Sunday 6 February 2011
Friday 4 February 2011
Why does my wedding photography cost so much?
It is a question I see posted on bridal forums and I have been asked it a few times myself so I thought I should really address it here.
Like any self employed business, photographers have overheads. Take your electrician, builder or plumber as an example. You expect them to have to pay for a van, tools, business cards, phone etc and so do we. We need to pay for a vehicle to come to your wedding so it had better be a reliable one! We need to pay for our cameras and lenses and trust me when I say they are not cheap. My own camera bag contains £10K of cameras, lenses and flashguns.
Why so much kit?
Yes you can easily get by with less than I carry but trust me, I don’t carry around all that kit for my health, it weighs a ton! It’s all there to provide my clients with the first rate service they expect. I don’t have one camera body, I have two. I need two simply because I cannot take the risk that one may just malfunction or pack up altogether at a wedding. If I drop it, it could be the end of the photography. So I don’t take the risk and I have two identical camera bodies. Those need replacing every 2-3 years. The lenses last a lot longer but I also have backup lenses in my big black bag. If one lens develops a fault it will be while I am working so I have a selection of prime lenses I can switch to that covers the zoom lenses. Again, I don’t take the risk of not providing the service. Same with flashguns, two of those are nestling side by side.
The cameras are on a three year replacement and the lenses are costed over five. So over a 5 year period I will write off £10K of equipment. That’s £2K a year I need to budget for their replacement. And that cost is spread over the amount of weddings I expect to shoot. If I shoot 40 a year, then £50 of each wedding needs to go on equipment.
Oh and it is all insured…as am I. The insurance is for equipment, public liability and professional indemnity. That means if I fail to photograph your wedding, you are covered!
The other one that I include is training. Now you might be surprised to find that there is a bit of the budget set aside for training but it is continuous professional development and if I don’t keep my skills up to date then my product and my service suffer so it is an integral part of my business. As is sourcing new products. I try to offer premium quality products at as reasonable a cost as I can so I go hunting on your behalf. Trade shows and album suppliers are on my radar and I keep up to date with their offerings.
Then there is the marketing, wedding fayres, sample albums, website costs, leaflets for the wedding fayres. Again a cost to the business.
I also have to pay my accountant at the end of the year which is actually one I like because over the years I have saved more than I have paid!
And last but certainly not least there is the cost of the album, prints, canvas that you order as part of your package.
And after all that has been paid the Government immediately run off with at least 25% of what is left.
Now let’s have a little look at some of the other things that I do that you might not consider.
One thing I don’t do is turn up on the day of your wedding unprepared. It is absolutely vital that I plan properly for your wedding and I leave nothing to chance. As well as meeting with you at least twice before your big day I also visit the venue(s) If you are getting married in Church or Chapel I also take the time to meet with your Vicar or Priest. It is important for them to know I am going about my work in a professional manner. The ceremony itself is a very important moment and it is always beneficial for the person conducting your ceremony to know that I am professional and discrete. I will also attend your rehearsal so I can walk through it with you.
I also work out the route between venues and the time it takes to make that trip. I work with the wedding planner at your reception venue to make sure we have allowed plenty of time to fit in your photography and make sure you are ready and available to begin your wedding breakfast on time. I will liaise with your DJ/band to make sure your first dance is planned and takes place on time.
After the big day when my feet have recovered, I am hard at work at the computer processing your images. We usually shoot around 800 images on the day and I work through them selecting out the very best ones for you. Those are then corrected for exposure, colour balance and crops before exporting to be processed individually. Yes I really do individually process around 300 images. That takes almost a whole day to complete.
Then you pick out the ones you would like for your album and I get to work on your album design. All the albums have their own software and that takes me around 4-5 hours to go through the design and make sure it works as a coherent album.
So when you add up all the time I spend on your wedding it comes to around 4 days of work.
