Professional vs Hobbyist

There are two things I hear from couples that make me cringe--two choices I know the couple will, without a doubt, regret after the wedding. The first is, “Our friend is a DJ.” A DJ is the single factor that will make or break your reception. Have a bad or inexperienced DJ and the dance floor will be empty all night. I've seen it happen more times than I can count. The second is, “A family friend will be shooting our wedding.” This doesn't upset me because I won't be shooting the wedding. Really, there are 2.3 million weddings this year; I don't need to photograph all of them. But I have heard hundreds of horror stories over this exact situation. Every year I get calls from crying brides asking if I can help salvage the photos from the amateur photographer they hired. I think it's lack of understanding about the difference between a professional photographer versus hobbyist that allow couples to make this choice. I thought I'd throw a few photos out to show you on a technical level what a professional photographer can do in addition to knowing when and how to take charge and a million other non-photographic ways a professional photographer will help on your wedding day.

In each “before” photo I used the camera in auto mode and took a shot. Some of these before photos look terrible in auto even with my $5k camera. That's because the automatic meter is being thrown off by high contrast situations. Professionals often work in manual mode telling the camera what to do in every lighting situation.