Negotiating prices with a photographer

sandraann

Don't rule out traditional matted albums. Reportage albums in particular can be stunning. We've had such a demand for storybook that traditional albums get forgotten about.

northern_munky

I am a wedding photographer too and while I would never insist on being fed, if I am offered a meal then I will accept it. I photographed a wedding last month where the couple insisted I ate with the guests and I was even on the seating plan, had a lovely 3 course meal too. Someone suggested important shots would be missed if the photographer was eating a meal, that isn’t the case, no one wants photos of people eating with mouthfuls of food etc, I always stop shooting when they are eating.

As for handing over photos for the clients to edit themselves, I find that unbelievable, I don’t think any photographer worth their salt would do that. Why would anyone want a half finished job doing, it’d be like a painter and decorator painting half a room then leaving the paint and paint brushes and asking the customer to finish it off.

Good luck with your negotiations and just follow the advice above.

Lady_strange

wow, I think I need to start up a photography bussiness. My dad does wedding photos as a wedding gift for people, and the total cost of doing it, and making an album is around £50. That includes developing the photos.

My oh's dad is a photographer aswell, and if you have a true eye for photograhy, touching up pics will be minimal. They seem to be making a hell of alot of profit on the pics. Go to local colleges and see what the students can offer, because I bet half of them are better than these so called professionals

northern_munky

Can I just answer a couple of points you raised Lady_strange? Five hours at £375 isn’t just five hours work though. There’s the initial consultation with the couple, a trip to the church/wedding venue to check lighting, the best positions to stand, talk with the vicar/registrar about what photography is and isn’t acceptable etc. Reading and replying to emails to the couple, drawing up contracts etc.

Anybody taking photos of weddings, professional or amateur, should have public liability insurance and indemnity insurance, they should also be paying tax. What about back up equipment? What if a camera fails or something is dropped and broken, does the photographer then rely on a cheap compact camera or have they got another professional camera body and lens to fall back on? Professional equipment isn’t cheap and cameras wear out eventually.

As for photographs only needing minimal editing, that depends. It sounds like your dad shoots JPEG and lets the camera will do most of the editing for him, that’s fine to a point, but most professionals will shoot using something called RAW, which is like a digital negative. Every single photo will need editing, some 2 minutes, others 10 minutes or longer.

At my last wedding, I started shooting at 12.30pm and finished at 9.30pm plus the initial consultation, emails, trip to the church, 13 hours editing time (25 total hours labour) for £499 on a DVD only deal. You probably think that's a great money earner, but after tax, national insurance, PL and indemnity insurance plus all the other costs of running a business, hopefully you can see where the money goes.