Wedding photographer - ouch!

bambam

Was talking to a cousin who recently got married. The stuff she was telling me about the photographer was shocking and wanted to check if its "normal".

€2600 for Album of 24 photos and a wedding video.
What gets me is that she gets no digital copies of the 24 or any of the 200 taken on the day. All she has been given is a cd rom with a .exe slideshow to use in choosing the 24 photos for the album. This slideshow is of 200 numbered photos with no pause facility! So obviously not easy to use for picking (or printing from).

Is this standard behaviour?

MojoMaker

That's complete crap. Christ almighty the bollocks some birds will swallow when it comes to their "special day". Any of the larger photo shops can do you a package on the day which includes photographer for the church and reception and an album of 100 photos for a fifth of that price.

bambam

another thing I meant to mention was that he told her she could keep the proofs. She understood this to mean prints, but actually all she is getting is a slideshow .exe of images.

By the way, can anyone tell me what size a proof is normally?

formatman

She should ask for the negatives for that price , otherwise the photographer can charge hugh amounts for each reprint

If she wants the photos on a DVD with/without music at a reasonable cost
PM me

rymus

looks like some photographer out there is trying desperatly to make the cost of his equipment back without offering much of a service.

if that's the best offer she got after checking out photographers then theres something seriously wrong with the market. If she only got quotes from one, theres something seriously wrong with her.

Beats

MojoMaker wrote:

That's complete crap. Christ almighty the bollocks some birds will swallow when it comes to their "special day". Any of the larger photo shops can do you a package on the day which includes photographer for the church and reception and an album of 100 photos for a fifth of that price.

A fifth of 2600 is € 520. No chance. A basic album alone to the photographer will cost from € 200 before prints, inlays, or post production time is costed. I'd like to know which " photo shops " ? are providing the package you refer to, because I doubt they'll be in business for long. I also note that this price included a video.

The photographer should have included details on whetheir proofs were in hard copy form or not. Proofs may be contact prints which show a selection of images on an A4 size page or supplied in CD format. To be honest a slide show that's not navigable doesn't sound too user friendly. They may also be in 6 x 4 print size. It's important to clarify any details in advance so you know what you are getting.

Before booking a photographer, you should request full details of the Wedding package being provided. Ask for a written quote which includes the price details, service being provided, and any additional costs which may lie outside the quote, such as re-prints etc. Query anything you are not certain about.

Some photographers, do offer to supply digital files which enable the couple to get ther own prints done. Expect to pay for this option. This may be offered as part of overall package. Photographers can be reluctant to offer this, as it removes possiblity of re-prints and they lose control of what may subsequently happen to the photographs.

There is an assumption that anyone can shoot a Wedding digitally, and that the costs for photographers have being greatly reduced as there are no film and developent expenses. However the cost of equipment at the professional end is very high, the photographer may shoot many hundreds of images, which need to be edited, proofed, colour managed, manipulated, uploaded to a website, printed and archived. Digital photography enables the photographer to be more involved in the design and post production of album, but this does result in an increase in the overall workload.

Although she sounds unhappy that these details were not explained, I would ask whetheir they were happy with the overall product. Do they like the photographs and video produced ?

DotOrg

when you hire a photographer you are buying the rights to use the images, not to own the negs or the original files. If I do a shoot and of course some shots will turn out bad, I do not want anybody seeing them or printing them as it will damage my reputation and lose me business.

If the wedding photographer gave hi res image files on CD, the customer could get them printed anywhere in any crappy little photolab who wouldn't care about the quality.

As regards the price, you are paying for the quality and experience of the photographer. A photographer might only do one wedding in the week, after paying for equipment, time, post production work, admin costs, transport, insurance, advertising you'll find that photographers don't actually make all that much money

bambam

fair points, thanks folks.