How To Choose A Family Photographer
There are a huge number of companies and individual photographers you can use to photograph your family, but how do you choose the right one for you?
Recommendations
The best way, of course, is personal recommendation. Do your friends or colleagues have photographs you admire, and did they enjoy the portrait experience? Alternatively, local children’s shops often display small ads for photographers, and the owner may be familiar with their work or know people who’ve used them. This can be a good way to find someone local to you.
If you can’t find a recommended family photographer, the tips below should help you find a professional who will take family portraits you’ll treasure. The internet is the obvious place to start, but the advice should also apply if you see adverts in magazines or go into portrait studios.
Searching on the internet will find an overwhelming number of photographers – for example searching on Islington family photographer finds over twenty thousand websites. To pick the right photographer you need to consider what’s most important for you.
Style
One client said to me that she wanted her pictures to look as if a friend had taken them on a day out – only better! If you want this kind of natural and informal portrait, you should look for a photographer who’ll come to your home or take the pictures on location. This is the best way of ensuring a relaxed atmosphere and avoiding overly posed pictures. Click here to see a gallery of lifestyle portraits.
A family photographer can also pose the portraits and use lighting to create either contemporary portraits or traditional poses. Some photographers can bring a small studio setup to you, click here to see a gallery of studio style portraits, but if you want all your pictures in this style, then you’re better off travelling to a studio. There will be more space, a choice of backgrounds and you may be able to bring toys as props to personalize the portraits.
So, once you’ve decided on the main style you want, you can short-list photographers who offer that style in your area. Most photographers have websites with galleries of their work. Take some time to look through several galleries carefully to decide if they are the kind of pictures you want to display in your home or to give to relatives. Is the work recent, and does it show the kind of groups you’re after: the whole family, babies, older children, pets?
Price
You can pay anything from a few pounds to hundreds for a picture of your family. There are two main components in what you’ll spend: a fee for the photography session, and the price of any pictures you buy. Some portrait sessions are virtually free, but it can be very expensive to buy the pictures, other family photographers balance the session fee and the cost of prints, still others will offer a package price including a set number of prints. There’s no right or wrong way of charging, but you should be comfortable with the likely costs before the session to avoid nasty surprises or hard-sell.
The most important thing is to go for a family photographer whose work you like. When comparing prices between photographers you may want to consider what the photographer needs to do to produce the final images for you and how that affects the cost.
- What is included in the cost? If the photographer travels to you, he or she’s got to cover that time. On the other hand studio photographers have to maintain their studio. You should be aware that almost all photographers will edit the pictures after the shoot to create the final image you receive. The amount of post-shoot editing and image enhancement the photographer includes in their service can vary significantly and is a factor in what they’ll charge you.
- For my shoots, I reckon that I spend twice as long selecting and editing pictures as I do taking them. Editing the raw images makes sure that the colours are true to life even in difficult light conditions, then I can remove scratches and crop the pictures to perfect the composition. Using advanced editing software you’ll find that very different pictures can be created from the same original photograph.
If you like these effects it is worth asking your photographer what editing they offer. They should be able to suggest how each picture can be displayed to its best advantage, or they may have a “house style” that they apply to their photography.
Experience
Experience is not essential, after all everyone has to start somewhere, but it will set your expectations from the family portrait session. I think it’s always worth finding out: how long they have been working as a photographer, and do they have relevant training or qualifications?
There are very good self-taught photographers, but training and experience should give you a better likelihood of consistently high-quality photographs. If you choose a photographer who regularly has their work published or who has won awards, this provides more reassurance of the quality of their work. Of course, they will probably charge more than someone with less experience – but not always!
Guarantee
If you don’t like the pictures, your photographer should offer a reshoot or a money-back guarantee. A guarantee is valuable, but remember that you’ll have spent your time on the session so it pays to research your choice before committing to a portrait shoot.
Products
Check that you can buy the pictures in the format you want. Sometimes you can only buy framed prints; you might want the pictures on canvas or acrylic board for a more modern look, or you might want simple prints to put in your own frames.
If you want to keep lots of the pictures it’s worth finding out if you can purchase all the images on a CD/DVD. (You’ll need to check that they’re high-resolution images if you want to print from them.) A CD is also a good memento of the shoot which you can share with relatives or view on your computer.
I hope that this has given you some pointers about what to consider when choosing a photographer. Remember too that it pays to speak to photographers you’re interested in booking; they should be happy to answer questions and find out what you want out of the session.
If you're interested in family photography in London, Michael Crabtree may be able to help. There are galleries and answers to many common questions at www.michaelcrabtree.co.uk/familyabout.html, or phone and we can chat about what you're looking for, my number is 07976 251 824