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Wedding photography pricing
By Rob | October 18, 2007
You get what you pay for….
Wedding photography pricing is a very complex subject and so I feel I should explain it further. As a wedding photographer I am a serviced based business. Basically I’m hired to perform a service at a later date that follows the guidelines of an agreement/contract. It’s not like I’m selling handbags on the corner of NYC. If you feel that my product is over priced….you go to the next block to save a couple dollars. Services are a lot harder to compare…as I’m sure you already know if you have been searching other wedding photographers’ websites. This guys offer this….and charges for that……and includes these! There are many aspects that affect wedding photography pricing like experience, location, overhead, quantity of annual weddings, quality of wedding pictures, demand and many other things! For example, a 20 year San Francisco wedding photographer that only shoots 10 wedding a years….may charge 15k+ for a complete package. This photographer will have the time to work with you to make sure all your expectations are met. On the other hand, a shoot and burn photographer who lives in the suburbs might shoot part-time and have 60+ weddings a year at 2k and just hands over the DVD with digital negatives. So it really depends on what type of experience you’d like and what your budget can handle. Besides that there are two main pricing concepts in the wedding photography world.
First is the “Shoot to sell pricing” which has been around for many many years. This type of wedding photographer usually charges a lower price up front and then depends on prints and album sales to make more money after the wedding. Now think about it this way, this type of photographer will show up and shoot with the mind set of making more money. The photographer will be thinking, “that won’t sell…..so I’m not going to waste my time shooting it!” Yes….I’ve heard this many times before by some of those “Shoot to sell” photographers.
Second is the “Stylish/Artistic pricing” which is fairly new. This type of photographer has a specific uniqueness and style to their images. We will charge more to document the wedding day the way we see it unfold. Our way of shooting it not structured by safe/marketable images. There are no boundaries or limitations to what and how we shoot your wedding day! This allows us to shoot for the bride and groom…not big sales. When we shoot we don’t think, “Oh this picture will sell like hotcakes and that will look awesome in their album!” Click click click!
So the main questions you should be asking in your search for a wedding photographer are:
- What’s more important when choosing a wedding photographer; unique style or great price?
- Do I want my photographer to shoot for us or shoot for big print sales?
- Do I want my wedding photographer to JUST show up on my wedding day or do I want the full wedding photography experience?
- Can I get along with this photographer for 8+ hours?
My couples hire me because they want something different. Recently I conducted a survey to help me understand why my past and current couples book me to hang out on their wedding day. The results told me the #1 reason my couples chose me was because of my style of photography, #2 was my personality and #3 was price…and most spent more then their original photography budget!!!
Hopefully this has helped clear up some confusion with your wedding photographer search.
~Rob
Topics: Wedding photography |
November 28th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
Your photos take my breathe away and are so unusual I would put anyones photos that I don’t even know on my wall. Your website is so refreshing to just watch ~~I now have you in my favorites. Have you thought of putting a book together…
April 4th, 2008 at 1:40 am
I am also a wedding photographer in the Boston area. This was very well said and exactly what we have tried to explain over and over and over again to Brides who want it all but doesn’t understand the cost of what it takes to be this type of photographer. Its like trying to find a one of a kind designer dress at Walmart. Your photos are an inspiration and good luck with this upcoming wedding season.