Stephen Hew Photography

This is a long overdue review. Stephen is an incredibly talented photographer. He took our engagement pictures many years ago which turned out better than the ones taken by our official wedding photographer. Since then, he has taken pictures of our kid’s birthday celebrations and the results were equally stunning. He has a great eye and is able to capture very special moments. He is very passionate about his craft and it clearly shows in his pictures. I would not hesitate for one second to get him as your photographer.

We used Stephen for our daughter’s second birthday. He was engaging, creative, friendly, generous with his time, reasonably priced and most importantly took amazing pictures! His site also makes it easy to download, order and share your pics. We’ll be using Stephen in the future!

We spent a long time looking around for a photographer to handle our very small wedding (18 people). Eventually we settled on Steven, and are very glad we did!
Our first experience with him was during our engagement session. He took us all around Golden Gate Park to some great, out-​of-​the-​way locations. We thought we knew the park pretty well, but he found some beautiful spots we had never seen before. As other reviewers have mentioned, all of his photos were consistently excellent. He was also very good at making us feel relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera. Within a week of shooting the photos, he had them processed and posted on his website for download.
We had the same great experience during the wedding itself. Stephen visited the venue in advance to scope out the place, and showed up early and ready to go on the actual day. Again, all of the photos turned out perfectly. I thought our venue would be challenging for a photographer, given the small spaces and awkward lighting, but he handled it easily. He was always there when you needed to grab a hold of him, but also very good at blending in so that you hardly noticed he was shooting photos. We have been to many weddings where the photographer is so busy snapping away during the ceremony that they are quite oblivious to how distracting they can be to the other guests. This was a big concern for us, given how small our wedding was. Stephen handled our group beautifully though. He processed our photos right away, and they were ready to look at before we even got back from our honeymoon!
We don’t think you can go wrong with Stephen and can’t recommend him highly enough. We are definitely going to use him again for a party we are having next summer!

I had a 200 person dinner party /​reception event to cover in April 2010 and wanted a photographer who will fit my budget, give me a quote as per my needs and then do the job well. I’m an amateur photographer myself but didn’t want to shoot the event so I can enjoy it instead. I put out a quote for some one who would simply cover the event for 3 hours and then hand me the original photos, without any processing or much filtering.
I contacted several photographers and Stephen’s quote was the best among all. The entire experience of dealing with him from start to finish was very professional and friendly. He showed up earlier than asked for and was dressed formally as to blend into the event. He has a pleasant demeanor, has gear which is top class, and he carried it without standing out too much. He shot several hundred photos during the 3 hours, using several lenses and a flash battery pack. Over 90% of the photos were keepers and I’m sure 100% would have been had he filtered and thrown out the ones where someone blinked or moved etc.
He put up the photos to view online within a day of the event and I was able to download them all directly from the website.
I will definitely recommend him to my friends and I feel I got a great value for the money from him.

I’m a fan of Stephen Hew Photography!
He’s got a great eye for picking up details and can turn ordinary environments into interesting backdrops. His photos… boring alleys look like hip urban streets, old building walls turn into rustic backgrounds… His easy going yet professional demeanor instantly puts you at ease which is a skill that I’ve come hard to find with portrait photographers. Not only does he have plenty of experience working with people and events but his work shows he’s got a knack for nature and landscape photography. Another plus!
One thing that I certainly appreciated was stephen’s sense for putting together well composed shots. I was amazed at how he can work with all kinds of lighting to make sure his subjects look the best they can (thanks!). I highly recommend Stephen and would certainly come to him again!

go stephen! stephen did our engagement and wedding photos — a huge responsibility — and he did an awesome job. he spent time getting to know our personalities and we spent the afternoon visiting various spots in san francisco — city hall, palace of fine arts, the ferry building — shooting tons of photos. he had a lot of clever ideas and was open to our cheesy ideas and my love for photos of us jumping.
during our wedding day he caught all of the prime moments while capturing the small stuff we missed and all of our friends and family (including my virtually impossible-​to-​please traditional asian family) complimented about how easy-​going, professional, and friendly he was.
afterward he promptly posted the photos for us and everyone was impressed by how they come out… my Unilocal picture is one of them! :)
a plus my husband loves is all the fancy lenses and cameras stephen uses — yay!

Stephen Hew took our engagement photos about a month ago. My fiancé and I are very shy people, so we thought it would be awkward having pictures taken of us. This wasn’t the case with Stephen! He made us feel at ease and was very professional. He gave us plenty of tips and was more than open to our suggestions.
We visited several different locations around Berkeley for our photos, which I really appreciated. We had a wide variety of backgrounds to choose from and they all looked great. I also liked that there was a good balance of portraits versus candid shots. I’ve seen collections by other photographers where the couple never looked directly at the camera or were always facing forward. It’s good to have a mix.
The quality of the photos were also great — we had many shots that didn’t need any editing. Stephen also got our photos in online albums right away so we could check them out. Overall, it was a very easy process and enjoyable experience, all thanks to Stephen. Probably the least stressful part of planning a wedding. I highly recommend Stephen! Check out his website, too. He’s done shoots in SF and actual weddings.
Thanks for everything Stephen!