Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? Photography is a big industry with a wide variety of styles and services available. Among the many are retail studios and specialty or boutique studios. Retails studios are either a standalone shop (usually a chain), or they might be part a large department store. Within specialty studios is another wide variety of offerings. These studios usually focus on a specialty such as formal in-studio portraits, outdoor portraits, beach portraits, etc. Specialty studios generally take fewer clients, and spend more time on each client.
The first question to be answered is “why am I looking for a photographer?”. Establishing how important the photographs are to you, and what you want to capture in the photographs will help you to determine who to hire. On the lower end, if you’re just looking for a quick and not so expensive portrait, stopping into the local mall may be sufficient. If you’re looking to capture a set of photos that tell a story about your family, and want a custom designed album or a custom framed wall portrait (either of which will are usually guaranteed for 100 years or more with proper care), then you may want to look at a specialty studio.
The next thing you’ll need to establish in order to find the kind of photographer you want is what you want to receive as a result of the photographer’s service. It sounds really obvious, but the more you know about what you want, the better you’ll be able to determine what kind 
of photographer you should be looking for in the first place. Even within the short list of photography services I describe here, there are a number of different styles and specialties available. If you decide that you would like a portrait session at a specific location and want a certain kind of print products, that will really narrow down the large field of photographers in your area.
One of the most common misunderstandings about specialty studios is that the prices are artificially high. Many make an apples to apples price comparison between a mall or department store studio and a specialty or boutique studio and it simply does not work. If the budget is lower, and you cannot identify a specific need for a specialty studio, then the mall or department store studio is the way to go. You will pay less overall, but the photographer will spend less time with you and the styles and backgrounds may be limited. It is a given that you will pay more for photography from a specialty studio. It should also be a given that the photographer will pay more personal attention to you before, during and even after your session. A specialty photographer will tend to invest time in a relationship with you, so that personalities and spirit are brought out in the final images. The personal touch, along with generally higher quality products will usually result in a better experience and end product. There are very good specialty studios that specialize in studio portraits. You can bet that these studios will differentiate themselves from the higher volume and lower cost retail studios with the skills and creative products they offer.
There are a number of different offerings out there for people who are looking for a photographer. All serve a purpose, and there is really no right or wrong about what they offer. It’s simply a matter of what is right or wrong for you. The more you know about what you want the easier it will be to find the photographer that best will serve your needs.
