How wedding photographers charge and why it’s so expensive.
So you’re looking for a wedding photographer but are unsure on how they actually charge and why it costs so much.
A majority of wedding photographers charge by the day in packages. Most wedding photographers have 3 tiers of packages the biggest being a full day package of course, from the getting ready process to the very end of reception. The next package down usually involves everything but the reception and in other cases the opposite way around, from the ceremony until the end of reception. Last but not least, the smallest package would involve just the ceremony to be photographed.
There are many other variations on how the rates are calculated, maybe they set a limit on how many photos you get, if there are printed albums included or a complimentary engagement shoot.
Prices also vary depending on experience and demand. Some photographers may have packages ranging from $1000-$2000 while higher end photographers may have a range of $5000-$10,000. The latter may seem like an absolutely insane price tag but if you want the best of the best you have to pay for it and as stated earlier, this can come down to demand and they wouldn’t charge that much if there wasn’t enough demand for them. You love their style? Well so do hundreds of other couples.
Rocking up to a wedding and pressing the shutter button isn’t the only thing involved in photography, wedding photographers can take 1000 to 5000 photos or more, it may seem excessive but that all gets culled down to the best images which takes quite a while. Then after the culling comes editing, photographers correct lighting, colour casting and many other imperfections in the images to ensure your photos come out as good as the photos you have seen when booking the photographer, they may also add their artistic flair to the edits. Add all this up with the duration of the wedding and it can be days or weeks before the work is done.
Marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a huge factor too, if you find a photographer through any means of promotion like social media ads, magazine ads/articles or if you simply just Googled “photographer in my area”, you need to know that this can also cost a pretty penny, thousands of dollars in fact. That’s right, being on the first few pages of a Google search can be very hard to achieve and this takes years of research, learning and experimenting or they hire an SEO specialist just to be able to be seen! The behind the scenes of being seen is incredibly hard in a sea of other photographers!
There are also different types of wedding photographers and styles, some like to stay local whilst others are strictly destination photographers, which can cost more.
Other factors like insurance, travel, camera gear and maintenance can weigh in quite a bit too. Have you seen the price of a camera lens?
And lastly, if you’re familiar with the business side of anything, the lower the price, the more painful it is to work with a client. Whether it’s portraits or other events, a higher price can weed out the time wasters, it may seem harsh but I’ve seen this first hand, there are never issues with higher end clients but budget clients can be very picky and if you’re a photographer with many clients it can be extremely time consuming communicating with a plethora of clients that want to barter prices with you, it also tends to be a full on skirmish just to receive the payment after the shoot.
Here at Demiq Shots, there’s a range of photography services including wedding photography, if you are in need of such a service in the Gold Coast/South East Queensland region, check out the Services page. We offer 5 packages with the highest being $2500 and the lowest being $500. There are packages available where you can pick specific phases of your wedding to be captured!
Remember, your wedding is a once in a lifetime event and having your memories captured professionally should be on of the most important things on your list of wedding expenses, choose wisely!
