Why do photographers charge so much?

One of the biggest issues that we professional photographers face is why do we charge so much, when we’re only there for 10 hours taking photos. So i’m hoping to write this note to hopefully better educate clients on why we charge what we charge. The same also applies to pretty much every vendor that you hire for your wedding, but more specifically to your wedding photographer/videographer.

Here is how a typical wedding goes for a professional photographer from start to finish, but before I start, let me define the parameters for the wedding:

• 10 hours of coverage
• Engagement Session
• Enlargement from the session
• Bridal Session
• Enlargement from the session
• Framing
• Album Design and Production
• Shipping of various products
• Consultations

As you will see when we go through this list that the 10 hours are actually the smallest part, but let’s dive in:

The initial consultation

For a good photographer who really wants to get to know you and wants to get to know your day, this consultation can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to sometimes 2 hours. After all how can a photographer really cover your day if they don’t know who you and your fiance are as people and as a couple. A good consultation often goes over what you like, your time spent together as a couple, interests, dislikes and places that mean something to you. To be conservative we’ll factor in 1 hour for this process.

The Contract Process

Nowadays it is rare for a client to simply sign on the dotted line at the initial meeting. This is actually good, because it shows that clients are savvy and want to get the best vendor for their event. A photographer will typically spend over two hours, maybe more going over the contract, generating the invoices, processing payments and the back end book keeping. To be conservative we will factor in 1 hour for these tasks.

The Engagement and Bridal sessions

We will combine these as they are fairly similar but once the consultations are done a typical bridal and engagment session, each will last around 2hours of actual photography time and an equal amount of time in processing the photos and retouching the enlargements for final production. So we take 8 hours for the total time spent on the engagement and bridal sessions and the production of the prints.

The actual wedding shoot

We will typically for a full day spent 10 hours on a regular church wedding and the reception. This includes 2 hours of getting ready, one hour for ceremony and formals another hour for location portraits of couples and 6 hours at the reception. However for each hour we spend at the event, we are spending 2hours behind the computer.

This includes the time to download the files, sort the keepers from the rejected photos, process the proofs, which typically involves fixing the color, the brightness, cropping and also time spent backing up files, creating web galleries and also burning DVDs for shipping. So a typical 10 hour shoot results in over 30 hours of work, the majority of which the client never sees.

Sure there are photographers that can have your photos online within 24 hours and of all the galleries that i’ve seen that were put online the day after the wedding, there was only one photographer who did a GREAT job and currently he is wanted by 30 brides because he is out of business.

The Album Design Process

The album design process can typically take anywhere between 10 minutes to 20 minutes to design one layout in the album. A layout is two sides in your wedding album and often photos have to be cropped, retouched, put on the actual canvas and moved around to create a harmonious design.

The designs can be simple or complex but at the basic level the photos have to be pulled from the master gallery, sorted, categorized according to the time of the event, then put together on the layouts and then when the client approves the album, fully retouched. If the client comes back with changes that also adds additional time to the entire design process. So with that in mind let’s say a typical layout will take anywhere between 20 to 30 minutes, given that no album is approved without some changes being done.

With the above numbers a typical 15 layout album will take approximately 450 minutes to completely design, from start to finish and including changes. That’s roughly 7.5 hours, we’ll drop the 30 minutes because the computer is running really fast, so we got done in 7.

Shipping

We’ll factor in an hour of shipping over the course of the entire event and this includes, packaging and shipping, proof DVDS, contracts, receipts and the actual album.

So where do we stand?

Looking at the time we have the following:

Consultation – 2 hours
Contract – 1 hour
Engagement and Bridal – 8 hours
The wedding shoot and processing – 30 hours
The album design and approval – 7 hours
That’s a total of 48 hours worth of actual work that a good photographer has to do without cutting any corners (and the album design process is VERY conservative) to produce a good product.

But I found XYZ photographer who is only charging 50% of what you are charging.

The wedding photography market currently is diluted with thousands upon thousands of photographers entering the industry on a yearly basis. Some of these new photographers are really good, while others are really really bad.

We have seen some photographers charge $600.00 for an entire wedding with albums and a year later, they are gone. We have also seen Groupons for ridiculously low session fees and the photographer ends up selling hundreds upon hundreds of sessions. They have no idea how they will work them all but they do so.

A good photographer knows that in order to give their client time, process the photos in a good way and actually come up with a great album and not rush through the whole process takes time. They also charge for their time to cover taxes, insurance and health care.

Sure you can always find that diamond in the rough that has not figured out their value, but do you want to take chances with your wedding day and someone just discovering their calling?

So hopefully this will shed some light on why photographers or your wedding professionals charge what they do. There is just too much work on the back end that the client never sees.

It is always nice when you are recognized for your work and effort.  It’s feels even nicer when you are recognized from within your own industry.  A few months ago I was invited by London based publishing company Oliver Cameron Publishing to submit photos for their upcoming book Wedding Photography – A Guide To Posing.

The purpose of the book is to help up and coming and established pros ease their struggles and also provide inspiration for relaxed and contemporary posing.  Little did I know that I would end up getting 17 photos selected for inclusion in the book along side some of the top photographers in the world.

So let’s see…   what has changed since the last time I blogged?  Wel…

1. Lost is off the air
2. 24 is off the air
3. We have a new American Idol

and quite a few other things have gone on, but rest assured, during this time i’ve been working on creating a whole slew of new work to share with you guys.   Starting with a fabulous wedding I photographed for Nikki and Tony in Fort Worth.   Nikki and Tony are both Veterinarians and really put together a fabulous event with the reception taking place at the Fort Worth Club in downtown Fort Worth.

Here are some of my favorites from their big day.

