Style
It’s important to find a photographer who’s style matches your own. Do you prefer your images to be more traditional with formal posing and backgrounds? Or do you prefer more candid/lifestyle shots where your children are not posed but shot naturally as they are? Take a good look through the photographer’s web site or portfolio to make sure you really love their work.

Experience
Since anyone can call themselves a photographer, it’s important to find someone who is experienced and really knows what they are doing. Are they a member of any particular organizations such as the PPA (Professional Photographers of America)? How long have they been in business?

Quality
It’s important to know what you will be getting from your photographer. Are they going to shoot you a bunch of images, plop them onto a CD and send you on your way? That might sound really nice, but not if the images you get back are blurry, over or under exposed, or unflattering images. Does your photographer know how to shoot in manual or automatic mode only? Are there any guarantees? Do they do any retouching or editing of the images after? Do they use a professional photo lab or the local chain store down the street? Make sure you know specifically what you are getting.

Chain Studios Verses Custom Photographers
Let’s examine some of the differences between popular chain studios verses a custom photographer. Chain studios will usually hire anyone off the street to take their pictures. The images are pretty straight forward with basic poses and a “say cheese” mentality. You have a limited, handful of images to pick from and because they shoot in bulk and do minimal to no editing, they can afford to be charge less. Custom photography on the other hand can be more expensive. But a custom photographer will spend a lot more time with you making sure images are just right. A professional and experienced custom photographer will get to know your child and be able to capture who they really are. A chain studio will spend about 15 minutes with you, get the “cheese” shot and send you on your way with straight unedited images, a custom photographer puts a lot more into it and takes pride in creating art. You can expect a custom photography session to last up to a couple hours with you and then another 10 or more behind the scene.

Why Do Custom Photographers Charge So Much?
Let’s break down what we as a custom photographer, spend in time with you.

30 minutes-1 hour               Of phone conversations and answering questions
30 minutes-1 hour               Driving time to and from the session
2 hours                                 Photo session and spending time with the children
6-7 hours                             Photoshop time, retouching, and perfecting every image
30 minutes                           Uploading proofs to the web for you to view
1-2 hours                             Ordering session and helping you choose images
1 hour                                   Uploading and ordering images from a pro lab
30 minutes-1hour                Preparing images for delivery and checking over everything
30 minutes-1 hour               Driving time to and from delivering pictures
1 hour+                                Following up, keeping in contact, sending emails, etc.

You can see how a custom photographer can easily spend over 10 hours and more per client. So when you see a photographer who charges $150+ for a session and then $40 for an 8×10, you aren’t just paying for a 2 hour shoot, you are paying for their time, the total experience, and everything tailored and customized just for you.

Photographers who charge $50-100 and send you on your way with a CD are generally people who are just starting out. There is a lot less time involved and you get what you pay for. That might not be a bad thing if you are looking for something quick and you are not too concerned about quality. But if you are looking for art to place on your wall or to capture your child’s personality or something special, be sure to research the photographer’s work and ask questions. Weddings, maternity, first birthday, newborn shots…those moments come only once, and you don’t want to trust them to anyone but a true professional.