List of photographers for less than £500!

sammiebmouse

Hi,

Just on the off-chance- does anyone know of reasonable photographer in southern Ireland-our wedding is just over 13weeks away and all quotes are £1400+ so far:eek:

Thanks in advance x

Tigerlilley1980

Please can I add the photographer I used for my wedding.

http://www.pictureustudio.com/

They are based in Carlisle and very professional indeed. I just got my wedding pics back and they are fabulous. We went for the £440 package and got back 500 images on CD, I'm just choosing some for printing to go in an album, which is included in the price aswell. Definitely worth it and I would recommend them to anyone.

isofa

Terrifying, I'd not shoot anyone's wedding for £500, ever. And I know no colleagues who would do the same.

I have considerable experience in this area. A wedding takes skill, time and effort; I often work 7-10 days on the images afterwards, reviewing, short listing, and converting the RAW files, as most top end pros do. I'd not get out of bed for 500!
Let alone meeting the B+G before hand, reviewing the venue, lighting, grounds etc. A lot of groundwork.

Pay peanuts: get monkeys. People seem unable to measure quality. This is your wedding day!

Incidentally I'm getting married get year, and we are spending between £1500 on the photographer time alone plus extras, as I've been told I'm not allowed to shoot the day myself . You'll never repeat your big day. Certainly not an area I'd skimp on, considering we want beautiful photographs and memories.

Walk away from anyone offering their photos copyright free too, no true professional would ever do this. I've seen some truly appalling wedding photography, from when training people in digital darkroom methods and also when we've been to wedding fairs as a B+G to be!

Just reading this thread should be enough to make you rethink: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2115693 terrible.

phantom_zone

Well said isofa...

people don't seem to realise that the wedding day isn't half the work involved!

Remember you can only do this once folks...its one of the reasons we have 2 shooters at any wedding we do!

frannyann

Whilst I respect your views, as a photographer, isofa. Cheap is not always poor. I mentioned my photographer on here, because it was the one thing we were going to miss out due to the high cost, (our budget of £3500 could not cope with a £1k photographer) However I put them on this thread because they were willing to trim their package to fit our budget. They were also local to our little town and I felt so comfortable with them, we actually were invited to their house, they work from home and they were happy to spend over an hour just showing us pictures, the cameras and the albums we could buy etc etc.
As we've seen in the news, you can spend over £1k and end up with rubbish or spend little and end up with amazing pictures. The upshot of this ramble is 'Do your homework, get recommendations and view their work' Your advice on another thread about type of files they use was VERY helpful, and make me understand the RAW thing ours mentioned!

BTW, I get out of bed for less than £500 per week, but I only work as a nurse :rolleyes: ETA, in a narky mood, bad day at work!!

isofa

frannyann wrote: »

Whilst I respect your views, as a photographer, isofa. Cheap is not always poor. I mentioned my photographer on here, because it was the one thing we were going to miss out due to the high cost, (our budget of £3500 could not cope with a £1k photographer) However I put them on this thread because they were willing to trim their package to fit our budget. They were also local to our little town and I felt so comfortable with them, we actually were invited to their house, they work from home and they were happy to spend over an hour just showing us pictures, the cameras and the albums we could buy etc etc.
As we've seen in the news, you can spend over £1k and end up with rubbish or spend little and end up with amazing pictures. The upshot of this ramble is 'Do your homework, get recommendations and view their work' Your advice on another thread about type of files they use was VERY helpful, and make me understand the RAW thing ours mentioned!

BTW, I get out of bed for less than £500 per week, but I only work as a nurse :rolleyes: ETA, in a narky mood, bad day at work!!

£500 for 10 days work, including the cost of an album, is virtually the same as a starting nurses basic pay! Still I'm wholeheartedly with you that nurses are grossly underpaid.

However, everyone is different, and my get of out bed line was tongue in cheek!

No true professional (who has studied for years, pays hundreds for professional memberships, more on insurance, many thousands on equipment,) is going to charge £500 for 7 to 10 days of his time. If he is, he might as well go and work in Tescos on the checkouts, as after expenses, he'll be earning more.

