Frustrated hiring a photographer - Advice?

I'm no professional, but I enjoy taking pictures of my daughter, friends kids, etc. for fun. I'd love to go pro one day but I have insane amounts of things to learn and lack the time to do it. That said, I'm trying to find a photographer to do some family portraits for my daughter's first birthday.

I live in a small town. There are 5 photographers in the area that do family portraits. I know I'm being picky but I just can't narrow down who to use. I'm hoping maybe someone can help.

Photographer #1: She does well posing and her ideas are cute, but her editing is not what I would want in our pictures at all. Looking at her online portfolio she seems to use some weird actions that really take away from the natural beauty and light that the picture may have had. At first I thought maybe she was trying to save the pictures from bad lighting at a shoot but after going through all the albums in FB I found only TWO pictures that were not given the effect she tends to give (it's kind of a vintage light, but not full blown like some actions are - the pictures tend to be kind of green).

Photographer #2: Very similar style to #1. Uses a similar action on her pictures. A lot of her pictures are also shadowy and eyes out of focus.

Photographer #3: Fantastic studio photographer, but his outdoor pictures aren't what I'm looking for. I'd really like our pictures outside as we live in a beautiful area.

Photographer #4: Beautiful pictures and poses. Love the editing. Problem is she's booked until October. Her prices are 3x all the other photographers but I don't mind. You get what you pay for.

Photographer #5: Goes way overboard with the skin touchups. Every.single.picture has over-airbrushed skin. Most pictures are also underexposed and focus is not on the eyes, tends to be off to the side or under.

What do I do? I wish I could have #1 do our pictures and I would edit them, but I know that's not an option. I would not want to offend her. Would you just wait until October and maybe do fall pictures instead of birthday pictures? Or should I just settle for someone else?

One other option I've been throwing around is traveling to another photographer about 4 hours away. I'm still trying to get husband onboard with that. She's everything I'm looking for. My only worry is weather and then having a one year old who is crabby from sitting in the car for four hours and then having a camera in her face.

do #1 and show her the photo you liked and tell her you dont want the pping she does on the other

Wait for #4

Fricks wrote in post #12653892
do #1 and show her the photo you liked and tell her you dont want the pping she does on the other

Is it okay to do that? The pictures without the PP she usually does are from a while ago. I don't want to insult her by asking her not to do her regular style.

tamaravphotos wrote in post #12653916
Is it okay to do that? The pictures without the PP she usually does are from a while ago. I don't want to insult her by asking her not to do her regular style.

if she wants your business she will do what you say if not wait for #4

Can you pay the out of town photographer to come to you?

I probably could, but I'm guessing it would probably be less expensive for us to go there. She lives in a nice area as well, and we have family we can stay with. I would assume if we were to pay her to come to us we'd also have to pay for travel expenses like meals, hotel, etc. Her prices are already at the tip top of our budget.

Assuming you have a tripod and some sort of remote release (or you could use the 10 sec timer), why not do it yourself? Or why not set the camera up the way your want it with flash and reflectors and what not, and get a family member to frame it up and push the button?

Keep in mind too, that focus on the eyes can be very tough with a 1-yr old moving around. Sometimes that eye sharpness has as much to do with PP as it does with getting the focus and DoF close.

Are you in PA?

I would go with Photographer one. Sounds like you like her work already. Just tell her to knock off those cheezy Photoshop actions *L*

Some photographer hid their lack of skill by using Photoshop actions.

Maybe meet with her and ask see see some of her work without the actions.


Getting sharp focus on kids.... Did a two year old party for a friend and I can see where it might be an issue *LOL*

Well you can go with one as you mentioned and others have mentioned you seem to like their work most, just tell the photographer that you do not want any processing. I am sure the photographer won't mind as they do not know you are a photographer to so they will have no idea of what your attentions are, and once you get them you do the processing.