- Study new photography techniques at least 5 hours a week?
- Teach photography classes?
- Scout out a venue before the event to determine best time of day to shoot, locations and lighting?
- Invest in the finest photography equipment available and then spend the required time to optimize that gear to the best results?
- Shoot over 20,000 pictures a year?
- Come to location shoots with professional strobes and light modifiers?
- Have photographic timing and composition skills?
- Give you an incredible photographic session experience: fun, challenging, exciting?
- Even ask you what your best side is?
- In the post processing editing process, does your photographer:
- Make sure white balance and colors are on point?
- Do face sculpting including double chin lessening?
- Paint face with highlights, mid-tones and shadows to create the best you possible?
- Selective adjust width of one or more eye to balance them out?
- Selectively sharpen specific items that are important to you like: jewelry, shoes, lipstick, hair, clothing?
- Spend time on each edited photo to make it “magazine worthy?”
- Crop the photo to maximize composition?
- Do portrait retouching including:Full Makeup (lipstick in a full range of colors and textures, false eyelashes, eyeshadow, blusher, mascara, eyeliner, rouge)? Skin smoothing and blemishing removal? Eye clarity, whitening and sharpening? Teeth whitening and sharpening?
- Create beautiful artistic effects that can make your picture look interesting, dramatic, different, like a painting?
- Does your photographer consider all shades of black and white when considering black and white?
- Optimize exported JPEG for intended purpose including social networking sites and printing/enlargements?
- Backup your photos to 3 separate sources including cloud storage and off-site backups?
Get up at 4:30 am because he/she is so excited to do another sunrise photo shoot at the beach?
If you have found a photographer that does these things, you have found a true GEM.