Say you spent 10 days on each wedding, excluding the cost of albums (which many offer as a deal package) that's just 18K a year, and of that a pro is likely to spend several thousand keeping his gear up to date, camera bodies, computer hardware, software, you can easily spend 3 to 5K a year. The cost of printing a quality album can be anything from 150+ bespoke leather can be 300+ cost price.

If you are happy with a photographer, have had a recommendation and like their work then go for it. Some people like traditional styles, others modern and reportage, each to their own. But quality always comes at a price, and there is good reason for that.

StuartWalker

isofa wrote: »

£500 for 10 days work, including the cost of an album, is virtually the same as a starting nurses basic pay! Still I'm wholeheartedly with you that nurses are grossly underpaid.

However, everyone is different, and my get of out bed line was tongue in cheek!

No true professional (who has studied for years, pays hundreds for professional memberships, more on insurance, many thousands on equipment,) is going to charge £500 for 7 to 10 days of his time. If he is, he might as well go and work in Tescos on the checkouts, as after expenses, he'll be earning more.

Say you spent 10 days on each wedding, excluding the cost of albums (which many offer as a deal package) that's just 18K a year, and of that a pro is likely to spend several thousand keeping his gear up to date, camera bodies, computer hardware, software, you can easily spend 3 to 5K a year. The cost of printing a quality album can be anything from 150+ bespoke leather can be 300+ cost price.

If you are happy with a photographer, have had a recommendation and like their work then go for it. Some people like traditional styles, others modern and reportage, each to their own. But quality always comes at a price, and there is good reason for that.

Ten days for each wedding? I think you need to improve your workflow! So, I guess you are right.. I wouldn't charge less than £500 if it took me that long! I also agree that I could make more money per hour working in Tesco, but I don't equate job satisfaction simply with money. When a couple books me as their wedding photographer, I am there because I love what I do.. not because I see them as a 'cash cow'.

While I agree that there is a large number of unskilled "photographers" flooding the budget wedding photography market, it simply is not true that you need to spend more than £500 in order to book a good professional. In fact, because so many couples are very budget minded nowadays it is even more important that they have the option of a qualified photographer instead of "Uncle Bob" with his shiny new camera.

You seem to be assuming that all wedding photographers follow your business model. I saw a need for low cost professional wedding photography and am successfully catering for that market. Our most popular package is called "Essentials" and covers exactly that. It is three hours coverage and the standard price is well below £500. Read some of the recommendations for other photographers on this thread and you can see that it is possible to get a photographer you are happy with in that price range. Of course, the more coverage and products you want the more it will cost - but not everyone wants full day coverage or an expensive album (which can always be produced in the future anyway). We don't ask clients to choose an album until they are ready and our coffee-table books are a popular alternative to more expensive albums. We also offer special deals for 'off season' and 'short notice' bookings.

As for quality, that is for a client to judge based on a representative sample of the photographer's work. We advise potential clients to ensure they see at least one completed album from a whole wedding, rather than looking just at the photographer's chosen portfolio.

With that in mind, everyone feel free to have a look at my portfolio on our site (sorry, not allowed to post a link but Google Stuart Walker Photography and you will find it).

I am also happy to give impartial advice to couples about wedding photography even if they have no intention of booking with us. I regularly recommend other photographers in Scotland if I am not available for a particular date.

frannyann

isofa wrote: »

.

However, everyone is different, and my get of out bed line was tongue in cheek!

I realised that, hence the ETA bit about being narky!

hayleythedaisy

Found this on that list http://www.takemypiccy.com/natural-weddings.htm

Looked at the Full day from bridal preps to first dance bit - and to be honest it's put me off the bridal prep piccys. Anyone have anything to contradict this?

ians5

hayleythedaisy ... I agree that bridal prep photos can end up being a bit 'too fly on the wall' but done properly can give lovely results. I have sent you a PM to explain ....... Ian