Heather Forsythe, Professional Photographer

"How to Choose a Photographer:
Straight from the Artist's Mind"

This text was taken from an interview that took place on March 3, 2006 between Zarah Robinson and Heather Forsythe.

ZR: Heather, when I was planning my wedding, when it came to finding a wedding photographer I didn't know where to begin. How do you think one should go about choosing a professional photographer?

HF: Well, I believe what's most important is choosing a style of photography that you like. There are quite a few different photographic styles to choose from these days. There is traditional wedding photography, documentary wedding photography, photo journalistic wedding photography, modern or contemporary wedding photography, and even fine-art wedding photography. By choosing a style in advance, you will have a better idea what the finished pictures will be like.

ZR: Define each of those styles for me.

HF: A traditional wedding photographer is hired to basically capture portraits of the bride, groom, and their families, along with a few shots of the ceremony taking place, and maybe the cake being cut. Though traditional wedding photography can be beautiful, (it's what we all have framed from our grandparents' weddings), it's not what one would call unique wedding photography.

A documentary wedding photographer tends to want to capture the day and its details as they truly unfold. They often like to work behind the scenes with the family to capture moments even the guests don't see - like the bride getting in her dress and the groom fumbling to attach his boutonnière.

The photo journalistic wedding photographer works a lot like the documentary photographer though their tempo is a little more driven by the action of the day and less by the details. These are the pictures that show the bride the moment before she walks down the aisle but also truly captures the sensation of her heart beating a million miles an hour or the picture of the groom laughing with his groomsmen without any sense that they are aware of the camera. It's truly beautiful work. If a photographer advertises themself as a photo journalistic wedding photographer that means that they have a quick responsive eye and that they are especially skilled at working fast and unobtrusively. I think that photo journalistic wedding photography is a very special style, but that very few of the people that claim to have this skill actually possess it. Photojournalism is hard work and requires years of experience.

The modern or contemporary wedding photographer is predominantly working and taking full advantage of the digital medium. Often there is a great deal of computerized editing and manipulations involved after the picture has been taken. Perhaps you've seen the image of the bride and groom in black and white yet her bouquet is still in color? Often the modern wedding photographer's bridal portraits look like photographs from a fashion shoot while the grooms photos look like something off an album cover. There are some modern wedding photographers out there that produce some pretty interesting work.

Finally, the fine-art wedding photographer photographs your wedding with an artist's eye. They're goal is to give you images that you can frame as art in your home. They tend to work much like the documentary photographer but with a little more emphasis on the formal aspects of their images, meaning the form and balance within each frame. The fine art photographer might have a smaller output than the other style photographers but their images each exist beautifully on their own.

ZR: And how would you define your style; where do you fall in there?

HF: I would say, first and foremost, I strive for photojournalism, but I also really enjoy documenting the details and environments of weddings. Though I don't really work slow enough to have a fine-art wedding photographer's frame of mind, fine-art does sometimes happen. One of my favorite images is of a bride running up a set of old painted stairs and turning the corner. It was a slow shutter speed so the image captures the rushed movement and excitement of the lone figure in the empty house. So I guess all in all I have a sort of hybrid photographic style that blends the detail-driven part of documentary photography with the quick eye and unobtrusiveness of photojournalism, and having began as a fine art photographer, my work can't help but be influenced by that part of me.

ZR: You said choosing the style you want is the most important aspect of choosing a photographer and planning a wedding. What would come next, I mean after deciding what style of photographer one wants?

HF: Well, as is often the case, your budget has to factor into it. Commercial wedding photography ranges anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000. Some photographers offer budget packages while others charge individually for their time, proofs, and prints. Sometimes you can luck out and get really great work through a larger studio with staff photographers that offer really great inexpensive packages, but you can also find yourself working with a complete stranger and totally disappointed with the work. What do you do then? Have another wedding? While your going to usually pay more for an experienced freelance photographer, you have the comfort of knowing more about the artist you hired to work your special event as well as being familiar with their style.

ZR: You say some photographers sell wedding packages while others charge differently. How do you choose to do it?

HF: I charge a fee of $1700 for a full day of shooting. This fee includes all materials and processing fees. I give my clients a wedding preview album of 4x6 proof prints, from there they may order prints, which I charge individually for. I like for my price to be a clear number from the beginning. I don't charge for overtime or extra film. The only thing I charge over that is my travel costs when traveling for a wedding. I want a couple to be able to really know exactly what they're paying for and to be able to clearly work it into their budget. That is one thing I learned from wedding planners. Weddings, if not planned and budgeted clearly and correctly, have a tendency to get out of hand, and it is not fair to be vague about your pricing. I consider myself an affordable wedding photographer.

