Understanding the Costs of Wedding Photography
If you’re planning to get married, you’ll no doubt be on the hunt for a photographer to capture your big day. A little research will show you there’s a vast range of prices, from the £250 “shoot and burn” type to the £2000+ mega wedding packages.
Different Styles of Wedding Photography
You’ll also find there are various styles of photography. Here’s a quick rundown:
- Reportage: Usually black and white, candid photos where people don’t know they’re being photographed.
- Traditional: Beautifully posed shots with everyone perfectly positioned.
- Natural Light: Photographers who refuse to use flash.
- Studio: Photographers who set up lights indoors and get people to be lit as though they’re in a studio.
- Strobist: Photographers who use flash outside, often with multiple flashes and umbrellas.
The Mix and Match Approach
Often, these styles are mixed and matched. You usually get a bit of “traditional” for the group photographs, “reportage” while the photographer’s waiting for stuff, natural light outside, and maybe a bit of flash indoors.
Why Do Wedding Photographers Charge What They Do?
I often get asked what it costs for McFade to shoot a wedding. For a day’s work, it might seem lucrative. However, once you break down the costs, especially the time involved, it starts to make sense why we charge what we do.
To illustrate this, I came up with a spreadsheet to estimate how long things take. It’s surprising how many activities are involved from the photographer’s point of view. You’re not just hiring someone to take photos; you’re getting a project manager, an MC, a planner, a shepherd… lots of roles!
Key Activities Involved in Wedding Photography
Here’s a list of main activities a photographer might help with:
Preparation
- Phone consultation
- Venue visit
- Travel to/from venue
- Travel time
- Engagement shoot
- Editing engagement shoot shots
- Wedding plan creation
- Creation of photo list
- Phone calls, etc.
Pre-Wedding Shoots
- Total hours shot
- Rating of shots
- Pre-edit of the shots
- Retouching best shots
- Adding shots to the album
The Wedding Day
- Total time to shoot
- Total travel for the day
Editing Shots
- Screening of shots
- Pre-edit of the shots
- Retouching best shots
- Adding shots to the book
Showing of the Book
- Travel to/from
- Time showing
- Time editing at the showing
Extra Prints
- Sizing photos for prints
- Sending files to printer
Extra Book Edits
- Number of edits
- Edit time/edit
- Uploading to the website
The Real Work: Editing
To coin a cliché, the 8 hours at the wedding are just the tip of the iceberg. You’ll typically spend more than 8 hours in the preparation phase. Even on the day, if you’re getting 8 hours of shooting in your package, the photographer’s probably got a good hour or more travel time to add on.
The real work is in the editing. Screening the shots to choose the best can take a couple of hours if you’ve done a long shoot. Pre-editing (converting from RAW files to JPEG) and retouching (making everyone look their best) can take a few days.
Creating Your Album
Once the photos are ready, you need to create your album, either digitally or by printing photographs and sticking them in a traditional album. If you’re creating a book, you’ll probably give the couple a chance to look over it and make changes. This can easily add another day to the process.
Final Tasks
There may be other tasks like uploading all the photos to a site where people can purchase them or converting every colour shot to black and white. These are usually things you can set going and leave the computer to do.
Time Investment
The effort involved in editing and book making is related to the length of the shoot. For a 3-hour shoot, editing and book making may take a day. For an 8-hour shoot, it’s more like 2-3 days. For 12 or more hours of shooting, you’re looking at maybe 4 days or a week.
Anyway, I’m sure every photographer who does weddings will have a different take on how they explain their pricing, but I hope by explaining how much time we spend to make your day run smoothly and produce a book/album that you can treasure for years to come, it’s shed some light on the mystery of wedding photography prices.
All good points Ade, well made. May I just also mention the cost of kit? Everything from radio triggers to flashguns to camera bodies and lenses, bags and cases, right down to batteries, chargers, brollies and stands – it all seems to need replaced on a regular basis. And that’s before you even think about keeping your computer up to date and the cost of backup systems.
Good point Jamie. yes…. I broke 3 flashes last year. One thousand pounds in layman’s terms. A typical wedding can involve a week of effort. So just trying to put that in perspective.