Photographer pricing

VinLieger · 15-11-2015 09:31PM #1

Okay so I know that the simple fact of putting wedding in front of something means the price is gonna be way more than what it should be but more than anything else im yet to experience in this process wedding photographers are just taking the piss.

All we want is the digital images, no album video etc and the standard for that is €1000....... this is just insane to me and I cant wrap my head around this other than the photgraphers are being greedy opurtunistic fvcks. Am I wrong that this is beyond ridiculous even for wedding stuff? what am i missing here beyond the standard gouging that anything to do with weddings causes?

Black_Knight · 15-11-2015 11:16PM

VinLieger wrote: »

Okay so I know that the simple fact of putting wedding in front of something means the price is gonna be way more than what it should be but more than anything else im yet to experience in this process wedding photographers are just taking the piss.

All we want is the digital images, no album video etc and the standard for that is €1000....... this is just insane to me and I cant wrap my head around this other than the photgraphers are being greedy opurtunistic fvcks. Am I wrong that this is beyond ridiculous even for wedding stuff? what am i missing here beyond the standard gouging that anything to do with weddings causes?

€1000 sounds cheap to me tbh. There's a nice bit of expense aside from taking snaps on the day.

At the very least, you're paying them for their travel, time and service. It's at least a full days work just photographing (9-5) from getting ready to speeches. After all is done they would have 800+ photographs which needs to be reduced down to a more manageable number and each of those remaining photographs post processed.

Aside from the day to day costs, they've equipment, car (higher mileage and insurance) and insurance. to pay for. That said, the photographer we've booked seems to have a nice lifestyle #pureJealousy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gimiDBAK2wA

VinLieger · 16-11-2015 09:35AM

Black_Knight wrote: »

€1000 sounds cheap to me tbh. There's a nice bit of expense aside from taking snaps on the day.

At the very least, you're paying them for their travel, time and service. It's at least a full days work just photographing (9-5) from getting ready to speeches. After all is done they would have 800+ photographs which needs to be reduced down to a more manageable number and each of those remaining photographs post processed.

Aside from the day to day costs, they've equipment, car (higher mileage and insurance) and insurance. to pay for. That said, the photographer we've booked seems to have a nice lifestyle #pureJealousy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gimiDBAK2wA

Thats the thing though we wouldnt require them till maybe 1 at the earliest as its gonna be a late enough ceremony, the venue is hardly in the back of beyonds and once the dinner is over, which would be 8 at the latest we really arent fussed about having them around yet none of them are willing to negotiate with us about the price when what we are looking for as far as labour is concerned is below the average wedding requirements.

Also the man stroke women sketches are turning out to be a lot less comedy and more reality

bigpink · 16-11-2015 09:43AM

Price a corpate event or a party out of interest

twin_beacon · 16-11-2015 09:56AM

VinLieger wrote: »

Okay so I know that the simple fact of putting wedding in front of something means the price is gonna be way more than what it should be but more than anything else im yet to experience in this process wedding photographers are just taking the piss.

All we want is the digital images, no album video etc and the standard for that is €1000....... this is just insane to me and I cant wrap my head around this other than the photgraphers are being greedy opurtunistic fvcks. Am I wrong that this is beyond ridiculous even for wedding stuff? what am i missing here beyond the standard gouging that anything to do with weddings causes?

what would you think would be a fair price?
Photographers don't just arrive when photos need to be taken, use a point and click camera, and hand over the memory card when they leave. The cameras and lenses they use are very expensive. Individual lenses alone cost up to a few grand. The photos that get handed over to you will only be a fraction of the photos that get taken, and may be edited for the best results, this takes time. They are not being opportunistic with their prices, good wedding photographers (and wedding bands) and not cheap, but you get what you pay for.

bigpink wrote: »

Price a corpate event or a party out of interest

not the same, as you want the Photographer to be at the church to get people arriving, and remain until after the first dance, which could be 9 hours later. Parties or corporate events don't last as long. A Photographer could attend a corporate in the afternoon, and cover a party the same evening.

bigpink · 16-11-2015 10:04AM

Could ask them for just 2 hours or whatever time you wanted

VinLieger · 16-11-2015 10:06AM

bigpink wrote: »

Could ask them for just 2 hours or whatever time you wanted

As I said none who we contacted were willing to negotiate

Black_Knight · 16-11-2015 10:15AM

VinLieger wrote: »

As I said none who we contacted were willing to negotiate

Couldn't imagine it being worth a photographers while for just 2 hours. Cheapening out on the price could be a bit insulting to photographers, and if they were to drop their standards to meet your price it wouldn't reflect their ability.

