Do Wedding Photography Qualifications Matter?

So then I thought about helping brides and grooms out there who might be wondering the same thing. And my photographer friends came to my rescue and explained how to choose the very best wedding photographer. They shared advice which applies to me, brides, grooms - anyone out there looking for great wedding photos. It's easy to choose the perfect wedding photographer for you - and this is how (with advice from the experts!):

Do wedding photography qualifications matter?

My friend and expert wedding photographer Chris Hanley had lots of advice to share on the subject of wedding photography qualifications. My thanks to Chris for explaining how the various types of wedding photography qualifications work - and for sharing his opinions and helping me understand what really matters!

There are 2 types of qualification a wedding photographer might have. I'll explain each one in turn:

1. Industry qualifications from associations such as the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers), BIPP (British Institute of Professional Photographers) and the MPA (Master Photographers Association). There are various associations like this in the UK wedding industry and worldwide. Some are worth more than others. Some charge a fee to be a member and anyone can join (and get a shiny logo to put on their website). What do they really mean? In some cases it's nothing more than a panel of self-important, impressively rich people sitting in judgment over wedding photographers' work.

Charlene told me on facebook, "We just wanted to love the images. The pho­tog­ra­pher we went with had albums that took our breath away, he also shot on actual black&white film which we love. Although it turned out money doesn’t buy you good cus­tomer ser­vice, at the time we did love him. Our pho­tog­ra­pher was part of the BIPP. It took a year to get our album and we had been so focused on get­ting that I couldn’t even take in what we had got when he turned up at our door. The album itself is a dis­ap­point­ment. For his expe­ri­ence and skill we had very high expec­ta­tions and they have not been met. After the day can be as impor­tant as on the day. Not know­ing what was hap­pen­ing ate us up inside and we felt com­pletely hope­less. Hon­esty is very important.”

Don’t choose a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher solely on the basis of an impres­sive look­ing mem­ber­ship like this. At the very least, inves­ti­gate what mem­ber­ship means: how exclu­sive is the asso­ci­a­tion and do they hand out awards and badges like candy?

2. Edu­ca­tional qual­i­fi­ca­tions from uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges teach tech­nique. Qual­i­fi­ca­tions and let­ters after his or her name mean your pho­tog­ra­pher under­stands about light and com­po­si­tion, and has been taught about cre­ativ­ity and the core prin­ci­ples of photography.

Kristin from Struve Pho­tog­ra­phy says, “I spent 3 years at col­lege study­ing pho­tog­ra­phy before I started. Hav­ing been through col­lege, I did come out feel­ing a lot more con­fi­dent about my abil­ity, I have good edit­ing and work­flow abil­ity; I’ve been pushed and chal­lenged by my peers and tutors, and hav­ing learned lots of dif­fer­ent pho­to­graphic styles and had the ben­e­fit of meet­ing some amaz­ing pho­tog­ra­phers and photo indus­try experts. A lot of the skills from the dif­fer­ent things we stud­ied are things I take with me to wed­dings.  How­ever, I do think it depends a lot on the stu­dent, the course (and the time frame) and the course provider. Some self-taught pho­tog­ra­phers are incred­i­ble; some edu­cated pho­tog­ra­phers are… well, bland at best. Also, it doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily improve your inter­per­sonal skills, which are absolutely vital for any wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher. There’s no “right” way, I think, in a person’s path to becom­ing a good pho­tog­ra­pher.”

Qual­i­fi­ca­tions are cer­tainly not a bad thing, but there’s a whole lot more to wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy. And there are so many ways to learn about pho­tog­ra­phy tech­niques, from books to online resources and a wealth of mag­a­zines in your local newsagent. A lifetime’s expe­ri­ence of tak­ing pho­tographs is just as valid as a 3-year degree course, if you ask me. (Inter­na­tion­ally renowned pho­tog­ra­pher David Bai­ley left school aged 15 and worked his way up from Fleet Street to pho­tograph­ing the biggest stars in the world.)

