"I'm getting married and looking for a photographer, what are the best prices?"?

Question

There are TONS of companies and people and I don't know what to exactly look for? What prices are reasonable and what should be included? I'm looking to have them for about 8-10hrs. Only one is needed.

Answer 1

This depends greatly on your market, and what you're looking for. Your wedding photos will be the most lasting reminder of your special day, lasting long after the food, flowers, and decorations are gone. So I'd encourage you to think about photography as an important aspect of your budget. If you are looking for a bargain, I'd say that you should look at getting a quality photographer for less time, or a smaller initial package (fewer prints, album pages, etc) rather than rolling the dice in order to get more coverage or product.

FWIW, if you're getting married on a non-Saturday, some wedding photographers offer deals, since they can book a weeknight or Sunday wedding and still do a traditional Saturday wedding. Most wedding pros look at it as only having 52 Saturdays a year to make money: any non-Saturday wedding is gravy.

I would say that any photographer with solid training, insurance, and equipment is going to be MINIMUM in the $1500-$2000 for that amount of time and a basic package. This is only a starting place, and your market may run higher! I'd say a digital photographer needs a bare minimum of $6000 in equipment to reliably produce quality wedding photos, to put this price in perspective. Also realize that a digital wedding pro is probably spending double the time he/she spent shooting processing the images in Photoshop or the like.

One story I love to relate is that I met a "wedding photographer" in my camera store the other day buying a new camera. She struck up a conversation with me, talking about her purchase. It turns out that she figured out that she needed a second camera when her only camera failed in the middle of her last wedding.

I feel sorry for that couple. This is what cheap "wedding photographers" do, though.

Some questions for your wedding photographer candidates:
1. What is your training?
2. Let me see a COMPLETE wedding, cover to cover. (Not just selected photos).
3. Let me see ANOTHER complete wedding. (Not just one)
4. Name your f-stops 1-16. (You don't have to know what this is, but if the photographer looks at you blankly, run away).
5. Do you carry insurance?
6. Are you a licensed business?
7. Do you have a back up for every essential piece of equipment? (Cameras, flashes, lens redundancy)
8. Are YOU the photographer that will be shooting my wedding?

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

I have more than 35 years of photographic experience, many in wedding photography. I disagree that you MUST have two photographers.
How many photographers depends on how large your wedding is and what you want for photographs. You have to decide that yourself. My only assitant was my wife who kept me in film, helped pose guests, and looked for things that might spoil a shot.

Personally, I never had 'packages'. Many photographers have cute little names for them like the 'Princess' or 'Queen'. That, to me, is just another way to separate you from your money. I never sold albums or trinkets either. Again, that's just another way to pad the bill. There's many reputable websites to find albums at a very reasonable price without having to pay the 300% markup many photographers take on them.

You can go with a studio photographer or a qualified freelancer. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The studio has indoor backgrounds, etc, a number of photographers and will give excellent shots. They'll also tack on a lot to pay for all that extra gear and overhead too. A qualified, and I emphasize that word, will probably give you more keepers at less cost and give you excellet shots. But either way, experience is THE key factor in choosing a wedding photographer. These days anyone with a digital camera can print up a few cards and take out an ad touting themselves to be a photographer and the results are usually a huge disappointment.

Look at a person's work style, experience and knowledge of photography, not just the cost. Also their personality must mesh with yours. You may have paid a huge sum but a dictitorial photographer bent on getting his shots is the fastest way I know of ruining the festivities.

I've never charged more than $1500 for any wedding I've shot. That's on the low end but I could do that becase I have a military pension as well but probably wouldn't charge much more even if I wasn't because I've always believed every bride deserves a great set of wedding pictures of her once in a life time event because I loved photography more than the profit motive. That was good too, though.

Answer 3

First off, I am a wedding photographer.

And you do not need just one. Well, not just one person. Make sure that the photographer has an assistant. Anyone that tries to do a wedding solo is asking for disappointed clients.

8-10 hours is not unreasonable. Make sure above all things that you have the photographer for the day and that they do not have another wedding on the same day. If they are over booking, they are shortchanging someone. Generally, I am one of the first to arrive and the last to leave. (One major exception was a wedding attended by a bunch of "coon-asses" from Louisiana. Their term not mine. They were still partying hard at the reception at 11pm and I had to get some sleep. It was a fun crowd, though.)

As a side item for that last one. Will the photographer, or at least an assistant, be at the rehearsal? A good idea. I like to get the lay of the land before I show up on the wedding day. It makes things go so much smoother. It is also a good time for the photographer to ask last minute questions about details as they come up in the rehearsal. It is better to get those questions answered when the bride is not busy with other things like getting married.

Make sure that the photographer has multiple cameras. Like another answered above, what if one fails? I had a wedding where I had two cameras fail before the bride walked down the aisle. If I had not had a third, I would have had one VERY unhappy bride on my hands. And trust me, that is not a pretty picture. No pun intended. I have been known to have as many as 5 cameras for a wedding, depending on the arrangement of the wedding.

One thing I like to tell couples when I first talk to them is that regardless of who is writing the check, the bride is the boss. It is the couple's day, and brides are usually more picky than grooms. So, if the bride ain't happy, ain't no one happy. I make this clear from the start, so if the parents want to get into it with me, I remind them about the agreement at the beginning. What the bride says goes. And if the groom does not get that, then he is in for a rude awakening on the honeymoon.