ZR: I would say so. Many people pay well over that for their local event photographer and receive far fewer wedding pictures. I like the fact you provide the bride a proof of all the shots. There are some really great event planners in Charleston and wedding planners in Charleston, as well as event and wedding planners in Asheville. Do you prefer to work with an event planner or event coordinator?

HF: I really enjoy working with Charleston area wedding planners, Charleston area caterers, and Charleston area florists, as well as Asheville area wedding planners, Asheville area event planners, Asheville area caterers and Asheville area florists. It's nice, once you've worked in an area for a while, you start to build relationships with other businesses in the wedding planning community. I get excited when I find out that, for example, so and so is doing the wedding flowers.

ZR: Do you work in both digital photography and film photography?

HF: Yes I do. I shoot my weddings in predominantly film, both 35mm and medium format, but I often shoot digital simultaneously. I like using the two mediums because they sort of act as backups for one another if something were to go wrong.

ZR: And what ratio do you like to shoot color to black and white?

HF: I shoot predominantly color though I love black and white photography. This is because color photography can always be converted to black and white whereas b&w doesn't have that same latitude. I have all my film scanned so in actuality everything ends up digital. I still shoot black and white film photography because there are certain b&w films that I just love that produce beautiful photographs.

ZR: You mentioned traveling for weddings. What areas do you cover?

HF: I'm willing to work anywhere. I guess I consider my home turfs the Charleston, low country area and the Asheville, western North Carolina area. Anywhere in these two areas I consider local, outside of that I add travel costs to my fee, but I don't charge any more to shoot a wedding in Bordeaux, France than I do in Charleston, South Carolina. I think one thing that is truly wonderful about wedding planning in today's world is that your no longer restricted to choosing from your local event businesses. Most event planners enjoy working outside their local city, and with so many photographers' portfolios viewable online a couple is able to plan a wedding in Jackson Hole Wyoming using a New York based event planner, a Charleston based photographer, and a band from Memphis... you know it's just amazing what you can do these days with so many artists being represented online. I think its been really liberating for commercial photographers because it used to be that you had to live in San Francisco or New York to get national acclaim.

ZR: What about your portraiture? How should someone look for a professional portrait photographer or portrait artist?

HF: Here again, you don't have to choose a local studio. Professional portraits, whether bridal portraits, maternity portraits, childrens portraits, family portraits, senior portraits, or even model portfolios should strive to be creative portraits; creative and descriptive pictures of who you are. They should tell something about the person. That's why I work outside the studio using natural and available light. I want my portraiture to be natural photography. I want to work with a client to capture them in their true state. I don't want to give a client a picture of them having their picture taken, which is often what you get from a large commercial photography studio that sees 10 clients a day.

ZR: How do you provide prints to your clients?

HF: I have an easy to use online gallery and ordering system. Clients can choose their pictures, color or black and white, and sizes right from their home. Although I offer this service, I still really enjoy sitting down with a client and their preview album and choosing their prints together as well. In some cases though, with my national destination weddings I don't have this convenience, and the online gallery provides a way for clients to stay in close touch with me through their ordering process.

ZR: What album do you prefer to use for your classic wedding albums?

HF: My album of choice is the Art Leather album. It is, in my opinion, the best wedding album out there. It is elegant yet extremely durable and its design is timeless as opposed to trendy. I use other album styles as well. Album design is very important to me. I really enjoy designing an album with clients after the rush of the big day is over. I want their album to match who they are. The Storybook album is a digitally created and printed album whose pages are busy and collaged as opposed to the individually matted pages of the Art Leather album, but this suits some couples better. I've even done a scrapbook style album. They are nice because they're a low-cost album option.

ZR: What other commercial photography do you do?

HF: I enjoy fashion photography and culinary photography immensely. I also do product shots, architectural photography, and landscape photography. I do commercial photography in Charleston, commercial photography in Asheville, commercial photography in Charlotte, commercial photography in Nashville. I predominantly travel for my commercial wedding photography, but I am willing to travel for commercial work as well. I am talking with a clothing line now about a potential fashion shoot in India. Needless to say I like to travel with my work. I think I'm so willing to travel because it gives me the opportunity to be in a new place with all my gear and that helps me to never put down my personal fine-art work. It is important to me that I never let the commercial side of my photography overwhelm my original passion.

ZR: Well that sort of leads me into my last question. How did you get into the business originally?

HF: Well while I was in school studying photography I was lucky enough to have begun working with a couple of nationally renowned wedding photographers.. The work I did with them appeared on the pages of In Style Weddings, Martha Stewart Weddings and Town and Country weddings. I've met and had the opportunity of working with some of the country's top wedding photographers. That, of course, did a lot to inspire me. The year I graduated I started taking jobs of my own, and here I am. I'm a member of the Professional Photographers of America now and look forward to capturing as much of this world and as many smiling and happy faces as I can, that's my goal.