tips for hiring candid wedding photographer

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Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer How Photography has evolved in Indian wedding industry? Before knowing the tips for hiring candid wedding photographer, lets read how Indian wedding in- dustry has come of age in the style of candid wedding photography. On average in a month, 1900 people google for candid wedding photography in India. People are not still aware of this style of photography. There was only one style - the traditional Indian wedding. What is this Candid Wed- ding Photography? How it has been evolved in Indian weddings? If you remember, the recession hit the entire world in 2008. Big companies were closing down their branch offices. There were job cuts everywhere. Market is not in very good condition still. We all know that Indian wedding industry can hardly be hit by any recession or depression because mar- riages are an integral part of Indian civilization. The Economic Article explains that Indian wedding is $ 25-30 billion industry which is growing 20- 25 percent every year. It is special but one of the biggest unorganized sectors in India. You can understand why everyone is getting into this profession either by choice or by circumstances. The market analyzer says that Candid wedding photography entered in India around 2009. The Oxford dictionary meaning of 'Candid': "a candid photograph is one that is taken without the person in it knowing that they are being photographed"

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Answers to some questions like: How Photography has evolved in Indian wedding industry? What is candid wedding photography? Simple tips and advice for hiring a candid wedding photographer!

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Page 1: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

Tips For Hiring Candid WeddingPhotographer

How Photography has evolved in Indian wedding industry?

Before knowing the tips for hiring candid wedding photographer, lets read how Indian wedding in-dustry has come of age in the style of candid wedding photography. On average in a month, 1900people google for candid wedding photography in India. People are not still aware of this style ofphotography. There was only one style - the traditional Indian wedding. What is this Candid Wed-ding Photography? How it has been evolved in Indian weddings?

If you remember, the recession hit the entire world in 2008. Big companies were closing down theirbranch offices. There were job cuts everywhere. Market is not in very good condition still. We allknow that Indian wedding industry can hardly be hit by any recession or depression because mar-riages are an integral part of Indian civilization.

The Economic Article explains that Indian wedding is $ 25-30 billion industry which is growing 20-25 percent every year. It is special but one of the biggest unorganized sectors in India. You canunderstand why everyone is getting into this profession either by choice or by circumstances. Themarket analyzer says that Candid wedding photography entered in India around 2009.

The Oxford dictionary meaning of 'Candid':"a candid photograph is one that is taken without the person in it knowing

that they are being photographed"

Page 2: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

When my clients ask me what is this candid wedding photography, I tell them - PJ stuff in yourwedding! And what's that PJ stuff? Simply, The Photo- Journalism! This style of photography wasalways there and it was known as photo-Journalism. We never thought about photo-Journalistscovering wedding also.

The PJ stuff was highly appreciated and adopted in United States and it is known as WeddingPhotojournalists there. The photo-Journalists like Mel Digiacomo entered into the wedding andcreated stunning pictures.

They are the master in it, they spend a lot of time on the street for their assignments, get trained inmaking candid shots and create the story with their shots!

Have you done the mistake in hiring a candid wedding photogra-pher?

“Almost every wedding photographer advertises himself/herself as a candid wedding photogra-pher, though only a fraction of the photographs displayed on their website seem unscripted.” - TheEconomic Times.

No! You are not at fault! As I said before, the entire Indian wedding industry is unorganized. Thereis not much tips for hiring candid wedding photographer and not even google will help you in thiscase because this industry is getting matured still! Buy some time to yourself and go through thebelow mentioned tips and advice which can help you in making decisions before hiring candidwedding photographer next time.

Mel Digiacomo Photography

Page 3: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

1. Don't add "wedding photographer" in the end of your to-do-list.

You spend a lot of money over your weddings. Why don't you take time to hire a photographer forthe same? It is always said in Indian culture that Indian wedding is all about bride and girls. Re-searches tell that brides hire the professional wedding photographer more. But your partner isequally an important part of your wedding photography. You and your partner write your own storyit needs to be told in a manner the way it was written.

Most of the people forget, what happens at your wedding. If your wedding photography is doneprofessionally and you get really good shots, It is going to be alive and last forever. I bet! You canhave Goosebumps and feel an essence even after years once you open your true candid weddingalbum. Such essence is created by hard work and efforts by professional photographers. The pro-fessional candid wedding photographers are most sought after people in the wedding industry. Youjust cannot imagine that it is easy to book them at the eleventh hour.

2. Spend money in a smart way.

If you want to undermine the value of your special day then just go for a traditional wedding pho-tography without a single thought. I don't need to tell you that what traditional wedding photogra-phy is? You know better than anyone. It is the one in which you have grown up by seeing yourfamily members in all the weddings so far!

Page 4: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

If you want to go for a candid wedding photography, you will have to make more efforts. Justspending more money or buying expensive wedding packages will not help you. You have tospend in a smart way and invest in this passion for your wedding. This investment will bring thepriceless moments in your life. You can buy wedding packages but you can't buy passion. Don'tfocus on smart and expensive gadgets as everything which glitters is not the gold. Passion andskills are firmly attached to one another.

3. Hire a professional photographer and how to decide that?

When you don't compromise on making guests list, buying best wedding attire, selecting the per-fect wedding venue and its decoration then why you put aside the professional photographer? Pro-fessional and passionate photographer is the only one through which you can preserve suchthings. Your right choice of the photographer will make your wedding priceless.

To understand the passion of the photographer completely, you must see his/her entire imagegallery or a one or two complete shoot. Let me tell you that almost 500 photographs are made in asingle day of your wedding and only 30-50 photographs of a single wedding are shown on theWeb Pages of the photographers. Don't you want to see the rest of the photos which is the deci-sive factor?

