Wedding photographer explains the reasons behind 'unrealistic' prices

I am a pro wedding photographer in the Northwest of the UK and read comments like this regularly.

I simply explain to my clients that my equipments costs £15,000 per year and each wedding takes 30 hours work.

I ask then to get quotes from a plumber or electricion for a 30 hour job and I agree to match their quote !!!

Many people talk about the time it takes to learn the poses, lighting, etc... for wedding photography. How were they learning? That is where the shoot and burn $500 photographer comes in. You have to learn by doing sometimes, and thank goodness people like the Craigslist poster who can't afford much and the $500 amateur can find each other. I don't think amateurs are filling the spots of the pros. I think they are taking the place of the friend/family member who would be shooting the wedding for them. There is a customer for every photographer at every level. It is pure insecurity and a negative attitude that makes the "pro" photographers get up in arms and try to debase everyone else. Live and let live!

As a professional photographer I generally do not do weddings. However that said, the last wedding I shot was a gift to a close relative. Total shoot time 15 hours. Processing the photos approx 40 hours. My usual fee is $50 per hour on a shoot - cost $2750. That did not include the price of sewing up the usher's pants that split when he put them on; altering the maid of honor's dress at the last minute because she had lost weight; and playing counselor to the two bridemaids that had too much to drink. Wedding photographers put up with a lot of insanity caused by the pressure of the day. I have no problem with what they charge. The couple cannot afford the price have there friends donate all of the pictures they take at the wedding. Of course, they will get what they pay for.

How about your dress? what did you spend on a dress you will use one time? $1000? How about the drinks for you and your family and friend that will only last 5 hour the most? 4000? How about the food for 250 guest that will be good for one hour? The cake the decoration and the band for playing a couple of hours? All those things will be gone in hours and your pictures and video will be with you for life and more to remember.

Also a wedding photographer only have one shot to take those pictures. If he fails you are screw with bad pictures of that day for life. Yes you can tell your friend to try to catch the moment with the iphones or dsrl cameras at best, but they will be having fun at the party and not trying to catch the best moments on a day you have invest at lest 18 grand.

And again, she is complaining why the good ones are so expensive? she has an option with the dress, food, music, place and ring... Why diamond rings are so expensive? get a fake one....

THAT is considred an EXCELLENT response??? It's kaka. The photographer deducts RENT and nearly everything else on the planet from the $50,000 earned in four months to justify charging $2500 for shooting a wedding!!

You don't get to deduct rent because EVERYBODY has a housing cost. it is not intrinsic to wedding photographers, dopey.

Then the photographer wasted $400 month on a leased vehicle. My 1995 Villager costs ZERO per month and gets me around just fine, including a sunroof, digital gauges, leather seats and more. The insurance is just about nothing because given the small worth of the car I only buy liability.

Enough already. Whoever called the response excellent is living in dreamland. I am a photographer, having worked for a newspaper, an insurance company and done freelance.

But making $50,000 in four months is a LOT, given 8 more months to earn money). Our angry "insulted" photographer is being a twit. Just admit gouging because you can, and get on with your day, Nikki.

OK, let's talk about a "fair" minimum.
$1000: 40 hrs post processing at a minimum X $25 Hr (I took 1500 total
shots at the last weddding I shot - post processing down to the
best and then editing took a lot more that 40 Hrs - but hey,
maybe I'm just slow)
$400: Day of Wedding 8 hrs (usually a lot longer) time and planning time
with Bride and groom (often several planning meetings)
$200: Fuel costs for the above at a minimum
$200: All in equipment amortization
$200: $200 miscellaneous business related expenses

Provide the DVD to the bride and let her take the photos elsewhere to get them printed at her leisure. If the Photographer does the printing - that can easily eat up the remaining $1000 in paper and ink and additional time to print and present the album.

actual hrly wage for the Photographer - ~$25 hr. This is not an exhorbitant wage.

Hey, if she likes the way I shoot and her wedding fits into my Summer schedule (I have a couple of shows and four festivals planned), I'd do her wedding for free, if she took care of visa, travel, accommodation and expenses for the trip to the wedding + 3 days in Seattle, for me and my assistant (whom I'd pay out of my own pocket)....

And I'm quite serious on that! :)

But to be fair I must mention that I'm based in Moscow, Russia.

Lets look at it from a different perspective.
My plumber charges $80/hr a car shop asks 50-120/hr + parts. Why is it so strange if a photographer requests a similar rate?
8hr wedding plus travel and equipment check, maybe 10hrs. Post processing 3-20hrs ....
Lets say 20hrs x $80 = $1600 + album in the lower price range $350 x your mark up. $3000 might seem a little high for some areas and not for others. As already mentioned you get what you pay for, sometimes. But the point is, if you have to make a living, pay insurance, rent and you don't just do it for fun you need to charge some money. The response was not perfect but still made a point in my opinion.

part of the problem is that maybe 25% at best deserve the money. I'd say out of all the wedding photos I've seen friends share, only 1 in 4 would I recommend to a friend. They all cost around $3000 plus or minus a few hundred. The bad photographers give a bad name to those who have done their work to deserve to charge $3000+ for a wedding.