The first time I photographed Jordan and Cody for their e-session, Cody was fairly reluctant to be photographed, because like me, he is more of a behind the scenes guy. I told Cody and I stand by that to this day that, we both are cursed with extremely good looks and being handsome guys that we are, we owe it to humanity to be photographed…

Soo.. with that assurance delivered Cody relaxed a bit in his greek god form and from that point on it was fairly smooth sailings. Jordan and Cody are two amazing people who touched me not only with their sense of humor and compassion for others but the uncompromising love they have for each other. I had a blast guys and can’t wait to hang out with you guys again..

I had a blast capture special moments at their wedding.  Both Diana and Edwin had such a great time throughout their entire wedding weekend.

Now on to the pictures:

Hope you enjoy!

src="http://www.yasinphoto.net/blogpics/diana/47.jpg " alt="" width="600" height="400" />

A few weeks ago, I photographed Anisa and Andrew’s E- Session at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden. I had an awesome time working with the two of them. I actually have known Anisa for a while now, I met her at her sister, Nafisa’s wedding last year. It was a lot of fun working with their family again. Their wedding was about two weeks after their E-session. Stay tuned for the wedding pictures which will be up shortly.

Now onto the E-session pictures:

Hey Guys,

A few weeks ago, I photographed Stephanie and Barry’s E-Session at the Dallas Arboretum. I had an absolute blast working with the both of them and capturing special moments. Their wedding is going to take place on September 6^th at the Shearith Israel in Dallas. I am excited to work with them again at their special day.

Check back in September for their wedding pictures.

Enjoy the photos:

Ok so this is going to be a LONG post…  and that means I have more than 50 images on this one blog post.   Everyonce in a while you meet people that you just click with and I mean you meet them and 45 minutes later you’re discussing sports and how to build the ultimate computer…

I met Lindsay and Steven first at the Cheesecake Factory up by the Northpark Mall, and this was our first meeting, just to kinda get to know each other.  20 minutes into the meeting Steven and I were geeking out about the size of our hard drives and discussing the ultimate PC, it was then we knew that I would be the perfect photographer for their wedding.

Fast forward to their e-session and we had a GREAT time in Fort Worth and captured some AMAZING images, Lindsay’s bridal again was awesome and we had a real fun time at the venue photographing and reconnecting after a while.

This wedding was no exception in the amount of fun I had working with Lindsay and Steven. Their special day filled with friends and family

During their Reception, Kristin came up to me and asked me to follow Lindsay and Steven to take a picture with the president. The whole time I was thinking “Okay, I don’t mind taking a photograph of Lindsay and Steven with the President of Brook Hollow” oh little did I know that she had meant former President George W. Bush.  Cool stuff like this pops up often at my weddings.

Here are the vendors that made this event simply amazing:

Simply Perfect Weddings (Kristin)

Freesia

M&M Linens

Absolute Entertainment

High Camp Media

Emerald City Band

Romano’s Bakery

Brook Hollow Country Club

Now i’ll stop yappin and let you guys enjoy the photos taken by yours truly..  Check back in a few weeks for a link to the full gallery and please feel free to leave comments on here.

I loved Lindsay’s dress and right away saw a vintage look to the image, using my trusty lighting tech a.k.a Ali.

Linday wore Ballerina shoes during the ceremony and I absolutely had to just hang them somewhere.

Awesome, awesome detail on the front of Lindsay’s dress

Freesia always does a GREAT job with the floral

I love spending time with the girls before the ceremony, it’s a nice time for them to just be themselves.

I think they wanted to have some fun

CUTE!!!

Can’t wait to work on the other 6 images in this sequence..

Lindsay gave Steven a pair of customized cuff links

I love this shot and it came out exactly how I had envisioned it in my head.

Isn’t he handsome?

This shot we did specially for Lindsay…

I just love the architecture of this church, even tough they would not let me use any flash during the processional, I still wanna give them props.

A tough shot to get but I can only imagine the thoughts going through Steven’s head.

A shot of Lindsay coming down the aisle.

Right after the ceremony with the wedding party, I have to say we had a GREAT time and everyone was SOOO cooperative.

I love this sequence of shots..   They are so much in love..

So I scanned in a piece of sheet music laying around and decided to just play around a bit.

Absolute Entertainment did an outstanding job with the event lighting.

Love the details..

The first dance

The amazing colors

The dip.

The President.   Yep ladies and gents that’s the real deal.

The father daughter dance started off normally

and then they got a bit funky..

Then they really revved things up a bit.

The band was amazing!!

Loved the color scheme they had worked up for the lighting.

The band started playing for just Steven and Lindsay

Love the rings…

I love the sparklers, even tough I feel as if i’m gonna catch fire each time i’m around them I love them.

I had a great time with you guys!!! Looking forward to working on your album…

Their wedding ceremony took place at St Ann’s Church in Coppell.  This church was absolutely beautiful, it was filled with many ornate details making it even more traditional and classy.  Their ceremony was very intimate and filled with much love by everyone there.

The couple’s portrait session was a blast to shoot. The two had so much fun around the lake area, walking along the lake, playing in the trees and even Megan was adventurous by walking into the freezing cold lake in her wedding gown, seeing them having a great time together made my job even more easier.

The wedding reception on the other hand, was non- traditional and lots of fun.  The reception took place at Little Pete’s on Lake Grapevine, where there was a laid back atmosphere and you could see everyone enjoying themselves. Their decorations filled the room with vivid, lively colors bringing out the South Asian flair.  Even Megan and Satish made a change of outfits to match the South Asian theme.

Here are some pictures highlighting Megan and Satish’s wedding. Hope you enjoy:)

]]> http://www.yasinphoto.net/blog2/2008/07/21/stacey-and-bobbys-wedding/feed/ 0