DTyler Photography - Las Vegas wedding photographers

A wedding day is the defining point in our adult lives as two lives become joined into one family.  It's a time of high emotions filled with joy and love and a day that you'll want to remember for the rest of your lives.

While memories fade with time, a well composed photograph lasts forever and is a visual cue that instantly transports you back to that special day, making your choice to hire a professional wedding photographer the most important decision in your wedding preparation. 

The renowned Las Vegas wedding photographers of DTyler Photography have photographed hundreds of weddings across the United States and abroad over the past twelve years and have the experience and equipment necessary to create treasured photographic memories with breathtaking quality.  We regularly work with clientele in Nevada, California, Minnesota, Utah and Arizona throughout the year and are happy to create a custom wedding photography package that fits your individual needs and budget. 

We offer professional digital processing and retouching services included in the cost of any session that corrects exposure, focus, color and leaves you looking as though you just stepped out of the pages of your favorite fashion magazine!

The most important preparation you'll make

Things to keep in mind

• When to reserve your wedding photography session
  

  How soon are you looking to book your photography session?  It's important to keep this in mind before setting up meetings with prospective photographers, as a photographer's calendar may fill up very quickly and are often booked months in advance.  Once you find the perfect photographer, you'll want to reserve your session as soon as possible before that date is taken.  If you're not looking to reserve your session for several months, wait until you're ready to book before you meet with photographers.  There's nothing worse than falling in love with a photographer's style and personality and then finding out months later that your day is already booked and having to start over from the beginning. 

  It's best to reserve your photographer as soon as possible to ensure availability and then let your budget and the rest of your day's events fall into place.  Once your ceremony and reception location is taken care of and your photography session is booked, the two most important factors are taken care of, which are 'where is the wedding taking place?' and 'who will document it so I can relive my wedding day whenever I want?'

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• Getting to know your photographer
  

  The relationship we maintain is less like a standard client/provider and more of a close short term partnership.  Successful wedding photography is built from mutual trust and respect.  Start your conversation by letting your prospective photographer know that you've visited their online portfolio, you like their work and ask them if they have availability on a specific date.  Don't be afraid to ask questions about their style preference, what colors to wear and share your creative ideas.  This not only makes a more interesting shoot, but your increased comfort level will show in every photograph.  As your wedding plan develops, we speak and even meet with you several times in the months leading up to your wedding to share new ideas and discuss any potential changes to the itinerary.

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• Working within a budget
  

  If you have a set budget, keep it in mind, but remain flexible and be willing to share that budget with your prospective wedding photographer early in the conversation.  Instead of calling photographers and asking their prices until you find one within your range, share your budget up front and see if the photographer can work with you.   Most wedding photographers have standard packages, but can customize a wedding photography package to fit your needs or work within your budget.

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• Price versus quality
  

  As Benjamin Franklin once put it best: "The bitter taste of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten".  This is the most important event of your adult life and these are images you'll probably view every day.  Your choice of photographer should be based on their compatible personality and quality of work and not just on price.  If his or her prices are just a bit outside your budget, but you feel that you've found the right photographer, it's worth spending a bit more, borrowing short term or cutting back on other expenses to fit them into your budget.  Remember that ten years down the line, what you spent on wedding photography will not matter, but the quality of your pictures will.  In the long run you'll thank yourself for selecting a style and quality you enjoy looking at and a professional you can trust.

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• Length of your shoot
  

  Book the amount of time you need.  It's tempting to book only an hour or two for 'some quick poses', but it turns into a stressful event as people are yanked out of place and smiles are forced as the clock rapidly ticks away.  Posed shots are nice and even necessary, but they don't invoke memories and emotions like photojournalistic candid shots.  Remembering and reliving the day as it happens can become crucial to your marriage when you least expect it.

  Some of the best shots are taken as the wedding couple prepare, or at the ceremony and it tells a complete story of your wedding day that's enjoyable to view from beginning to end.  Booking adequate shooting time allows you to relax and let the photographer do their job, capturing events as they unfold, without the need to cram every shot into a short time frame and missing the first dance or a bombastic backflip from the best man on the dance floor.

  If the amount of time required for your wedding falls outside of your budget, ask your photographer if they would be willing to work with you on the price.

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• Your photographer's tools of the trade
  

  Find out what equipment your photographer will be using!  Some will tell you that "the most important component of a camera is the photographer's head", but they're only half right.  Good photographs come from good photographers with good equipment.  This is also a great 'breaking the ice' question, as a photographer is proud of their equipment and are more than happy to give you an overview of their camera bodies, lighting and lenses.  While film cameras were mostly pretty standard in terms of quality, digital cameras vary wildly in terms of resolution, low light performance and image quality.  It's even a good idea to ask them why they use a particular camera - every photographer has a different style and their answers may surprise you!

  While it may sound Greek at the time, take notes and later Google their equipment list to gain a better understanding of the level of quality their gear brings to the table and how much it all really costs.  Equipment upgrades and replacements are one of the main factors in wedding photography costs.  It's not at all uncommon for an experienced photographer to carry $20,000 worth of equipment or more while shooting a wedding.  All of this equipment must be maintained, upgraded and replaced regularly.

  A photographer's equipment factors into the time of day your wedding takes place and what to expect in terms of image quality.  Cameras that perform well in low light, such as the Nikon D3 and D700, or the Canon 5D Mark II will give more crisp, pleasing images in darkened environments such as a church in the evening or an outdoors night time wedding.

  Your photographer's backup equipment

  What happens if a camera fails during your wedding?  Does your prospective wedding photographer have backup equipment?  Do they have an assistant to help with posing, carrying gear and lens/battery/memory card management?  Do they offer a second shooter?  Knowing that your photographer has at least one spare camera body with lenses helps to ease your mind about the 'what ifs'.

  Film or digital?

  There's still a raging debate in some circles about film versus digital.  At DTyler Photography, we have been 100% digital since 2006, as have most wedding photographers.  The current generation of professional digital cameras have made incredible leaps and bounds in terms of image quality and flexbility and the combined benefits put them far beyond film cameras.

  Why digital?

  Speed - Digital cameras allow a photographer to take hundreds and even thousands of shots without switching batteries or memory cards, to capture moments that would have been impossible or incredibly difficult on a film camera.  A photographer can snap away without worrying about film counters or swapping out a roll in the middle of a key moment.  It allows for more creativity and has started the recent trend towards wedding photojournalism.

  Flexibility - Digital images are incredibly flexible in terms of adding enhancements or correcting color or exposure that's not optimal.  Since there is no film to develop, the process of loading an image into an editing program for enhancement and processing is purely digital and alterations can be made without degrading image quality.

  Image quality - Digital cameras are incredibly sharp and deliver images so crisp and vibrant that they're on par and often surpass that off 35mm cameras.

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• Meeting your photographer
  

  When you're ready to reserve your session, meet with your prospective photographer in person.  I personally love meeting with new clients - everyone has their own unique story about how they met, the wedding location or small talk about themselves.  It's a wonderful break in my day and establishes a foundation for a close partnership with my clients.  My co-shooter and I are very relaxed and humorous to work with and we encourage you to come with questions, no matter how silly they may sound to you - we'll have a hot cup of coffee or tea and hash them all out.

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