Classic. Pretty comical. Everyone jumping all over the photog and the customer.

Get real.

The average cost of a wedding in the USA is NOT $30,000.00 (this is a flawed figure "The Knot" came up with and advertises and many like to quote)

Frontier in Oregon sells me a 25D/25U megabit internet connection for $45 a month.

"Professional level" services cost money to provide. More overhead than "GWC" or "Uncle Bob" have. Is it $2000-10,000.00 worth of service? Maybe yes, maybe no. There are some VERY AMAZING shooters out there.

The reality is that photos are not required. Professional photos are optional. Lastly under many "normal conditions" most modern P&S cameras will produce perfectly acceptable 'snap shots' of just about anything.

If you forget to install your CF card during a studio shoot you can simply reschedule it, not so with a wedding. So yes indeed the word "wedding" requires a different level of service.

Craigslist? Well, I’m no pro but I would shy away from a wedding photographer posting on that ‘garage sale’ website.

For commercial editing, I bill @ $340/hour. Hmmmm...what would that be for a days worth of post???.....plus location hours? Forget what my equipment or marketing costs are. What is MY TIME worth?!

Anything less than $3000 is charity...or a gift...or a lesson (Personally, I hate weddings and wouldn't even consider one for under $4K...it simply isn't worth my time or stress). My advice for The Bride is to buy a point-n-shoot with a fast fixed lens (Samsung TL500) or a reasonable DSLR with a fast zoom (24-70/2.8) and get her brother to "get'r'done" (in RAW, of course). She can then spend as many hours as she needs until she learns to develop a print, or facebook image, that meets her expectations. In terms of dollars, that's definitely less than $3K.

Pretty stupid posts from both sides. Bride wants to get everything and pay nothing. Photographer justifies the price by the cost of equipment and lease rather than the quality of the product offered (that is do nothing, take much money). The balance sheet is full of crude flaws. Any low-cost accountant or even student can easily prove this.

She would really flip out if she new how much I spent on my wedding photographer and I thought I got a pretty good deal!

...Perhaps it takes being a photographer to understand what you're actually paying for.

Saw all related links and some of respond here,
I am a Wedding photographer,
i saw some respond are so negative to Nikki,
and i dun think so, and they should try to quit their job, and be a wedding photographer,
all of those cost are USED TO BE, if stand on our shoes.
blog, internet, ads, etc, even you not agree becoz you not experienced,
i ever can't sleep before a wedding, the stress.
We edit long time becoz we try to make images perfect
(dun talk me about photo skills and some of client dislike BW photos as we need complete the demand of market and client taste)
if you ever met some clients, they TOTALLY misunderstand why we do behind and cost behind so Nikki said such to tell the truth.
Most of wedding photog avoid to tell becoz they afraid to against feeling of clients.
but our cost and stress sometimes are really SUCH LIKE A FILM DIRECTOR.
and she mention 99% true things like Backup, Equipment Damage insure,
Equipment support(like Mac, Adobe), it's not a NON-PRO could understood.

ha. $3000 is CHEAP. What most wedding photographers don't admit is that their price includes pain and suffering from having to deal with brides like this one. Give me a break. One of the highest stress level jobs and MUCH more than just taking a bunch of photos and editing them.

Any budget photographer who takes her as a client will quickly learn their lesson.

This craigslist post is pathetic. It has no logical or sensible substance. In wedding photography just as everywhere else, the market determines the price and most importantly the value. You get what you pay for! You can find shooters that will take a lot less than $3k for a wedding, but it comes with shortfalls in service and the product quality. Some people can’t accept this “rational phenomenon”. You establish your budget and go from there. Same way you buy a car. If you can’t afford a brand new BMW you buy a used Ford.

Same $200-500 price range, they get a basic edited video (all important parts, extra junk trimmed. Nice dvd menu, key events indexed, classical music here and there, appropriate transitions).
Again, delivered in a week-maybe two if there's a bit of editing or color correction. Key? At the reception and other free moments, go around and get everyone's blessings to the couple to include.
Easy, simple- templated photo or video shoots for weddings that don't take Weeks to edit or deliver, stay in budget- and practically guarantees happy faces because you tell and show them straight up front what you will do (show past shoots or dvds).
Another cheap key?
Take shots of the wedding that work as the cover and back of the dvd. Whip up a nice layout using classical fonts- print on glossy photo paper and glossy DVD lables- and deliver 5 copies. Charge $5-10 for more copies.
Amazing-but that's what has kept my poorer clients happy over the years.

Poor photographer needs to work 20 days (during 4 months) per year to be able to live for the rest of the year. My support for Ms. Wagner for the hardships of life.

Yeah for the life of me I don't get the $15k in taxes on $50k gross ... just her expenses alone she's listed would make her tax bill $nil
I smell BS

Oh yeah one other thing. If she's right about all her expenses then all but 7k of her 50k income is effectively taxable since you can deduct business expenses .s I realize the tax situation is insane but I really doubt anyone pays $15k of taxes for a business that makes $7k of profits.

the numbers in the response are very odd.

