Wedding photography

joolesw1972

We only want a photographer for about two hours & are meeting with two photographers who are charging between £190 & £250, both have said that they will do 2-2 & a half hours and give us all the photos & copyright - we'll make up our mind after meeting then, but were happy with the examples on their websites.

andygb

joolesw1972 wrote: »

We only want a photographer for about two hours & are meeting with two photographers who are charging between £190 & £250, both have said that they will do 2-2 & a half hours and give us all the photos & copyright - we'll make up our mind after meeting then, but were happy with the examples on their websites.

That actually sounds reasonable for two and a half hours, because as they are giving you the disc and the copyright, then their job is finished and they do not need to give you any prints (or are a certain number of prints included?).
Are they doing the wedding ceremony and reception, because two and a half hours is quite a tight schedule.

aimee21j

Ou photographer charged us £500 for bridal preparations, ceremony and some of the reception. We also had a pre-wedding photo shoot. She is providing a lovely album, a DVD and a CD with permission (a license) to re print photos. We booked her last year ad her price has gone up since she became professional. She has a lot of recommendations from users on various wedding forums. You might want to be an advertiser on a very active wedding internet site such as wedding ideas.

Good luck!

Bob_the_Saver

As an ex-professional photographer (didn't/don't do weddings so have no axe to grind) I can tell you it's not as easy as it looks. It's the couple's -and their parent's- biggest day and they will be hyper critical and expect only the very best no matter what you charge. Look in the window of PROFESSIONAL wedding photographers and be sure you can deliver the same. Anyone with a half decent digital camera can get a photo in focus and well exposed but there is a lot more to it than that. Wedding photography is a creative art.
One other thing, imagine a 'standard' Church wedding, you usually have at most 30
mins to do the photo's (whatever the weather) before the next wedding of before everyone gets totally bored.
Chances are that means one photo every 45 seconds, finding the Brides family, finding the Granny with the zimmer frame, posing the next shot etc etc.
If they just want snaps their mates can do it for free.
There were damn good reasons I didn't do weddings.
Good luck but be careful, Don't jump in at the deep end.

andygb

aimee21j wrote: »

Ou photographer charged us £500 for bridal preparations, ceremony and some of the reception. We also had a pre-wedding photo shoot. She is providing a lovely album, a DVD and a CD with permission (a license) to re print photos. We booked her last year ad her price has gone up since she became professional. She has a lot of recommendations from users on various wedding forums. You might want to be an advertiser on a very active wedding internet site such as wedding ideas.

Good luck!

Thanks Aimee, that is just the kind of information I was looking for, and that seems a fair price for the work. I have seen a lot of comments from pro photographers, who refuse to give a CD away, although to be fair, they could be at the top end of the market.

andygb

Bob_the_Saver wrote: »

As an ex-professional photographer (didn't/don't do weddings so have no axe to grind) I can tell you it's not as easy as it looks. It's the couple's -and their parent's- biggest day and they will be hyper critical and expect only the very best no matter what you charge. Look in the window of PROFESSIONAL wedding photographers and be sure you can deliver the same. Anyone with a half decent digital camera can get a photo in focus and well exposed but there is a lot more to it than that. Wedding photography is a creative art.
One other thing, imagine a 'standard' Church wedding, you usually have at most 30
mins to do the photo's (whatever the weather) before the next wedding of before everyone gets totally bored.
Chances are that means one photo every 45 seconds, finding the Brides family, finding the Granny with the zimmer frame, posing the next shot etc etc.
If they just want snaps their mates can do it for free.
There were damn good reasons I didn't do weddings.
Good luck but be careful, Don't jump in at the deep end.

Thanks Bob, I am under no illusions about how difficult and stressful it will be, I do take a pride in my work, and certainly do not want to mess up the day. As you say, any snapper can take a picture with a high end DSLR, but how many will simply leave it on auto? I was thinking around the 200 image mark for the ceremony, reception and possibly the bride leaving for the church.
I have even had someone say to me - "Well nowadays with digital you can take the photos at the church, and have them ready for the couple to look at in the reception". Well of course, you could do that, and of course the couple could use any old car for the wedding, and they could have MaccyDs at the reception, washed down with Blue Nun.

Bob_the_Saver

Best wedding advice is to get married as early as possible in the morning, then if
it doesn't work out at least you haven't wasted the whole day.

omeyas

Don't want to sound negative, but nowadays everyone that has a DSLR fancies himself as a wedding tog. I have done two lately for relatives, neither wanted to hire an official photographer, they were going to put an album together from the efforts of friends. And they aren't short of money, they just don't like the formal stuff. More and more people are favouring "reportage" style over the normal formal shots. You'll need to be able to put together DVD's, photo albums together, it's all very time consuming, a very steep learning curve if you are not already up to speed. And unless you have something special to offer, you'll find yourself fighting with "weekend warriors" to get work. I have turned down six weddings, it's a job I'd hate to do, but if you fancy your chances, give it go. Tells us when you have made your first million.
You could do worse than look at the forums at ephotozine.(it won't let me do links!) Do a search for "weddings", there are loads of wannabe wedding togs there, and pros.

Dr_DiNg_DoNg

andy , my advice 5 or 6 years back would have been to work on your business model , advertising , price structure, sales methods etc etc etc, but now its all changed a great deal.

All you need now is a normal website that shows up on a google search for your area.

What this means is its become about standard of photography again, brides can compare sites , view 10 or more in an hour. Basically you will be in one of two camps , a talented photographer with an up to date style, whose work will sell itself and people will happily pay decent money for you, your diary will be full. Alternatively you will be fighting it out with the rest, same price bracket , same packages, lots of registry office work etc etc etc.

So concentrate on the photography , anyone with basic skills can photograph a wedding in an average manner for £500, and believe me thousands do, to be in the top 10% demands a huge commitment, practise, constantly updating your styles and a great deal of work.

aimee21j

andygb wrote: »

Thanks Aimee, that is just the kind of information I was looking for, and that seems a fair price for the work. I have seen a lot of comments from pro photographers, who refuse to give a CD away, although to be fair, they could be at the top end of the market.

I think that price is a fair price to start. On a different wedding form (youandyourwedding) there is a huge list of all the sub £500 photographers so if you offer a package that is less than £500 you could be included in that. I will stress that the lady we are using has been very flexible as she lives locally to us. As she has low overheads involved with travelling, she has upgraded the package. I do however think it is important to offer a license to re print (you still hold the copyright) as a lot of brides I have spoken to rule out photographers that don't offer this.

Something very important to add: More important thanthe price was the service. I needed to know that my photographer held public liability insurance and there would be a back up photographer if she happened to be unavailable to work. Flexibility was very attractive and she was happy to put together a package to suit us and our budget.