Unless you can find an up and coming photographer who has only done 1 or 2 weddings. Might be able to save a few quid there.

VinLieger · 16-11-2015 10:21AM

Black_Knight wrote: »

Couldn't imagine it being worth a photographers while for just 2 hours. Cheapening out on the price could be a bit insulting to photographers, and if they were to drop their standards to meet your price it wouldn't reflect their ability.

Unless you can find an up and coming photographer who has only done 1 or 2 weddings. Might be able to save a few quid there.

Im not asking to cheap out on the price, simply for them to accommodate the fact we are asking them to do less than what would normally be asked as far as time is concerned so the price should reflect that

Also its not 2 hours, that was suggested by someone else, its more like 5-6 which should be plenty enough to be "worth their time" whatever that prima dona phrasing means

twin_beacon · 16-11-2015 10:29AM

VinLieger wrote: »

Im not asking to cheap out on the price, simply for them to accommodate the fact we are asking them to do less than what would normally be asked as far as time is concerned so the price should reflect that

Also its not 2 hours, that was suggested by someone else, its more like 5-6 which should be plenty enough to be "worth their time" whatever that prima dona phrasing means

If it was on short notice, then I would imagine they might consider doing this, if they are available on the date, and they probably are not going to get a booking. However, if the date is many months away, then it means they could have to turn down somebody else that is willing to pay more, or cancel your booking!

bronab2 · 16-11-2015 10:36AM

VinLieger wrote: »

Im not asking to cheap out on the price, simply for them to accommodate the fact we are asking them to do less than what would normally be asked as far as time is concerned so the price should reflect that

Also its not 2 hours, that was suggested by someone else, its more like 5-6 which should be plenty enough to be "worth their time" whatever that prima dona phrasing means

By doing the hours you need will mean they would not be able to do another job that day.
I do see where you are coming from though so have you considered if there are any camera clubs around your area that might have someone that is excellent and may do it at a price you want!

VinLieger · 16-11-2015 10:46AM

twin_beacon wrote: »

If it was on short notice, then I would imagine they might consider doing this, if they are available on the date, and they probably are not going to get a booking. However, if the date is many months away, then it means they could have to turn down somebody else that is willing to pay more, or cancel your booking!

bronab2 wrote: »

By doing the hours you need will mean they would not be able to do another job that day.
I do see where you are coming from though so have you considered if there are any camera clubs around your area that might have someone that is excellent and may do it at a price you want!

You take the work thats on offer at the time, if a better offer comes up after the fact, tough sh1t thats how business around the world works. The fact they feel comfortable doing this shows how broken the wedding vendor market is and imbalanced it is in favour of the vendor over the couple getting married

Ashbx · 16-11-2015 10:48AM

VinLieger wrote: »

Im not asking to cheap out on the price, simply for them to accommodate the fact we are asking them to do less than what would normally be asked as far as time is concerned so the price should reflect that

Also its not 2 hours, that was suggested by someone else, its more like 5-6 which should be plenty enough to be "worth their time" whatever that prima dona phrasing means

Like someone else said, they are not going to get another booking for the same day. So why would they do your 5 hour wedding for less money than something that they can focus their whole day on and with people who are willing to pay the full price?

They are entrepreneurs who are trying to make a living. If you don't want to pay that price you are going to have to find an alternative solution unfortunately.

Amz29 · 16-11-2015 10:55AM

Im a photography student and iv see the work that goes into post production.which can take hours. Not inc the actuall day of the event.
I hated my wedding photograpgs and wished maybe id gone with someone less formal and probably better pictures.
Someone suggested local camera club you might find someone who will do it half the price and thats a good idea as you may find soneone amazing who could do with the cash. It just depends on what your looking for. I like Candid pictures as opposed to very formal as i think you capture alot more. Hope you find what your looking for.

VinLieger · 16-11-2015 12:21PM

Amz29 wrote: »

Im a photography student and iv see the work that goes into post production.which can take hours. Not inc the actuall day of the event.
I hated my wedding photograpgs and wished maybe id gone with someone less formal and probably better pictures.
Someone suggested local camera club you might find someone who will do it half the price and thats a good idea as you may find soneone amazing who could do with the cash. It just depends on what your looking for. I like Candid pictures as opposed to very formal as i think you capture alot more. Hope you find what your looking for.

