You have chosen the date and the location, now it’s up to the photographer and you ask yourself: how much does a wedding photographer cost?
There are many spouses who come to the moment of choosing the photographer and ask themselves: how much does a wedding photographer cost? How much do you usually spend on a wedding service? Is there a base rate, or a guide to see if the prices are correct ? In this article I will try to explain fully why a photographer asks for a certain amount. Be careful because there are so many things to consider!
What does the photographer’s price do?
Let’s start by saying right away that unfortunately there is no register or institution or guideline to establish the rates of a photographer: everyone can do what they want, there is no regulation or protection. Consequently, as the market is completely free, very low and very high prices can be found. Speaking of numbers we can find proposals from seven hundred euros upwards, hypothetically without limit, but let’s say that professionals in vogue even reach over five thousand. But why this rate discrepancy you ask? How much does a regular wedding photographer cost ? Meanwhile, let’s try to understand what the photographer’s price does.
The first point that comes to us to consider is obviously inherent to the wedding day. So the price will depend on the number of hours, the distance of the wedding, the number of operators required. Some photographers, like me, have different packages based on the number of hours and they vary in case of afternoon or early risers weddings. Others have a unique all-inclusive option. Again there is no right or wrong: the type of clientele and the approach often change. Some photographers also include the album, others deliver via USB stick. Certainly if the wedding involves a major move, the costs of transport and accommodationthey will be expensive items. Often international photographers shoot all over the world and have to consider several days away. So how much does a wedding photographer cost?
Let’s now move on to another very important point: the selection and post production.
2. There are photographers who deliver four or five hundred photos for a ten to twelve hour wedding, others who deliver double the number. Some professionals hardly touch the shots out of the car: maybe they straighten them or fix the lights, fine. Others instead check each image scrupulously, retouch any disturbing elements such as sockets, cables, etc., arrange the lights to make the work homogeneous, try not to cut feet or hands and a thousand other things. Obviously in the first example the selection and processing of the wedding will be very very quick and in a couple of days we will have the wedding ready to be delivered. In the second case, the times are considerably longer. What changes is the care of the final product: in conclusion, the work will be done better. And to have a better job obviously it takes more hours of work and therefore obviously the final cost will be higher. Even processing a thousand photos will take more time than fixing a few hundred, and it is a fundamental factor in understanding how much a wedding photographer costs.
It seems to me necessary to underline that the wedding day is the tip of the iceberg of the photographer’s work, and that therefore the question “how much does a wedding photographer cost?” just based on the working hours of that day. As I explained, the hours of selection and post production are many more and vary from professional to professional. In any case, for any questions about how much a wedding photographer costs you can ask him / her. For sure he will answer you.
What other elements need to be considered?
3. “Secondary” but always very important elements are:
The equipment : a photographer must always be in step with the times with regard to cameras, lenses, but also post production software, album layout and many other things. This does not mean that every year he has to buy the latest model, but that his tools must allow him to get a great service and to do it safely, without the fear that the machine will break, or that the memory card you burn. For this you need to have a second machine in use, many memory cards and if possible a backup in the room (the photos will be saved in two cards at the same time). Obviously all these tools cost (a lot).
Here too we say that better tools = better work = higher cost.
The studio : the photographer who owns a photo studio costs more than the one who works from home. The management costs will be different and higher and even those will affect the total price of a service.
The filing of a marriage. I don’t think anyone would want to lose their wedding photos, right? So it is essential that the photographer has a valid archiving method in order not to risk losing files. A hard disk and a single copy are not enough, but you need to store in the cloud, maybe you need a NAS (Network Attached Storage), other hard disks, DVDs, etc. Every year there is a lot of money spent on archiving, but it has to be so in order to be reliable. Often, therefore, the extra money spent on the photographer will pay off for not having any thoughts or problems later on. So in the end the more who spends the less,and archiving has a lot to do with how much a wedding photographer costs.
Last but not least: the experience.
4. How many times have I heard future spouses say “I only need a few photos” or “mine will be a simple wedding”. I would like to remind you that the beauty of the photos depends on both the subjects and the means used, but also a lot, a lot from the photographer’s experience. Try handing the same camera to a professional with years of experience and to a non-professional, put them in front of the same scene and let them shoot. Then tell me if the result is the same.
What costs more, and the most sensible answer to how much a wedding photographer costs, are the years of practice, refresher courses, workshops, books, experience in the field. All elements that will make the difference, which will trigger in one place rather than another, at a certain time, in a certain position. Maybe a few photos are enough for you, but the photographer has studied for years to take those photos, so what you pay is not the quantity (although as mentioned above, obviously that too has a certain weight) but the quality. Like the story of the technician who has to fix a computer: it took him twenty years of experience to do that job in a few minutes. Likewise, the photographer took twenty years of experience to make such a beautiful picture.
I realize that I still haven’t answered your question “ How much does a wedding photographer cost? ”But I hope at least I have made you understand why they require certain figures. For how much, the answer is: it depends. Above all from you. It depends if you want a reliable professional or if you are satisfied, if you are looking for a service to be fully satisfied or that does not convince you… In USA a professional with years of experience and who knows what he is talking about will never offer you a quote for a thousand euros, obviously album excluded. This is simply because the market makes the price, and the rates among professionals of a certain caliber and experience are higher. You can evaluate all the proposals on those figures, but you know that they are probably photographers who have just started, or photographers perhaps linked to the past who tend not to manage the editing of photos in a “contemporary” way. Evaluate all these elements to understand how much a wedding photographer costs, and if it’s worth it!
So, even in photography, you won’t be able to have your cake and eat it too. You will have the service for which you have paid, simply, and consequently the care of the work, the advice, the reliability, the availability.
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