1st wedding price question

sdways01 · April 1, 2009

I am doing my first wedding as the official photographer this summer. I have taken pics at weddings where I am in the audience. I also took pictures at my brother's wedding for him and his wife even though I was in the wedding party (had my cousin help me). But this wedding will be the first one where my only job is to take pictures.

My question is what should I charge the couple. I have known the bride probably since the day she was born (our families are very close). Because of knowing her and the groom so well, I wouldn't feel right charging a lot, but also don't want to short change myself. From what I have done I know there is plenty of editing involved after the wedding and also don't want her recommending me to her friends saying I only charge $XX.

I plan on making an album for them to see the prints so they can decide which ones to order larger or more copies off. I haven't decided if I will give them a CD with the files too as well or not. That will probably depend on what they want.

So what does everyone think, what would be a good price to charge?

Qarik · April 1, 2009

that really depends.

1) what is your honest assessment of your skill level? There is quite a broad spectrum of "ameteur" skills. Maybe you can post some shots from those previous weddings?

2) what kind of HW do you have? lens, bodies, flashes, diffusers?

3) where do you live and what do photographers charge in your area for a wedding?

I consider myself a good ameteur at event photography. I do good candids and semi-posed shots. My posed portraits are probably subppar or average (wrt to a pro). I have 2nd shot 1 wedding and done a couple of events (parties) with some success. I have d90 with pro lens and flashes and diffusers..but I am just getting my feet wet.

With thiis in mind I am charging 1/2 price of what local photogroahers might charge for an event. For example a 50th b-day party I charged $125 for 3 hour shoot. I plan to keep upping this every shoot. I am scheduled as the 1st shooter at my cousins this june..at cost (just few few hundred $ to pay for backup camera body rental, xtra memory cards, etc). Then after this wedding I intend to start charging somewhere in the range of $1500.

cj99si · April 1, 2009

Close friends, you've never shot a wedding before, give them the files, $400 maybe even less. That will keep the pressure off of you and them.

jeffreaux2 · April 2, 2009

I wont put a dollar value on it...only you can do that.

My advice, though, is to charge enough so that you won't feel as though you have given your time away for nothing. You can expect to work for about 40 hours on a wedding if it is full day coverage. That would be 8 to 10 hours on the day of, and 30 or so editing. What would that amount of time be worth to you.

There is nothing worse than feeling as though you have been taken advantage of after you have worked your butt off.

FedererPhoto · April 2, 2009

Like the other poster said - your hardware, honest skill level, ability of them to pay, and relationship are going to really make a large difference.

For my 'first' wedding where I was the main guy - I was close friends with them and didn't want to ruin the friendship if I screwed up.
I charged 500 dollars based on my personal percieved skill level at weddings at the time (didn't do any market research to get that number...) and then explicitly stated that they could give me 0-1000 dollars more based on how happy they were... but that all I EXPECTED was 500 dollars and that our friendship was paramount and that I'd do anything in my power to make them happy - even if I never saw another dime. Wrote up a contract for 500, they paid in full on the spot.

I went out and bought 15k worth of gear and practiced my butt off for 9 months (even though I'd be shooting for money for years and had second shot many times at weddings, I still dug up a few more second shoots and read, read, read (and practiced, practiced, practiced!!!!). Shot for a long time day-of, and then spent 120+ hours processing (didn't have a smooth system in place for backups... or developing... or dissemination... or prints... or, well, anything. I thought I had a good setup, until it was put it the fire and I realized processing a wedding is a hugely different task than processing your personal vacations or something like that)

A month after the images were delivered, a 1000 dollar tip arrived. Another month later a 250 dollar vase/pitcher arrived. They were not particularly well off or anything. They were pleased. I simply told them "hey, if anyone asks how much this ran you, tell them the full amount you gave me".

People seeing those images got me a few more gigs in the 1700-2500 range (and one offer in the 4k range that I turned down and refered to a friend photog because, at the time, I was not confident enough in my abilities to take that much money -- not a smart business move, sure, but I could't in good faith do a 4k wedding as my 3rd wedding ever - no matter how good others told me I was). As they say, the rest is history.

I selected 500 bucks because I knew I'd go balls-out. If I was going to show up with my 'personal' gear and just 'give it the old college try' I probably would have simply said "no" or "I'll do it for free because I'm not really into it".

I hope my story helps you...

Did I mention PRACTICE? (that means find some people, and go out and make images... not take a bunch of pictures of your dog)

Scott_Quier · April 2, 2009

With respect to the above posters, I'm going to have to disagree with them on at least one point ... it doesn't matter what you have for equipment! What matters is the quality of the product you deliver. It is entirely possible to shot with a pair of 1DsIII and a kit bag full of "L" glass (yes, I'm Canon-centric) and deliver crap. It's also possible, though not so likely to shoot with a G10, a 580EX II, and a home-made BBC and deliver top shelf.

All that having been said, it's impossible for a photogrpaher in one part of the country to advice someone in another part as to appropriate pricing. But, there are some guidelines that can be used as this is, basically, an accounting question ...

What are your costs? Consider
- Depreciation of your equipment - assuming you are a full out professional, this is a consideration
- Travel
- Time for the shoot
- Time for all the meetings
- Time for processing. Question: Do you know how long it's going to take you to process the photos? What's your workflow like?
- How about your funding of an equipment replacement account?
- Insurance? You do have liability, errors and omissions, and equipment REPLACEMENT insurance - right?
Above and beyond all the above, how much more do you need to have in hand to feel like you haven't been taken advantage of? How much more does it take to make you feel good about all the crap you're going to have to put up with from the bride, the MoB, the MoG, the drunken guests?

You add all that up to arrive at a truely scary number and you go from there.

I'm no accountant, but ChatKat can give you a much more solidly founded answer from an accounting perspective.

sdways01 · April 2, 2009

Qarik wrote:

1) what is your honest assessment of your skill level? There is quite a broad spectrum of "ameteur" skills. Maybe you can post some shots from those previous weddings?

I'd like to think I can do pretty good and have been told I do great work, but I admit that most of my work isn't portrait work. And like everyone here, every time I look at one of my photos I can see where I can do better.

Qarik wrote:

2) what kind of HW do you have? lens, bodies, flashes, diffusers?

I have a Nikon D80 with a 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G lens. I will be picking up a new lens for closeup and portrait type photos soon though (just haven't decided which on yet). I have a SB800 flash with both the cloud and clear versions of the lightsphere2 diffuser. I should be able to borrow a D70 as a backup camera, but need to talk to a relative first. On that note, I could probably also borrow a lens or two from them (not sure what they have).

Qarik wrote:

3) where do you live and what do photographers charge in your area for a wedding?

I looked around last night and most starting wedding packages are right around $1000. This would be for 4 hours.

A few samples:
The first two are from my brother's wedding back when I didn't know my camera well.
The next four are from a wedding where I was just a spectator.

Ed911 · April 2, 2009

jeffreaux2 wrote:

I wont put a dollar value on it...only you can do that.

My advice, though, is to charge enough so that you won't feel as though you have given your time away for nothing. You can expect to work for about 40 hours on a wedding if it is full day coverage. That would be 8 to 10 hours on the day of, and 30 or so editing. What would that amount of time be worth to you.

There is nothing worse than feeling as though you have been taken advantage of after you have worked your butt off.

Above is some of the best advice that you can get...

I know that I've felt that same way...working for less than I deserve...I guess we all have from time to time...friends and what not...

Sounds good up front...but...not when you're spending all of that time the week after making their free photos look good for free...

1st wedding price question

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