Jessica’s face­book com­ment was an eye-opener: “I spoke to a highly qual­i­fied per­son, but I’ve never been so spo­ken down to in my life. He made me feel child­ish, stu­pid and quite frankly pathetic. I’d rather have some­one with no qual­i­fi­ca­tions but tal­ented and friendly then some­one with qual­i­fi­ca­tions and end up with stiff pic­tures because the pho­tog­ra­pher was awful to work with. Just because me and my fiancee are young does not mean we deserve to be ill treated by peo­ple who ‘know more about wed­dings’ as the pho­tog­ra­pher stated to us.”

So a pho­tog­ra­phy qual­i­fi­ca­tion on its own does not make a great wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher. Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy requires some very spe­cific skills: being able to work amongst large groups of peo­ple. Hav­ing frac­tions of sec­onds to cap­ture a cru­cial and emo­tional moment. Lack­ing con­trol of cir­cum­stances — unfa­mil­iar venues, bad light­ing, numer­ous dis­trac­tions and more.

This is where expe­ri­ence comes into play, along­side cre­ativ­ity and style. Jonny Draper is a Man­ches­ter wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher whose work I’ve fea­tured on Eng­lish Wed­ding before.

He told me, “You can have all the qual­i­fi­ca­tions in the world but if you’ve never shot or worked a wed­ding before then you need to be upfront and hon­est with your clients. Expe­ri­ence is mas­sively important…how much experience/qualification do you get for your money? I think it’s fair to say that if some­one is charg­ing you £250 for the day then you may not expect a huge amount of either (that’s not to say you won’t get lovely pho­tographs of course!) but if some­one is charg­ing £2k-plus then you’d be enti­tled to expect a lit­tle bit more for you money in all aspects.”

A ‘pro­fes­sional’ wed­ding photographer?

The very def­i­n­i­tion of a ‘pro­fes­sional’ wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher can be mis­lead­ing, and is very much linked with this dis­cus­sion. The word ‘pro­fes­sional’ used to be directly linked to a level of qual­i­fi­ca­tion. A qual­i­fied doc­tor or solic­i­tor is cer­tainly a pro­fes­sional. It’s a grand-sounding word, but its use has changed over recent decades. Pro­fes­sional is now widely used to imply high stan­dards; to dis­tin­guish full-time work­ers from those who work part-time, for example.

I’m not say­ing this use of the word ‘pro­fes­sional’ is wrong, though. In my opin­ion (my back­ground is partly in lin­guis­tics) it’s sim­ply an exam­ple of the way our lan­guage changes over time. As an inter­est­ing aside, I under­stand things aren’t so sim­ple every­where: in Aus­tria, for exam­ple, it’s ille­gal to call your­self a pro­fes­sional wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher and go out shoot­ing wed­dings with­out a pro­fes­sional qualification.

If qual­i­fi­ca­tions don’t count, what does?

Expe­ri­ence is the most impor­tant thing you should look for in a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher. Pho­tograph­ing real wed­dings has more value than any qual­i­fi­ca­tion ever could. It’s about learn­ing where to be to get the best shots through­out the day. It’s about know­ing which lenses to use; which set­tings work in which cir­cum­stances. How to shoot in dark churches; how to get great images of the first dance with disco lights. How to watch for that moment when the groom’s bot­tom lip begins to go… how to be unob­tru­sive, how to know when to back off for a sec­ond if the bride is ner­vous before the ceremony.

Only time and expe­ri­ence will pre­pare a pho­tog­ra­pher to shoot wed­dings with sen­si­tiv­ity and skill.

Wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher Jo Black­well also shared her thoughts on face­book: “when I started sec­ond shoot­ing, then going it alone, I brought my life expe­ri­ence to the table and my peo­ple skills — in my opin­ion this is where some of the more tech­ni­cally fix­ated pros fall down. A wed­ding is about emo­tion and story-telling, not whether the high­lights are blown on the groom’s but­ton hole!… I’ve looked into qual­i­fi­ca­tions as I want to be the very best I can be, but there are a lot of impressive-sounding organ­i­sa­tions out there that don’t seem to be very well reg­u­lated. I think that when choos­ing a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher, look­ing at their work and talk­ing to them, see­ing if you actu­ally like them is a bet­ter indi­ca­tor of whether they will deliver what you want than let­ters after their name.”

