TOG coming in 30 mins what do I ask?????

What you get, how long will he stay, what time will he start, how he likes to shoot so do you prefer posed or natural shots etc

Hope that helps

Thanks!

It is his business but he is also a guest - the natural one is a good one - OH hates photo'd being taken!

As said above plus check if the photographer has the insurance, backup equipment and backup hard disk/online backup. Also ask what happens if he gets sick or cannot attend the wedding for whatever other reason. If you're getting digital files, ask if they will be in high resolution with personal rights to print or whether all prints have to be ordered through the photographer.

Hope this helps

What are his wet weather fallback plans...

Back up......Very Important. ....Not only for cameras, lenses and flashguns on the day, also for storage and back up of your digital images.......Can't stress how much this last one is so very important as we have a bride on this forum where the tog didn't and all her images were lost....

Peter

Thanks it definately helps - he's currently running late - had a photoshoot this afternoon - something I'm quite grateful for as googling like mad - the drive yesterday took it out of me and my brain is definately not in gear!!!!

Also, what do you actually get? Are the files "processed" or is it jpegs straight out of the camera. Is there any Photoshopping done where necessary?

How long you have to wait for the images after the wedding....

Peter

All great questions but if it is a friend and the decision is already made that you will be having them, then perhaps any what best practice do you perform questions and so on have already been done, friend or not.

As I would class these mostly as "do I employ this person" questions.

Thanks all for your help got a lot of stuff sorted and your input definately helped the backup side what not one I had thought of!

I hope we are mostly covered - they have 4 camera's along with spare batteries and cards, there are two photographers - also covers if one of them is sick and they use 2 different computers both with hard drive back up for the photo's.

We have gone for the simple package as they have offered us cost price for any printing - they do editing as well on them. Only thing we have asked for is a specific contract rather then their general one as it wasn't to the level I was happy with - they are a new business and used a template.

Exactly what Peter said above, whether they are a pro or just starting out, they must have not only back up equipment but what is their back up procedure for backing up the images.

Also do they have a back up plan if they are ill, This weekend I was struck by a bug going around, luckily if I was shooting a wedding I have someone to call on but I was totally knocked out and I don't remember Saturday or Sunday, I know this is too late for you now but for anyone else please take this advice, I have never been this ill before?

Two computers with hard drive back up? Does that mean 2 or 4 places where your files are stored? Laptops or desktop?

Reason I ask is that laptops have been stolen from togs cars at weddings. I know of one tog who left an 8gig memory card transferring on to his laptop in the boot of his car in the venues car park whilst he carried on shooting......the laptop and card were stolen, losing around 900 images.

Drives do fail....I once had two drives fail on the same day

Bottom line is that you simply cannot be careful enough....apologies for any scare stories....

Peter

Never a laptop, all my cameras write to two cards at once, before I leave a wedding they are uploaded to a portable hd, that means I have 3 copies of all the images, once home I plug the portable hd in to the computer where it backs up to 4 hds, one hd goes to my sons where he then backs up to 3 hds and the cloud, some may say I'm paranoid about back ups but I have seen too many photographers lose clients images and I don't ever want to be in that position.

When I say back up I don't mean automated back up, I would never trust it to work as we have seen from one of the Hitched brides pro photographer, I wonder if she has learned a lesson (probably not) and changed the way she carries out her back up procedure.

My memory cards do not leave me at any time until they are home safely and with proven back ups. Bruce, you are not paranoid, you are doing the right thing by you clients.....

Peter

To this day I still get other photographers telling me its over the top but guess what, I have never been in that position where I have to tell a couple I don't have the wedding images which is more than I can say about those that told me I was over the top with my back up.