Thats exactly what we are looking for, the only posed pics we would be after the ceremony of the wedding party etc, everything else ideally would be candid and in the moment which is also proving difficult to find someone good at

DivineGranny · 16-11-2015 02:02PM

VinLieger - We used Aisling Martin for our wedding recently. When we booked her she was relatively new, but has since done plenty of weddings. She was lovely to work with, friendly and very professional. We just got our photos back recently and they're fantastic! Her website is aislingmartinphotography

Edit: I should mention that she is based in Dublin, and does not currently offer any packages with albums

stickybookmark · 16-11-2015 02:47PM

I had plenty of photographers willing to do cheap deals.....I see from one of the posts here the reason why though. I was looking for a date in June, and asking them in March. At that stage they probably thought they weren't going to get another booking. Moral of the story, wait til 1-2 months before your date and you'll probably find that those that haven't been booked will be willing to talk cheap deals

twin_beacon · 16-11-2015 04:50PM

VinLieger wrote: »

You take the work thats on offer at the time, if a better offer comes up after the fact, tough sh1t thats how business around the world works. The fact they feel comfortable doing this shows how broken the wedding vendor market is and imbalanced it is in favour of the vendor over the couple getting married

coming from a musicians point of view, never play for less than what you are worth, especially on the wedding scene where word of mouth gets you a lot of work. If you give a special price to one couple, then every couple that they recommend you to expects the same price, and thinks you are ripping them off if you dont. Same goes for photographers and camera men.
We have a set minimum price for pub/corporate/wedding gigs and we will not go under it.

bigpink · 16-11-2015 05:19PM

So could you book a band to play at an event for 2 hours in a hotel says its a party instead of a wedding

Bacchus · 16-11-2015 09:12PM

VinLieger wrote: »

You take the work thats on offer at the time, if a better offer comes up after the fact, tough sh1t thats how business around the world works. The fact they feel comfortable doing this shows how broken the wedding vendor market is and imbalanced it is in favour of the vendor over the couple getting married

Equally, you get what you pay for. You pay peanuts, you get peanuts. That is a fact, tough sh1t, that's how the business world works. Such a pity for you that professional photographers with 1000's of euro worth of equipment and a specialized skill set aren't so desperate to be grateful for the 2 hours of work at minimum wage you seem to think they should be working for.

Your best bet is to try and find a student or someone new to the game to do a deal for you. You could strike it lucky or have it blow up on you. It's the risk you take. For established pros, they are worth every penny.

Have a read of this (it's American but the same principles apply)... http://petapixel.com/2012/01/26/why-wedding-photographers-prices-are-wack/

VinLieger · 16-11-2015 09:49PM

Bacchus wrote: »

Equally, you get what you pay for. You pay peanuts, you get peanuts. That is a fact, tough sh1t, that's how the business world works. Such a pity for you that professional photographers with 1000's of euro worth of equipment and a specialized skill set aren't so desperate to be grateful for the 2 hours of work at minimum wage you seem to think they should be working for.

Your best bet is to try and find a student or someone new to the game to do a deal for you. You could strike it lucky or have it blow up on you. It's the risk you take. For established pros, they are worth every penny.

Have a read of this (it's American but the same principles apply)... http://petapixel.com/2012/01/26/why-wedding-photographers-prices-are-wack/

Yet again im not looking for 2 hours work but I suppose its easier to get up on your high horse than read whats been posted before

Bacchus · 16-11-2015 10:24PM

VinLieger wrote: »

Yet again im not looking for 2 hours work but I suppose its easier to get up on your high horse than read whats been posted before

Fair enough, 7 hours work. I took liberties with my post. Still though, I think you are being unrealistic (and unfair) to expect professionals with considerable expertise and expenses to lower themselves to accept whatever scraps they can get because you think that's how the world should work.

Surely it should be clear to you by virtue of the fact that you cannot get anyone decent for under €1k that this is the going (and fair) rate. As I said, you might strike lucky with a newcomer to wedding photography but if you want quality, you pay for it.