Cre­ativ­ity is impor­tant in a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher. We all want our wed­dings to be mem­o­rable and unique, to be spe­cial and reflect our per­son­al­i­ties. So expe­ri­ence isn’t the only thing to look out for: Bob from Bob’s Wed­ding Snaps might have shot 100 wed­dings at your venue already… but is he tak­ing the same pho­tos each time, just with dif­fer­ent faces in?

Nicky Chad­wick is a York­shire wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher, and she told me on face­book, “I have had three brides in the last 12 months who have come to me after their wed­ding day to see if ‘there is any­thing I can do’ with their pictures!!

“I think ulti­mately the cou­ple have to feel com­fort­able with the pho­tog­ra­pher from the start and they have to like their work. If a pho­tog­ra­pher won’t answer your ques­tions or can’t show you a good body of work then look at oth­ers who can. Get a con­tract from them and make sure it cov­ers you as well as them should the worst hap­pen. I do have qual­i­fi­ca­tions from years ago, but like a few oth­ers have men­tioned these only really help you tech­ni­cally, not with the cus­tomer ser­vice. I can hon­estly say I’ve never been asked what my qual­i­fi­ca­tions are, maybe that’s because many peo­ple wouldn’t know what would be good qual­i­fi­ca­tions any­way?”

Every wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher has their own style. Don’t set­tle for the first pho­tog­ra­pher you see: find some­one whose port­fo­lio you love! The wed­ding photographer’s per­son­al­ity will often shine through in their images.

I loved Mar­tin Roe’s face­book com­ment: “So many highly qual­i­fied pho­tog­ra­phers seem to be so hung up on per­fect expo­sures, com­po­si­tion and pixel counts, that their flair and cre­ativ­ity fly out of the win­dow along with their sense of fun. To me, if you have a keen eye a sense of humor and peo­ple skills you’re more than half way there. The rap­port that I have with my clients is to me the sin­gu­larly most impor­tant fac­tor in obtain­ing pho­tographs that will mean some­thing to them and cre­ate an album that cap­tures the per­son­al­i­ties and atmos­phere of their day.”

There are wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers whose images have time­less beauty and ele­gance. Some will focus on for­mal or tra­di­tional images while many wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers work in a photo-journalistic or doc­u­men­tary style. Some wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers will spend half an hour or so with the bride and groom get­ting styled or nat­ural por­traits of the cou­ple; oth­ers will leave you to sim­ply enjoy the wed­ding cel­e­bra­tions. Each of these styles will appeal to dif­fer­ent cou­ples — it’s up to you to choose which is right for you.

Nobody knows bet­ter than the bride and groom

So wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phers don’t need qual­i­fi­ca­tions. It’s wise to look for some­one with expe­ri­ence, and it’s great if you can find some­one whose work you fall in love with. At the end of the day what all of this means is that

you are the experts!

And why are you the experts? Because it’s your wed­ding day. Because the day is about you. The wed­ding pho­tographs will be of you, your friends and fam­ily. Every wed­ding really is unique, as is every wed­ding album.

When you’re choos­ing a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher, have the con­fi­dence to go with your heart, but use your head too!

Bud­get for the best wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher you can afford. Pho­tographs will be the last­ing mem­ory of your wed­ding day: so think what you want to remem­ber — those price­less lit­tle glances across a crowded room? The kiss at the altar? The way she looked at you as she walked down the aisle? Or how hand­some he looked? What about all the hand­made dec­o­ra­tions you’d poured your heart and soul into mak­ing? The detail of your dress? The fig­ure you’d worked so hard for all year before your day?! Find a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher whose port­fo­lio shows they have a nat­ural eye for what­ever is most impor­tant to you.

More help find­ing a wed­ding photographer

If you’re look­ing for a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher, I’ve shared a quick list of my 10 top tips over on the Eng­lish Wed­ding Show­case. And if you’d like to share advice of your own, do pop over there and con­tribute your tuppence-worth via the comments!

Find­ing a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher: top 10 tips

I’d love to hear from you if you have thoughts about wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy qual­i­fi­ca­tions too. Have your qual­i­fi­ca­tions helped you more than your life expe­ri­ence, or vice versa? What do you think makes a great wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher? Pop a com­ment for me in the box below!