This is a photo I took of my husband and son at bedtime. If you zoom in, you can see that it is NOT a high quality photo. For lots of reasons. I took this with my canon T2i and 50 mm 1.4 lens. Most obviously there is a LOT of grain. If you look at this photo of my baby taken with my Canon 6D with the SAME lens, you can see that there is no grain, the photo is clear and beautiful. And the ISO is DOUBLE what it was in the photo of my husband and son.
While this difference may not be obvious in a 4x6 print, it WILL be obvious in something that you want to blow up really big on your walls.
Your photographer really should be setting a custom white balance. White balance is the camera's ability to read the color of the light around you. This is especially important in a church where there may be different light bulbs emitting different colored lights as well as daylight coming through the windows. An experienced photographer will often bring their own lighting to a ceremony to make sure that the photos of the ceremony are the most flattering (while this is highly recommended, I can't help but think that it might be distracting from the beauty of the ceremony itself. Personally, I have never attended a wedding that has had the photographer's own lighting center stage. I'm not sure that I would want my wedding ceremony looking like a photo studio. Just today I started experimenting with flash and am looking more into soft boxes (I have one, but am working on figuring out how to use it) and may change my mind about it's importance. Only you can decide if this is something you'd like. But I will say that nearly all of the $15,000 wedding photographers bring their own lighting and your photos will be stunning.)
Also, weddings can be stressful. You want your photographer to work as quickly and efficiently as possible. Photography shouldn't be a stressful experience.
If you want me to photograph your wedding, I can do a good job. Will every photo be perfect? No. I can not pretend to do the same job as someone with 20 years experience. But they will certainly be better than your Aunt with a nice camera who is experimenting with photography. If you can not afford a seasoned wedding photographer, make sure that your photographer is, at least, a photographer. For my wedding, we hired a professional photographer. But also asked my husband's aunt to take some photos for us. She did a good job! In fact, at the time, we saw no need to purchase any of the professional photographer's photos because we had hers. Now, 13 years later, I regret that decision so badly. His photos were perfect. Extremely high quality. I just didn't see that. I am much more interested in making sure that you have the BEST photos you can afford than I am in you hiring me. I am more than happy to help you find someone if you'd like some help!
If you are on a budget, for example, and like someone's work but they haven't shot a wedding, make sure that their photos show a variety of different situations. Are they only good at making beautiful photos the hour before sunset in a golden field? If so, just plan your wedding an hour before sunset in a beautiful field. How do their photos look indoors? Have they ever shot professionally indoors? Have they ever shot an event? These are all questions to consider!
That being said, I have compiled a few blog posts of wedding photographers that you might find helpful.
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