I get that you think it's a "short day", but to a photographer, that's potentially a full day's work if they can get another client that wants the full day. You will find that a lot of photographers will do different packages to suit different needs/budgets but it sounds like you either need to lower your standards or accept the going rate that is well earned.

westernlass · 17-11-2015 08:31AM

VinLieger wrote: »

You take the work thats on offer at the time, if a better offer comes up after the fact, tough sh1t thats how business around the world works. The fact they feel comfortable doing this shows how broken the wedding vendor market is and imbalanced it is in favour of the vendor over the couple getting married

That's not true. If you spend years of time and money and hard work building up your ability and reputation you don't have to take just any job. You wouldn't have the same problem with a nurse turning down a job in a cafe if she was offered a nursing job instead. I think you forget there's up to three weeks editing in a wedding also. So I'd you look at it that way they are earning possibly 250euro a week on your wedding when you take away travel costs. That's not 100% accurate but it makes the point.

You aren't being realistic in who you are approaching. Ireland has photographers who are sought after worldwide. We actually have some amazing value in our market as we are so small. In the states the top photographers charge 100k for a wedding, here the top I know of is 6.5k

twin_beacon · 17-11-2015 10:01AM

bigpink wrote: »

So could you book a band to play at an event for 2 hours in a hotel says its a party instead of a wedding

People do try this, and any band that falls for it are very inexperienced, If you rang me and said I have a party in a Hotel, first thing I would ask is what kind of party is it, birthday/anniversary/dinner dance..... and the format of the evening, what times do we play, is it a "turn up and play", or do we have to wait for meals to be over, and what size function room are we playing in, or is it the hotel bar. If we are asked to play in the bar of the hotel for 2 hours with no breaks, then they will get close to the pub rate, otherwise its the corporate rate.

Regular pub gigs are cheaper than any other gig as you just turn up, set up and play. There is no waiting around for speeches, or in some corporate gigs, they want you to be set up and sound checked before the meal.

Wabbit Ears · 17-11-2015 10:19AM

VinLieger wrote:

Thats exactly what we are looking for, the only posed pics we would be after the ceremony of the wedding party etc, everything else ideally would be candid and in the moment which is also proving difficult to find someone good at

On no, the dreaded 'I only want candid shots'

Candid shots are a nightmare. While a lot of posed shots will turn out stunning and end up in an album most candid shots will end up discarded. One in a hundred candid shots is worth post processing.

Thumpette · 17-11-2015 10:47AM

Curious about what you would consider a reasonable price OP?

I've seen plenty wedding photographers that charge 500 and in all cases I've seen it shows. (Photos taken on shoddy gear with either no or terrible post production)

A good photographer will probably have invested 5k + in gear and back up gear, will be fully insured, will plan for your wedding and check out the venue if possible in advance.

In the 7 hours you want them for they could take 2k + pictures and could spend a week or more selecting the right pictures and processing them to a professional standard.

Your 7 hours when added to 40 editing plus all the communications plus location scouting is suddenly 50 hours.

Even without taking out their expenses that's 20 an hour which seems cheap if anything to me.

If you genuinely don't care about the pics so long as you have some to frame for the day then I'd recommend getting a friend or someone interested from a camera club but just be aware of the risks of doing that. Hope you get sorted with a photographer and a price you are happy with.

Best of luck in all the planning ðŸ˜€

lazygal · 17-11-2015 10:55AM

We got our photographer at a good rate, but she was still building her portfolio and we were happy to go with her over more experience people. It takes a lot of work shooting a wedding, even candid shots for two hours. I've paid more for family shots to be done in an hour session than for what it cost for a CD/online gallery only for our wedding. There's a lot of work in post production, colour correcting, cropping etc.
I've posted before that my uncle has an amazing camera and my photographer said it was actually better than hers. When we got his photos we were delighted and had a moment of wondering why we'd paid for a professional. Then we got our online gallery, from which we ordered prints and a album. There is no comparing the quality of the photos from the professional-they are MILES better. I'd skimp on a lot of things, but photos aren't one of them. And it doesn't matter that you only want them for a couple of hours-if they can't get some other job to make up the rest of that day's work, its still a full day out of their week when they're committed to your wedding.

Bacchus · 17-11-2015 10:55AM

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

On no, the dreaded 'I only want candid shots'

Candid shots are a nightmare. While a lot of posed shots will turn out stunning and end up in an album most candid shots will end up discarded. One in a hundred candid shots is worth post processing.

Completely disagree. Some of the top wedding photographers (IMO) in Ireland take a candid/documentary approach to their photos. Our own photographer took this approach and picking JUST 140 photos to go into the album was a pain. We could easily have put in twice that and they were all candid photos.

