should i have an engagement photoshoot?
say i do an engagement photoshoot to see if i like the photographer. what if i dont like them? then ive just wasted money?! how do i figure out if i have a good photographer without seeing them actually shoot photos of me?
Question Asked: 27/06/2017
Wedding Date: 9/08/2018
Most Helpful Response
(13) · Brisbane, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast, servicing all of South East Queensland.
Posted: 26/06/2026
Answered by: 5 Experts
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This can be a great option. Some benefits include:
- See how your makeup trial might appear on a photoshoot.
- Have photos to use for your Engagement party invite, and a thank you card to follow up
- Experience how a wedding photographer might work with you on your big day
- Help you to be more comfortable with professional photography, prior to your wedding
- Give you a break from the wedding planning phase that makes up much of the engagement season, and help you to celebrate that season too!
All the best for your big day :)
Luke
You should for Nice Stunning Photo's. That you will be very happy with.
Usually by the time to go to do an engagement session you would have already spoken to, met and gotten a good idea of what your photographer is like and what their style is. The down side is yes if you have an engagement session and need to pay for that and decide that you no longer feel comfortable with your photographer, the loss of a few dollars then is worth it to be sure you have a photographer on your day that you really love. It would be very rare though to go to that stage and then decide to pull out. That is why it is really important to be sure you read reviews, meet your photographer, go through their style of work before choosing. It is a risk you will take, but a very valuable one if it means being sure of your photographer in the long run. Happy planning!
Thats a great question. I guess the first thing to do is to look at the prospective Photographers Images from other shoots and dicide if you like the particular style. If you like what you see and would like a similar style portrayed in your images then have a conversation with that Photographer. You may decide after the first conversation that you want to keep looking elsewhere. If not then the next step would be to meet with the Photographer. I would expect that after this process you will have a good idea regarding your dedision.
Its very important that you are able to feel comfortable with the Photographer that you have chosen.
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Here's the honest truth from our side of the camera: an engagement shoot isn't really a test you can fail, and you won't be wasting your money even in the worst case. By the time you book one, you've already done the real vetting by looking through full galleries, reading reviews and having a proper chat. The shoot itself is more about you getting comfortable in front of the lens and the two of you learning how we work together, so the odds of walking away thinking "nope, wrong photographer" are genuinely tiny.
If you want to judge a photographer without a shoot, ask to see a couple of complete galleries from start to finish, not just the five best frames off their Instagram. Anyone can post highlights. What you're looking for is consistency across a whole wedding, how they handle harsh Queensland midday sun, an overcast day, and a dim reception room, because that's the real test of skill. Ask who actually edits the photos too. Everything we shoot is edited in-house by us, so the look you fall in love with on their website is the look you'll actually get, not something handed off to an offshore editing house that may shoot for a different feel.
That said, I'd still gently make the case for doing one. A relaxed hour at somewhere beautiful like New Farm Park, Kangaroo Point or down our way around Sandstone Point in that soft late afternoon light tells you more than any meeting ever could. You find out whether we put you at ease, whether our direction feels natural, and you come away with images for your save the dates. If the unlikely happened and it didn't click, you'd have learned that months before the wedding, which is exactly when you'd want to know. That peace of mind is worth far more than the small cost.