The Cost of Wedding Photography Demystified!
Humor us here for a min. Take a second and Google (or bing, or yahoo) how much of your overall budget should be spent on a wedding photographer. But what really goes into the cost when hiring a wedding photographer? And what factors determine how much you will pay? Some may say that the price of a wedding photographer is a mystery and that just adding the word wedding will allow for photographers to charge $1,000s more just because. That is definitely not the case! We want to be 100% transparent and shed some light on this subject so you can understand why wedding photography costs what it does.
According to some of the top wedding related websites, like Wedding Wire and the Knot; couples should be expecting to spend 10-15% of their overall budget on wedding photography
Why is that? Well…. CLICHÉ ALERT! Wedding photos and videos are all you are going to have when the wedding day is over. Again, it sounds cliché but its 100% true! We know the experience shared by your family and friends on your wedding day is important, but why would you spend so much on their experience if you didn't want to have the proper person immortalize it.
There are several factors in a wedding photographers price, let’s break it down!
Location
If you are getting married in New York City or Southern California the price for a wedding photographer is going to be significantly higher than if you were to get married in a small town in North Carolina. The cost of living plays a huge role here. A full time wedding photographer requires enough work to cover their bills and expenses.
Experience
Just like many other professions and services, quality comes at a premium. As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for,” right? This is where experience comes into play. An experienced wedding photographer is going to have a better understanding of your needs as a bride and groom and most times we’ll know what those needs are before you do. You need us to take charge and help organize family photos and pose groups of people quickly? Check. You need us to have good time management on the day of your wedding? Check. You don’t know what to do with your hands while posing for a photo? NO PROBLEM! We can help you with that. An experienced wedding photographer should be an added value that brings ease into your wedding day; not chaos and stress.
That being said, here are some price ranges you can expect to pay for photographers with different levels of experience; and by experience we’re referring to how many weddings that photographer has captured, and if they’re full time or part time in the business. Beginner/new photographers: part time in the industry, will charge or cost somewhere in the $500-$1500 price range; has shot a few weddings but always looking to learn. We were once in that zone when we first started out back in 2012. We didn’t have much experience but we did our best and made sure all of our couples understood what we were offering. Intermediate photographers: will charge/cost somewhere in the range of $1500-$3000, offering packages with set hours, might include a second shooter as an upgrade, offers prints, might still be part time or just went full time as a wedding photographer, and has probably shot anywhere from 50-150 weddings total (thats about how many wedding we shot when were in that price range). Advanced: will charge/cost in the $3500-$7000 range. This photographer easily has over 200 weddings under their belt, completely full time as a wedding photographer, has good connections with other wedding vendors and has set packages and offerings. The higher end of the price range could mean they shoot film, or include second shooters in their package.
DISCLAIMER: If you’re on a tight budget, and cannot afford spending $3000+ on wedding photography, there is absolutely nothing wrong with hiring someone who charges less, or has less experience with wedding photography. However we do implore you to ask proper questions and be sure that photographer understands your needs as a couple, and what your expectations are.
What’s Included
What all is included in the package will determine the price. Number of hours, travel, number of shooters, editing hours, print release, prints, albums or another other additional shoots like engagement sessions or boudoir sessions.
Master of Multiple Genres and Skills
To be a wedding photographer means you have to master several different styles of photography and have the skills to produce beautiful work in just about every situation thrown at them. As a wedding photographer, one of the styles we need to master is portraiture. This includes portraits of the bride and groom, wedding party, family photos etc. Basically our job is to capture you looking your best; I mean who wouldn’t want that right? A second style of photography we should have in our tool belt is a photojournalism or documentary style. This comes into play for things like the ceremony and reception where we capture things as they naturally unfold, but also having the intuition and experience to look for little moments during a wedding that most people would miss. A third style (or skill set rather) is a photographer who understand how to control and use light properly in any situation. Many times throughout a wedding day photographers are working in unfavorable lighting conditions. A good photographer will know how to work with it; a GREAT photographer knows how to turn it into something beautiful.
Behind the Scenes Costs
Being a photographer isn’t cheap, so let me break down the behind the scenes cost just a little. Professional cameras, backup cameras, multiple lenses, batteries, memory cards, flashes, light stands - the list goes on and on for equipment. You can expect your photographer has probably spent $15,000-$25,000 for their gear. Most of which has to be replaced every so often, even yearly, with lots of use. Add in website, business tax, gallery fees, editing software, computers, hard drives, client systems, accounting and more can costs $1,000s per year. This is also a nod to experience because the expenses of a full time experienced wedding photographer who shoots multiple weddings a year will be significantly more than that of a person who is just starting out in the industry or even doing it part time.
pie charts from ispwp.com
At the end of the day, whether you pick a photographer for $500 or $5000 make sure that they are the perfect fit for you style wise and personality. You will be spending so much time with your photographer and looking back on your photos for years to come.
So ready to find someone?
Use Instagram and other social sites or even google to search different photographers and find the ones who editing style speak to you. IE. dark/moody vibe, light/airy fine art style, traditional, photojournalist, colorful/vibrant feel, etc.
Then reach out to only 2-3 different photographers to get options. You don’t want to get too overwhelmed! But you’ll want to do this about 10-12 months before your wedding to ensure they are available.
Ask them questions and get to know them! You want your budget and your personalities to click.
Then choose the right one that fits all your needs! And if you can, for the sanity of the ones you don’t choose just write them back and let them know. I promise their feelings won’t be hurt! Ghosting is much worse than a simple, “We appreciate your time but we have gone with another photographer”.