1) 15k taxes on 50k income is a 30% average tax rate that seems high
2) It appears that the photographer lives in the same place she processes her photos so unless she would otherwise live in a box under an overpass she really can't count that $7200
3) unless she only uses the car for business she really can't count the full $7200 car expense
4) i suspect the fraction of the time the photographer shoots weddings vs the time she wears those shoes is pretty small.
5) I have no idea why she pays 2500 a year for high speed internet. I'd suspect something more like 50-100 a month
6) the equipment cost is reasonable but when you add it up it's $11,300. Amortized over 24 weddings/year and 5 years that's $94/wedding.

On the other hand she is effectively charging ~$100/hr which is what you pay an automechanic who has a much higher overhead.

As a potential father of 3 brides I can assure you I won't pay $3k/wedding for photographers.

Divorce photography would be much more interesting and less pastiche.

I have worked for different studios. sometimes how studios set there prices could be considered price fixing. but also if you do not price yourself at a level the market expects then people wont even look at you.

For me on an 8 hr wedding. it take about 3 hrs to pick the photos 5 hr to basic edit and 15 hr to fully edit photos and put together a wedding album (45min a page) add 5 hr for rebuilding album pages that the bride does not like - total 35 hr

equipment upgrade, business license, phone, ads, promotional material, etc are all placed in my per hr wadge. So about $8 an hr is added. (based on my average hrs photographing per year (i do more than just weddings))

so for all jobs it my hr wage + $8 per hr + off-site editing wage per hr + $8 an hr + product cost (album, DVD, etc) = under 1.5k for most weddings

Bottom line (for me is) this studio is using a part time business, to justify full time business expenditures (and the studio does more than just weddings.)

The complainant has no point sat all. There ARE cheaper services and they can hire them. They are spending $15,000 already. That's their choice. If they want the assurance of decent pix of the event, then they pay a decent amount of money. If they want cheaper cover, they can get it, and it will be good for what it is. They aren’t just paying the photog for time on the day, they are paying for experience, expertise, and yes, dammit, just for being available.

I was /in business/ as a professional photog. Most to the comments I see here are from people who clearly have /never/ been in business for themselves. They have no idea of the overheads involved nor of the variability of demand. It's feast or famine. As a sole operator pro you might not get a wedding every weekend -- /regardless of your pricing/. When you do get a job, the person hiring you has to pay for that down time too.

That's the nature of small business -- ALL small business. And that's what this is all about.

Perhaps some cheaper photographers have read her post, but unfortunately "it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests".

Assuming that there is no interference, the free market dictates that the price of photography will shift based on market demands. The problem is that this whiner doesn't want just any photographer. She wants an "amazing" photographer, which is not the same as someone who just shows up with a camera and "takes tons of photos and edits them." I'm sure there's someone in her area who's willing to work for what she's willing to pay, but she's excluding those people while also trying to control the price of what she wants. That's bad economics!

$3000 Will depend on the Wedding Package. Majority of wedding photographers of todays era spent huge amount of peny in buying Top of the line gears. There is no Pro Photographer that wants any equipments die when the big event comes. That will reflect to your reputation as Pro Photographer. Perhaps let me explain to her the Math.

Nikon D3s Full Frame Camera(Body): $5199.95
Nikon D700 Full Frame Camera(Body): $2699.95
AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: $1999.95
AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8: $2399.95
SB-910 AF Speed Light: $549.95 x (2)
MB-D10 Battery Grip: $334.00
MB-D00 Battery Grip: $219.00
El-En15 Battery (2): $145.00
Remote Triger(2) : $180.00
Profoto D1 Air: $ 350.00
Profoto DIY Beauty Dish: $70
MacBook Pro Core i7: $2499.95
Western Digital My Book Essential 2T: $130.00
Creative Suite 5: $199.99
Adobe Lightroom 3: $89.99
LowePro Stealth Reporter: $180.00
Etc: $200
Rough Total: $17997.63

She DOES have a point in someway's just hear me out.

Some people are poor and 3000$ is a no way in hell for them.

Here is what Photographers SHOULD consider:

Some photographers I Know of manage to do 3 weddings in the same day.

Photographers REALLY need to consider:

Are they low, middle or high income family?
Is it going to be 1000 people or 100?
Do I have to travel 10 miles or 1000 miles?

And calculate based on that not do a "standard" price that can't be changed at all.

As someone who has NEVER made 2000$ in a month in his lifetime and in fact was making 1500$(before 37% taxes) before he lost his job I must say I understand her pain.

Example in my country photographers rent a large area, bring they're own equipment and computers & offer free x-mas photography for the less fortunate.

& we are talking about professional photographers.
So honestly I think photographers who do weddings could show a little flexibility every now & then.

*gets ready for hate msg's*

What a load of complete rubbish!!

Just enjoy your wedding day and use that which you've got between your ears to remember it.