Photography - Opinions needed!

alipops1986

Hello!



Now, being a moneysavingexpert, I found an offer with a local photographer via groupon for: 5hrs photography, 20 x 9x6 prints, DVD slide show, online gallery & purchase gallery.


So, I emailed to enquire etc, and thought we'd need a few more hours so even though the deal is now suppose to have ended he's willing to honour it and upgrade it to high resolution pictures for free, plus 3 extra hours would be a grand total of £480.


Originally, we thought we'd have a bloke at work take them as he does photography on the side, but he did "mates rates" which came in at £600!! So, to now have found a professional photographer which comes in £120 cheaper than him, we're thinking it maybe best to choose the professional plus he done heaps of weddings which are shown on his website.

Also, at the wedding fayres i've been to, photography comes in around 1000-1200 quid for the days worth, with a few prints.



The only snag if you like, is the said professional is asking for £250 deposit, in the next 7 days to secure the deal. So, if we want to go ahead we're tempted to bargain about the deposit as it's not until 2013, so surely a deposit of say £100-£150 is enough for now, then pay the rest in say 6 mnths? Do you think we could get anywhere with this?


I have purchased wedding insurance, so if anything happened we could claim through the insurance, ie - if he was no longer trading or something.



Thanks,
Alipops x

nearlyrich

With wedding photography you usually get what you pay for, you are not just paying for someone to turn up and point a camera at you, before you make a quick decision have a good look around at various wedding photographers websites, meet a few photographers have a chat about what you want from your pictures.

Paying a lot doesn't mean you will get the best shots and even a chimp with a point and shoot might get good pics but someone with experience of posing brides and understands how to make your wedding look amazing is well worth spending some time on.

I am not a wedding photographer but I have friends who are some charge £500 a wedding and one charges about £20k they are both as busy as they want to be.

MaggieBaking

alipops1986 wrote: »

Originally, we thought we'd have a bloke at work take them as he does photography on the side, but he did "mates rates" which came in at £600!!

:eek: !!

Crikey, I wouldn't be doing him any favours!!!

In answer to your question, I think that sounds like an alright deal. But personally, I wouldn't consider any photographer who wouldn't give the images on CD. There are still lots of photographers who don't, but I really wanted to have the copies to have for myself - will have them for years and will no doubt still be using them in years too.

As long as the photographer does your "style" (ie - what look you want to go for) and you're happy with the price of future prints etc.

I don't think it's a really great bargain - but if you really want him I'd book him now, a photographer and venue were the first things I booked. (Our photographer was £250).

Jewelleryfan

We had a similar problem picking a photographer. One was going to charge £1400 with a simple album included, one was £700 with a photobook and the others we have met we didn't like their style or they were too expensive.
As we have cut back our budget we have decided to go for a disc only package and to make our own album. He works with his wife and will cover from bridal prep to the evening and include everything edited on disc with special effects and a DVD slide show to music. This package is £299, we have seen his images and he has the style and look we wanted so we are probably going to book him.

trying_2_b_good

Can you print from the DVD? If not, then you need to ask for a CD. Our photographer took 1168 photographs - and we could only choose 70 for the album! That was hard enough - but only 20 pictures sounds really low and will be difficult to choose. Looks like he makes his money making you pay for all the pictures via his online gallery?

I'd take the quote to your mate and ask him if he can match it/what he thinks about the guy.

sugarwalsh

Personally I would be suspicious. Why is his price so low, why is he having to use Groupon to attract cutomers? Any good wedding photographer wouldn't have to do such deals in my opinion, their work alone should attract further brides etc. Why is he booking at this price for almost 2 years away? To me that also sounds wrong. Sorry - it just doesn't add up to me.

We have a friend dong it (Well, she has become a friend after photographing a mutual friends wedding). She will cover from morning - first dance, we will get a full disc of all the edited pictures so we can do what we want with them for £500. I am also feeding her and as she is driving from Birmingham area she is stopping at my house the night before and the night of the wedding! (I'm fairly sure she will take some pics the night before and have a chance to meet all the 'important' people to photograph!) I love her style of photography and I am very haoppy to pay £500 for her services.

Try not to look at your photographer as something to save money on - find some that you really like their style and then go from there. Style and quality will differ hugely and as it will be the most permenant record of your day make sure you get it right.

Megan

floss2

Don't forget to factor in the cost of making up your album - they are not cheap!

alipops1986

Thanks all, I'm still a little unsure and only have until Wednesday to make a final decision. I've scoured the online photos on the website and they look good. Also, i did forget to mention that 100 photos on DVD are included in the offer aswell.

I'm just concerned that if we miss out on this offer then we might end up paying alot more, which I know maybe worth it but our budget is stretched as it is so any moneysaving elements are helpful!

wanchai_2

How important are the photos to YOU? To us, they are the most important part of the day. We have chosen our photographer with this in mind - the style suits us down to the ground, her work is amazing. We are not paying top dollar but neither is it exactly cheap. But we want beautiful lasting memories of the day and we are delighted with our photographer.

Good luck

trying_2_b_good

alipops1986 wrote: »

Thanks all, I'm still a little unsure and only have until Wednesday to make a final decision. I've scoured the online photos on the website and they look good. Also, i did forget to mention that 100 photos on DVD are included in the offer aswell.
QUOTE]

Does the DVD have full copyright and can you print full resolution photos from them (not monitor resolution)? If the answer to either of these is no, I wouldn't hire him.

lovecake

I kinda think you get what you pay for in terms of photographers. We are paying just over £800 for about 10 hours of photography on the day from morning prep right through to the dancing at night. We get a high resolution CD with all the images from the day (all edited and retouched) and we also had a complimentary engagement shoot which lasted for 2hrs so we had a chance to get to know the photographer and feel a bit more confident in front of the camera and we get a high res CD from that shoot with about 80-100 shots. We can add on an album for a bit more cash when we decide what we want.

I think if someone is spending about 10hours on the day and then at least a full day editing afterwards, it would have to cost a good few hundred. If you break it down into an hourly rate and think about all the time they'd need to spend on the day and then editing it makes sense that packages are around the £1000 mark or the photographer would be doing themselves out of money. That's the way I look at it anyway...