I hope that you can now appreciate just what does go into planning your wedding photography and producing your album. It IS a fantastic job and when I see the look on couples faces when they see their album it makes every minute worthwhile. I would not swap it for another job and being part of your wedding is honestly an honour and a privilege
Like any self employed business, photographers have overheads. Take your electrician, builder or plumber as an example. You expect them to have to pay for a van, tools, business cards, phone etc and so do we. We need to pay for a vehicle to come to your wedding so it had better be a reliable one! We need to pay for our cameras and lenses and trust me when I say they are not cheap. My own camera bag contains £10K of cameras, lenses and flashguns.
Why so much kit?
Yes you can easily get by with less than I carry but trust me, I don’t carry around all that kit for my health, it weighs a ton! It’s all there to provide my clients with the first rate service they expect. I don’t have one camera body, I have two. I need two simply because I cannot take the risk that one may just malfunction or pack up altogether at a wedding. If I drop it, it could be the end of the photography. So I don’t take the risk and I have two identical camera bodies. Those need replacing every 2-3 years. The lenses last a lot longer but I also have backup lenses in my big black bag. If one lens develops a fault it will be while I am working so I have a selection of prime lenses I can switch to that covers the zoom lenses. Again, I don’t take the risk of not providing the service. Same with flashguns, two of those are nestling side by side.
The cameras are on a three year replacement and the lenses are costed over five. So over a 5 year period I will write off £10K of equipment. That’s £2K a year I need to budget for their replacement. And that cost is spread over the amount of weddings I expect to shoot. If I shoot 40 a year, then £50 of each wedding needs to go on equipment.
Oh and it is all insured…as am I. The insurance is for equipment, public liability and professional indemnity. That means if I fail to photograph your wedding, you are covered!
The other one that I include is training. Now you might be surprised to find that there is a bit of the budget set aside for training but it is continuous professional development and if I don’t keep my skills up to date then my product and my service suffer so it is an integral part of my business. As is sourcing new products. I try to offer premium quality products at as reasonable a cost as I can so I go hunting on your behalf. Trade shows and album suppliers are on my radar and I keep up to date with their offerings.
Then there is the marketing, wedding fayres, sample albums, website costs, leaflets for the wedding fayres. Again a cost to the business.
I also have to pay my accountant at the end of the year which is actually one I like because over the years I have saved more than I have paid!
And last but certainly not least there is the cost of the album, prints, canvas that you order as part of your package.
And after all that has been paid the Government immediately run off with at least 25% of what is left.
Now let’s have a little look at some of the other things that I do that you might not consider.
One thing I don’t do is turn up on the day of your wedding unprepared. It is absolutely vital that I plan properly for your wedding and I leave nothing to chance. As well as meeting with you at least twice before your big day I also visit the venue(s) If you are getting married in Church or Chapel I also take the time to meet with your Vicar or Priest. It is important for them to know I am going about my work in a professional manner. The ceremony itself is a very important moment and it is always beneficial for the person conducting your ceremony to know that I am professional and discrete. I will also attend your rehearsal so I can walk through it with you.
I also work out the route between venues and the time it takes to make that trip. I work with the wedding planner at your reception venue to make sure we have allowed plenty of time to fit in your photography and make sure you are ready and available to begin your wedding breakfast on time. I will liaise with your DJ/band to make sure your first dance is planned and takes place on time.
After the big day when my feet have recovered, I am hard at work at the computer processing your images. We usually shoot around 800 images on the day and I work through them selecting out the very best ones for you. Those are then corrected for exposure, colour balance and crops before exporting to be processed individually. Yes I really do individually process around 300 images. That takes almost a whole day to complete.
Then you pick out the ones you would like for your album and I get to work on your album design. All the albums have their own software and that takes me around 4-5 hours to go through the design and make sure it works as a coherent album.
So when you add up all the time I spend on your wedding it comes to around 4 days of work.
I hope that you can now appreciate just what does go into planning your wedding photography and producing your album. It IS a fantastic job and when I see the look on couples faces when they see their album it makes every minute worthwhile. I would not swap it for another job and being part of your wedding is honestly an honour and a privilege
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