Recently I overheard a conversation in a coffee shop. The couple was discussing whether they should hire a photographer for an event. My ears perked up, having a vested interest in the subject. J I then heard them remark “Possibly not, photographers are so expensive!”
I thought this would be a good time to write a post on why photographer prices are what they are.
I do not for a minute want to trivialize a service with a price tag that is several thousand dollars (for a full day of wedding photography). This is a large chunk of change. In this post I want to discuss this price in terms of two things: 1. Is this price reasonable, and 2. Is this service providing good value for the money?
So let’s start with breaking down the cost. If you actually google “why are wedding photographers so expensive?” there are many many photographers out there who have clearly heard this question before and responded to it in many different ways. But ultimately what it comes down to is the same thing that every business has to base its price on: enough to cover costs and pay yourself a living salary. Let’s look at costs.
The obvious: the equipment. A true professional has high end photographic gear. What’s the difference between high end and lower-end gear? Lots, but possibly the biggest difference comes in low light situations. Which on a wedding day can occur at several points during the day, from the getting ready to an indoor ceremony to a reception hall. You can have an entry level or amateur photography set up for about $2000. A professional wedding photographer has probably spent 5-10 times as much. On a typical wedding day your photographer is bringing along pro gear, as well as back up pro gear in case something goes wrong. Equipment also needs to be refreshed every few years, so the yearly cost of equipment and peripherals can easily add up to $5000 a year. And I am assuming we would all want to hire a pro with up to date, high end gear.
Insurance: now that your photographer is carrying around $15-20K in equipment to locations, they need insurance, and insurance companies charge a pretty penny when you are bringing all that gear to locations outside your home.
Computing: all those digital images need to be downloaded onto a computer, backed up on several hard drives, and edited with Photoshop and Lightroom. The computer, the hard drives, and the software are more costs that are necessary for running this business and providing the high quality product my clients desire and deserve.
Training and continuing education: all professional photographers I know have invested in education. Every year I update my skills by reading books, practicing new skills, and attending workshops and conferences.
Time: the wedding day is just a fraction of the hours your photographer will spend on your wedding. There are the meetings before the wedding, the pre-planning for the wedding timeline, the preparation of the gear, etc. After the wedding there is the editing, the backing up, making of DVDs, albums, etc.
Other: I know when my last car died I did not have an option – I had a wedding that weekend in Mill Bay and I needed to get there. On time. A bus was not an option. For my clients, I have to be there. A wedding will not wait. I have to be there on time ready to roll. In addition, running a business comes with the costs of a website, marketing materials (business cards, etc), much the same as any other small business out there.
If you add up all these costs it turns out wedding photographers do not make that much of a salary. Photographers are not in the gig for the money, or else we would not be doing this, trust me! J But almost every photographer I know feels lucky to be doing it for a living, because we love what we do!
As an aside, I can add that there are photographers out there that charge less. So how can they charge less and make money? They cannot! What does this mean? They might be a new photographer charging less because they are less experienced and need to build a portfolio, so they realize they cannot make money yet. The alternative is that they are cutting corners on the costs mentioned above. And cutting corners will mean quality of service will suffer.
The next is the question of value for money. I cannot, of course, make this call for anyone. Like I said before, it is not a trivial amount of money. All I can do is present a case for the value of photography.
One of the reasons I love what I do is because I feel like it matters. I always feel photographs connect us to our memories. I always wish I had more photographs of my grandparents when they were young. I would love to see a photograph of my great grandmother when she was young. Photographs are heirlooms. It might not seem like it at the time, but your wedding photographs will be the first heirloom of the new family being joined together on that day.
Wedding photography is a skill set of its own. It is an adrenaline day for a photographer, who HAS to be skilled in order to get all THE shots (kiss, ring exchange, vows, etc) as they happen. If you have the wrong settings on your camera, that moment is gone and there are no re-dos. Skill and experience are important, as I mentioned in a previous post.
The wedding photos will preserve the memories of that day. So the question is, how much do you value the photography of your wedding day?
Nichole 
www.nicholetaylorphotography.com
www.facebook.com/nicholetaylorphotography