I'm only a newcomer to wedding photography myself and my approach is to take candid shots as much as possible. I've had nothing but positive feedback so far. There are still plenty of people out there that prefer the more posed style of photo but you are wrong to say that only "One in a hundred candid shots is worth post processing"

Penny Dreadful · 17-11-2015 11:56AM

VinLieger wrote: »

Thats the thing though we wouldnt require them till maybe 1 at the earliest as its gonna be a late enough ceremony, the venue is hardly in the back of beyonds and once the dinner is over, which would be 8 at the latest we really arent fussed about having them around yet none of them are willing to negotiate with us about the price when what we are looking for as far as labour is concerned is below the average wedding requirements.

Also the man stroke women sketches are turning out to be a lot less comedy and more reality

1pm to 8pm is still a full day for them. Its not like they're going to be able to do two weddings or events that day.
We paid €1000 for our photographs (photographer left as soon as we sat down to dinner) - she did the pre wedding pictures of both my husband who was at our house and me who was at my parents house, the church part, after ceremony, pre dinner. That price included the digital pictures and an album. It was well worth the money.

twin_beacon · 17-11-2015 12:07PM

lazygal wrote: »

I've posted before that my uncle has an amazing camera and my photographer said it was actually better than hers. When we got his photos we were delighted and had a moment of wondering why we'd paid for a professional. Then we got our online gallery, from which we ordered prints and a album. There is no comparing the quality of the photos from the professional-they are MILES better. I'd skimp on a lot of things, but photos aren't one of them.

Totally agree. Having a good digital SLR is one thing, but being well able to use it, and most importantly, having an array of lenses for every situation is the difference between a photographer and the average camera user.

scobyobrien · 09-12-2015 09:00PM

VinLieger wrote: »

Yet again im not looking for 2 hours work but I suppose its easier to get up on your high horse than read whats been posted before

I am giving up my full time job to pursue a career in photography soon. I think for you and everybody to understand, you need to put yourself in the photographers shoes. You've spent up to at least 10k on camera gear to include probably two cameras(3,000 we will say) two high quality lenses (3,000) flash guns, tripods, triggers....etc (1,000), high spec computer to process and edit the pictures (not really needed, but every photographer wants one.....maybe 2,000) and that is just for starts.

You are paying for the experience of photographing your day, which will happen hopefully once in a life time. €1,000 is pretty good to be honest. What if their camera breaks, not your fault of course but accidents do happen, but luckily they have insurance. You can add that to the 10k. You do realise that they also have to pay themselves if they put it through the books of course. Knock 50% off the €1,000 for tax purposes if they are lucky to even pay themselves and now they are only earning €500. We all pay tax remember. Maybe they have included VAT in the price of the €1,000 too. So you can knock a bit more off for their take home pay. Don't forget that they might not have another job that month and oh look, their rent is due and he has to feed himself and put petrol in his car.

Being a photographer does not guarantee an income, waiting a month or two might save you a few bob, but a good photographer will know their worth and I certainly would not lower my price for anybody, if they knew that by leaving it at short notice, the bride and groom will save a few bob .I would rather turn my back on their cheap offer. Unless of course the photographer was sick or there was an emergency.

I think you need to get real. Are you going to ask the hotel where you have the reception can you have a discount as you will only be using the dining area for the meal for two hours and only on the dance floor when a certain song is played. You are 100% entitled to ask the question of course and I hope you don't think I am trying to have a go at you for this, but if you are after just a few pictures, then save yourself an awful lot of hassle and buy a camera yourself and ask somebody to take photos for one or two hours and that can be their wedding present to you for the work that they have done. Believe me, I have done secondary wedding albums for all my friends weddings and spent the whole day taking photographs for free. Hundreds and hundreds of hours have gone into it. Each and every single one of my friends were over the moon for all the photos that they got, they were delighted to have so many pictures. You will look back in years to come and still have all those memories and that is what you are paying for at the end of the day in my opinion.

People may or will disagree with what I am saying above, but this is what I want to get into full time. I am taking a huge risk in leaving a full time, paid every month, 9 - 5 job, to work hours people wouldn't dream of working, working weekends, working 7 days a week every week, not working, struggling to pay rent career. Why, because I love photography. That is my two cents on the matter

Photographer pricing

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