4. No photographer is a replacement of other photographer!

Vivian Maier or William Klein is not a replacement of Henri-cartier-Bresson. Raghu Rai is not a re-placement of Steve McCurry. Every photographer has its own art and style. When you look at thework flow of a photographer, try to understand the style of your photographer through its images.Every image is a reflection of the personality of its photographer.

You might see the great images of a candid wedding photographer over their web pages but it isnot necessary that his/her style matches your choice. Many photographers have a photo-journalis-tic approach these days. They capture the photographs in a flow which tells a story about yourwedding. Some are into posing more and less in candid photography, some gives the Bollywoodtouch to the weddings, some are best at cinematography.

Overall, No photographer can be like him/her! Every single photographer cannot replace anotherphotographer. Try to understand in this way! Different photo-Journalists come to cover the assign-ment or event but their photographs are not the same even if they are witnessing the same eventfrom the same place. Why?

They have the same eye to capture but have the different vision. They can have the same fullframes like Nikon D610, D750, D810, Canon 6D, 5D Mark III, but photographers are paid for theirvision not for their gadgets.

Page 5: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

Finalize your choice of photography and then fix up two or three meetings with him/her until youunderstand his/her style of photography. Remember! It is not the camera which creates the magic,it is the person behind the camera!

5. Hire an artist not a techie! You need a wedding album nota Website!

Photography is an art and owning a camera does not make anyone an artist! Ouch! It hurts, Right?It is the harsh reality. “It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they aremade with the eye, heart and head.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson.

Sir Henri is my favorite and I completely agree with him. His photography will just blow your mind.The artists just learn the basic of any art and put their feelings deep inside their art. That is whatmakes them special and different from others.

Mike Nelson From AFP, made this photo of Socks, the pet cat of USPresident Bill Clinton’s family. It was one of the iconic photos of 1993in the world.

Page 6: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

An engineer knows better about the science of a lens or camera manufacturing than any artistphotographer. If only knowing the science about camera and lens makes anyone an artist photog-rapher then all the Photoshop app developer or lens designer should have been into artistic pho-tography and there would have not been any great photographers like Robert Capa, Robert Frank,Vivian Maier, Steve McCury or Diane Arbus.

Everyone has their own space in this universe. Techies are best at technology! Don't get fasci-nated by expensive gadgets, or by the jargon about the technology of the photography. Scrolldown the images, spend some time to understand your photographer's style and make yourchoice if it matches with your interest!

6. Don't hesitate to ask your photographer that how he gotinto the photography?

The photography job was always considered a low profile job in our society. Even if any youngman wanted to go for learning a photography, the parents usually said "Photography has no fu-ture in our society" because we had future only in stereotype professions! Who knew that photobased application like Facebook, Instagram will be invented and every one will become a photog-rapher, getting likes and comments every day.

Now, photography schools are mushrooming in every city. Even the engineers and the businessschool students jumped into this profession and carved out a niche. Indian society is evolvingwhich is the law of nature and it leads to more marriages happening in our society. But in this

Henri-cartier-Bresson Photography

Page 7: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

process the real essence of photography has not been evolved, everyone seems very confidentbut confused!

Don't hesitate in asking about how your photographer learnt photography and from where? Howmuch updated the photographer is about his own profession? What kind of photography he does?How much he/she has read about the masters of the photography? It will build a trust between youand your photographer.

7. Your Photographer does Photoshop or just adjustments?

In my journalism school, It was taught that a photograph speaks more than thousand words. I alsolearnt that it does speak but with Photoshop it tells more than thousand lies. I have asked thisquestion many times on social forums.

Some agrees to it (who are not into Photoshop), some disagrees to it (who are into Photo-shop). So there are the photographers who are best at Photoshop and create some wow images.Secondly, there are the photographers who are best at creating images in the camera itself and dothe magic without Photoshop. You know! 1 out of 10 photographers use Photoshop in the world.The rests 9 are not the photographers in this world?

To non-photoshop photographers, the adobe created the great app i.e. Adobe Lightroom. In which,a photographer can only re-touch its photographs by adjusting some contrasts, sharpness, expo-sure value. That is known as adjustments. If your photographer is into Adobe Lightroom, don't mixit with Adobe Photoshop.

A photo by Siddharth Malkania with little ad-justments in Adobe Lightroom without Photo-shop manipulation.

Page 8: Tips For Hiring Candid Wedding Photographer

If you are looking for someone who can do something in Photoshop then must ask your photogra-pher whether he/she can do Photoshop your images or not? If you have seen one gallery of thephotographer then ask your photographer to show the RAW data of the same photo gallery. Thereis nothing absurd about it. Every professional photographer shoots in RAW. RAW photo is kind ofan unborn matured baby. It is just one step away to come into the world and that step is known asProcessing! RAW images can not be used over internet without being processed into JPEG for-mat. Make everything clear and let your photographer understand what you are looking for? Butyou must understand him first.

Candid wedding photography is different from photo shoot and this is the mostbeautiful challenging job for any candid wedding photographer. He/She should havethat artistic eye to understand the story at your wedding. Your wedding day is mostspecial day in your life. It is equally special and responsible day for the photogra-pher as Uncle Ben said, "With great powers, great responsibility comes!"

The mistakes in the wedding photography cannot be rectified. Such mistakes last for-ever in your wedding album as evidence. There is no remedy for it as "marriagesdon’t happen twice..." Moments cannot be controlled or you can't go for Re-takes inyour marriage! Let us know if you find these tips helpful for hiring candid weddingphotographer!

Siddharth malkania is a journalism graduate from Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Lawgraduate from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University. An avid traveler, his passion for photographytakes him to amazing places. After having worked as a photojournalist for two years, he travelledto Tokyo and brushed up his skills of hotography there. Currently, He is a candid wedding photog-

rapher based in New Delhi, India! Feel free to contact him.