You want to pay for the assurance that the person photographing your big day knows how to handle any sort of lighting, any setbacks or time delays, and knows how to handle prominent personalities and reluctant subjects smoothly. Finally, editing is probably the most time-consuming aspect of a wedding. Editing is one of the reasons why wedding photography costs so much.
Your photographer could take dozens of photos seconds apart to avoid missing a particular moment, or they might be much more selective with each shot they take. So a wedding photographer can choose anywhere between photos per hour. For an 8 hour wedding that could be approximately photos.
Now your photographer needs to cull these photos: separate the best photos from the average or sub-par ones. The time varies depending on the photographer, but it would probably take hours to cull the images for an 8-hour wedding. The actual editing process takes much longer and is an even more significant factor in why wedding photography cost so much.
The photographer can sometimes apply a specific editor preset to multiple photos at once. Still, then they will go through each picture individually to manually adjust these presets to give the photo the perfect final look. Expect this process to take another hours. Plus your photographer will probably leave your photos for some days before coming back with fresh eyes to correct any overlooked imperfections before sending you your photos.
Now you might be wondering why your photographer takes so many weeks to send you the photos after your wedding. Remember your photographer has other weddings to photograph, they may also have different types of photoshoots to attend, more client meetings, other client photos to edit, and their own family life.
Do you have your photo album for your wedding pictures? Check out our post on How much do wedding photo albums cost? As you can see, there is a large amount of money spent on having the right equipment for the job, and also a large amount of time that goes into it all, but there is more to the job and capturing your perfect wedding day than just the camera and all the gadgets, these are just tools.
There are skills and an art that has been developed, learnt and honed by the photographer over many years. You can give all the same equipment to someone who has little professional experience, and they may take one or two nice shots. Still, a professional photographer with years of experience will take a whole album worth of stunning shots that tell a story. This is what you are paying for. Someone with years of experience, someone you can trust. Your wedding photos are a story of your perfect day, and they will capture the emotion of the day, your beautiful fresh flowers, your stunning white dress, your wedding album will hold all those memories and moments forever which you can share with friends, family and grandchildren.
Phew — that last section was super detailed, I promise this one will be much more concise. A wedding photographer has at least two camera bodies to work with. This is to reduce the amount of time they have to spend switching between lenses — especially at crucial moments like the first kiss. This is also, so they have a backup camera if the worst-case scenario happens and the camera stops working.
They will have an absolute minimum of 3 lenses in their camera bag for various looks and aesthetics. One lens to take photos from far away, one lens for super close up detail shots, and one lens for more general photos.
The more experienced your photographer is, the more lenses they will have for specific situations throughout your wedding day. Your wedding photographer will also have flashes, spare batteries and memory cards, and lens filters to protect their lenses. The cost of all these items together run into tens of thousands of dollars. There are quite a few smaller expenses I have failed to mention to limit the length of this article. Hopefully, you have a better appreciation of why wedding photography costs so much.
Often wedding photographers are swallowing some of these costs when starting their business to draw in more clients. They deserve a chance to earn those investments into their business back. They also deserve a chance to earn enough to support their family AND to save for retirement. Finally, remember that most weddings are going to fall on the weekend.
This means wedding photographers are more limited than other photographers in the number of clients they accept. Rest assured, photographers that charge a lot of money are incredibly talented and wholly dedicated to their craft.
A wedding is without a doubt one of the most important days in the lives of any couple and the planning that precedes it is equally important just like the actual day. From planning for the engagement photos to choosing vendors to organizing the wedding party, meticulous planning is always necessary to ensure that come … 7 Essential Wedding Planning…. Read More ».
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Figuring out your wedding budget is no easy feat. Your wedding will likely be the biggest … How to plan a…. How much do you pay your hairdresser? Tax guy? It feels easier to justify those expenses because you can see how much work went into the project firsthand.
But, when you hire a professional photographer, you only see a small amount of what it actually took to produce those final images. Not so fast. Photography equipment is downright expensive. Most photographers have a second camera body in case of emergencies.
The cheaper lenses will need to be replaced often, while the pricier lenses will thankfully outlast those camera bodies. Image: Amazon.
The smaller, often overlooked expenses add up too. To keep skin tones from becoming odd colors, professional photographers need a high-end display that will show the image just like it will print out. Many wedding photographers hire i. Besides the expense of actual photography equipment, professional photographers are paying for the same bills that your hairdresser and tax guy pay. Wedding photographers are busiest during the warmer months, and often book very few, if any, jobs during the winter.
Outdoor portrait photographers are also limited by the weather. The bottom line? What were they looking for in their applications? Marketing experience. Are you curious about whether you should negotiate with wedding photographers?
Check out my dedicated article, linked below! But consider this. See the interactive infographic here. A photographer is actually working so much more for each hour you see then snapping away. Below, I have a list of what a photographer does! I also have a full, detailed article that goes into greater depth if you want to know how a wedding photographer actually spends a typical day:. It takes a huge amount of time, skill, financial cost, risk and a little sprinkling of luck to make it as a wedding photographer full time or even as a viable side hustle.
Making money in wedding photography is hard. When I was starting out I was giving shoots away for free, at a steep discount, half price or just trying at market rate. Whatever I tried, no dice. There are so many wedding photographers out there. It barely mattered how good the work was or how cheap the price even free.
There is so much for clients to choose from. There are 3, photographers in my area on Yelp alone. How many others are just on Craigslist and Facebook, operating as an unlicensed, uninsured side-hustle? And that pie is only so big. Such is the nature of running a local business. Some sobering statistics from Digital Photography School:.
Want to love on your wedding photographer? Here are 17 things you can do to be an epic wedding photography client! Some photography businesses scale up in order to increase their profits. However, this also brings huge risks. Get a better offer? Book their own client? Plus, it is still only the business owner and maybe a small admin team, that has to deal with all the actual business and client management side of things. That means still the business owner commits to:.
And still there is a huge amount we give up in order to take on these liabilities — our summer months, every Saturday in summer in a good season, plus those evenings and weekends to talk to clients.
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