Outside-the-Box Question to Ask Your Wedding Photographer

Don’t hire a photographer until they’ve answered this question!

So you’ve done a bit of research during your wedding planning and you wrote down all the standard questions you need to ask the wedding photographers you’re thinking of hiring. You know to ask about their shooting style, their experience, what additional products and services they offer… all the usual stuff.

What you need to do, though, is ask them a few non-standard questions that they probably don’t get often, if at all. Doing so will give them an opportunity to really set themselves apart because they’ll have to come up with an answer to something they usually aren’t asked. They won’t just be giving you a stock answer to a question they’ve been asked 1000 times before. Here’s one question to ask a wedding photographer that will give you insight into how much importance they place on quality control.

Ask them this:

“How quickly can I get my wedding photos?”

This is designed as a trick question, so the phrasing is important. You want to imply that quick delivery is important without actually saying it.

Why Wedding Photo Delivery Time Matters

Here’s why: no matter what a photographer charges, it takes a certain minimum amount of time to edit wedding photos and prepare them for delivery. The photographer has to first go over each one to decide if it’s even good enough to keep. There are many duplicate images, for example, that are nearly identical except one has eyes open and one doesn’t. The photographer also has to do adjustments like colour and brightness correction on the photos and do whatever creative edits match their style.

All of this takes time to do. If the photographer rushes through it, chances are the job won’t be done to a high standard of quality. You could end up with photos that have had very little to no editing applied. And not just finishing-touches editing like a final colour grade; the photographer might not even do basic culling. You could end up with some of the out-of-focus or poorly-exposed shots that happen during a wedding and usually don’t make it past the first round of cuts.

The photographer may even just do what we used to call a “Shoot and Burn.” This is a term that was used back when we used to deliver wedding photos on dvd. Some photographers would just take the photos straight from the camera, burn them to a disc and deliver them like that. No editing of any kind.

“How long should wedding photos take to edit?”

You should be starting to see what the point of this particular question is now. You want to know if the photographer is going to do things properly or if they’re going to rush the editing. If a photographer tells you the photos will be ready in a few weeks to a month, that’s fine. It means they’re taking the time they need to give the photos the proper amount of attention.

Some photographers might even take as much as 2 months. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve forgotten about you! An in-demand photographer will have a lot of work to do and they want to maintain a high standard of quality, which means taking their time with each job. That’s perfectly fine as long as they make this clear during your consultation. I would say, however, that a wedding photography turnaround time of 2 months is on the upper range of reasonable. More than that and you should ask some follow-up questions.

As an example, my contract says that the photos will be ready a month after the wedding. Sometimes they’re ready sooner, which is fine. If your wedding is in December, I’ll probably have more time to dedicate to your photos than I might in August. I’m a fan of, “Under-promise, over-deliver”.

There are limits, though. I can’t deliver within the same week unless it was a short wedding. If the photographer shoots for 12 hours and then tells you the photos will be ready 2 days after the wedding, that’s a bit of a red flag.

With 20 years of experience in the wedding photography industry (I can’t believe I just said that), I’ve found that a good range for photo delivery time (depending on the photographer) is probably somewhere between 3 weeks and 2 months. If your photographer tells you their delivery time is anywhere in that range, you should be fine.

What this question tells you about a wedding photographer

They’re probably rushing. This could happen for a few reasons. The photographer could be taking on too many jobs, for example. If this is the case, they’ll need to rush to get things delivered.

If you’re getting a shoot-and-burn, there’s a good chance you’re going to be disappointed with the photos. They may not necessarily be bad photos, but they’ll be unfinished. They won’t have the final look you expect, and you’ll have to ask the photographer to go over them again to finish the job. You only get one chance at wedding photos, and waiting weeks for them only to be disappointed is a risk no couple wants to take.

Asking a wedding photographer how quickly you’ll get your wedding photos is one of the easiest ways to understand how seriously they take editing and quality control.

Remember, it’s not about speed. You didn’t rush your wedding planning, right? You may have spent as much as 18 months putting everything together. You took the time you needed to make sure the job was done right. Asking this question will help you make sure you choose a photographer who has the same high standard as you.

Choosing a wedding photographer isn’t about finding the fastest delivery—it’s about trusting someone to do the job properly.

If you’re comparing photographers and want an honest, no-pressure conversation about process, timelines, and expectations, I’m always happy to chat.