Lighting is important. On camera flashes are nice for action shots, but a good strobe set up makes for great formals. I use a portable set up that my assistant and I can put up in about 10-15 minutes. It makes all the difference in the world. Some churches do not like this sort of thing, so make sure the photographer gets together with someone at the church to find out all the rules. (This may seem like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised at how many photographers, even ones with years of experience, do not do this. Quite frankly, not doing so is just unprofessional.)

Another question is reprints. Are you going to get the negatives? (I highly discourage this practice. I did this once for some family pictures for a friend. 6 months later their house burned down, pictures and negatives and all. If I had held onto those negatives, they would now have irreplaceable pictures of their daughter when she was 5 months old. Never again will I let that happen. A photographer's archeive is like a backup that should always be safe.)

As for the cost, that all depends. What do you want for the package? How many prints of what size are included? Where do you live? How far does the photographer have to travel? Will the photographer need special equipment for an unusual environment? These are all factors.

Answer 4

A reasonable price is one that you can afford to pay.

8-10 hours is quite a long time.

I've seen photographers charge by the half day, whole day nad by the hour. Depending on who you go with, this might be an issue that affects price.

Check their portfolio - do they take images that please you? Don't just go off of price. The most expensive may not give you the images you are looking for.

Check the package - are you getting enough images? An album? Are they included in the price for shooting the wedding or is it seperate?

I always give out a list of possible poses to the bride and groom and have them check off the "must haves". I also make sure that if there are specific people that I need to get shots of, that I know what they look like prior or that I have someone there that can point them out to me or get them when I need them.

Answer 5

The best price is the one that gets you the nest results. You say that you only need one photographer for 8-10 hours, but you are so wrong. First of all, one photographer can NOT be everywhere. If you go with only one - no assistants - you will miss the pre-ceremony shots at one location or the other.

Second of all - and even more important - if the photographer is present for 8-10 hours, this will generate about another 20-30 hours of studio work in order to present you with the album that you are looking for.

I hope some of our pros respond to this question and add to my seminal thoughts. They have the real figures and the real answer.

If you want the cheapest price, which is what I imagine you mean by "best price," you will get what you pay for: the cheapest wedding album that you will regret seeing for the rest of your life.

Answer 6

Does it take 10 hours to get married these days ?

We took many photos BEFORE the wedding. My bride of 14 years didn't mind if I saw her. Her hair and everyone's clothes were 'pristine.'

We took photos for almost 2 hours...... my wife and all the women in the family gave the photographer a list, so everyone was lined up and the minister was there. There were a few in the 'getting dressed for the wedding' photos with bridemaids and groomsmen.

Even my folks had a few taken together - just them. The photographer took 2 or 3 of each in case someone blinked. Oh ! one of my nephews kept sticking his tongue out! I told him I'd get scissors and cut it off...... ha.

My wedding was a 30 minute long church service. A list of "must have' photos was given to the photographer.

We had a gap of 5-10 minutes of us cutting the 2 cakes, and and following this, the flower and garter toss. We had a quick reception line for people we had not met - it was not everyone - and then refreshments.

Reception was 1-1/2 hours long and we did the first toast, the first dance with my wife and her Dad and then her and me. Following flower and garter toss.

We changed, spent 1/2 hour saying good-byes with photos, and making sure our car was 'safe' - we left in my brother's decorated car and drove 1/2 mile to where our car was parked and packed with our clothes.

We had a Brunch breakfest, arrived at the church at 11:30, started photos at 12 noon, got married at 2 p.m., had 2 hours of reception and left at 4:30. My bride and I stopped at a favorite restaurant along the way and got to our first stop on our travels at 7:30 p.m.. We were both so tired.

My wife and her mother went to several photo studios and looked at "Package Deals." The place usually had a sheet of their prices so they compared. I stayed out of all of this mess.

I know it cost us $2,300 for photographs, not including the engagement photos. This was extras for both sides of the family and we had a big canvas one of our favorite together.

I had 2 buddies that have GOOD digital cameras to take photos on the side. I made this a stipulation with the photographer. She still got her money - ahead of time - so she wasn't loosing any money.

It was understood that the photographer would take HER photos first and then say "OK " so the other flashes would not interfere with hers.

We discouraged everyone else from taking photographs with the promise that everyone that wanted one would get a photo.

I have to say my friends did a super great job and these we used for mailing out photos and for friends. There were about 250 at the wedding.

What I think was the BEST thing ?

1.) My 'bride' went to the studio for her wedding dress photos with the umbrellas for camera flashes, all light gold background and the train showing, the close ups, the mirrors, and in the back this lady has a garden..... arbor, wooden picket fence, flowers, bushes with flowers, green grass, water fountain with a small man made pond with rocks and stuff. She picked out what poses and it didn't take long.

2.) The photos taken 2 hours before the wedding let us visit, toast, dance, eat, instead of taking photos.

3.) The very best thing was my new bride when we finally got to our room to relax and I was pulling in a suitcase when I saw her crying ! Oh, man, I thought I was doomed and didn't know what I had done !
My wife smiled and said she was crying because she was so happy and she had married the best man in the World.

Well, with that to live up to, I've tired hard. Being married to her has made it easy..... she's my best friend and we don't criticize each other in front of other people and we talk EVERY night at the supper table.

I hope you have a long, happy marriage !

Answer 7

my son and daughter-in-law are wedding photographers. They might charge as much as $4,000 (or even more). They think of themselves as in the low to medium price range. I belive prices vary from one part of the country to another. Good luck and most important of all, have a good marriage.

Answer 8

Interview interview and interview