are updating their instagram every week. Those things will help you understand what kind of work they will produce for you.
Some things you should check when looking at their portfolio are:
Is their work consistent? Does the skin color of the people being photographed change drastically from one lighting situation to the other or look unnatural in any images? Are some images dark and moody and some light and airy? Is their editing a consistent color across all images (for example, all warm orange tones or all clean true-to-color)?
Do they have a variety of images? While I do recommend checking out their blog to see samples of full sessions if they aren’t on their website (or asking to see a full gallery if they aren’t on either of those), I wouldn’t stop there. You want to see that your photographer has a wide range of photo compositions, lighting and clients. A good photographer will be able to show variety in their work, which translates to variety in your images. You want to have them be consistent with the things mentioned above, but you don’t want all of your images to look too similar. You also want to check to make sure they have images from a variety of clients, so you know they can work across lots of different families and personalities and still deliver images that are consistent with what’s on their website.
How long have they been in business? It’s not always the case, but usually, a photographer that’s been in business with a consistent portfolio and a variety of images for several years will be able to deliver a consistent gallery every time. It’s so important to know that you are hiring a true professional, who has seen many different scenarios and is able to adapt if you have a cranky kid, a tough lighting situation or a less than ideal space to photograph.
Once you hire the photographer, another thing you need to do is listen to their recommendations. If you had your heart set on the beach, but your child is the happiest at 11 am, your photographer will probably suggest another location. We know light and what looks good at certain time, so make sure you heed our advice to ensure images that are in line with our portfolios.
To ensure the experience is something that is a good fit for your family you are going to want to go two places, their social media and their 'about me' page. Their 'about me' page will give you good insight as to the vibe they are going to bring to shoots. You'll probably learn a few things about them, but you'll also learn if they are a more laid-back person, or work a little more professionally. You'll further learn this by their social media. So many people put pieces of themselves in their captions, and many do stories, myself included. You'll quickly be able to tell if you like their personality and vibe that way. If you vibe with them on social media, I can almost guarantee you will in real life, too.
The last piece of advice I have on how to pick a good photographer is to check their reviews. Google is king in the Bay Area, so start there. No, not just to see that they have 5 stars (I hope they do!), but to see what exactly people liked about working with them. If you have a toddler that’s full of energy, seeing a review that says the photographer helped wrangle their energetic kids, it’s likely going to be true for you, too.
This family found me on social media and within minutes we were fast friends. They love their pictures because they loved my portfolio and reviewed it. They also loved their experience because they know exactly how I would be because the mom has watched my stories day in and day out. As a bonus, I knew I would love them and we would click because if you like me online, we are pretty much guaranteed to be besties.
