I've had an epiphany

hannahhewlett1989:

Yeah I totally understand! What I dont understand though is how photographers can charge so much. I had this converstaion with a photographer on here the other day - but really how can they sleep at night when they're charging £700 for a CD! As I said to mum Very easily making that much money! lol.

 

x

 

Gosh seriously it's not just a CD. For a start they are using equipment which costs thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds! My photographer wasn't a full time pro and his equipment has cost him over £10,000!!!

That equipment gets you the best quality of photographs and they need to recup that money because after all it's a business. Then you need to think about the fact the photographer/s (some have 2 people present all day) are there from say 9am until 9pm so that's 12 hours of work x 2. So now you are maybe paying for 24 hours of photographers time. So say they are getting paid £10 per hour each that's £480 for their time alone. Then they need to look through all the photos, edit, produce a proof album or online album and then you have the cost of the album plus the printing costs. My album without photos cost £200 + and that was at trade price.

Honestly I don't think people realise how much work goes into creating a wedding album and it's really unfair to say 'really how can they sleep at night'.

If you aren't fussed about getting decent photographs then yeah getting your guests to take photos is a great idea. I gave ALL my guests a blank cd, had printed out lovely inserts and put them into the cd cover and asked them to take photos and return to us...easy you'd think?! I got 3 back out of 100 guests. This hasn't happened to only myself and there are countless other hitchers who had the same experience.

Think about the possible chance of not getting any photographs to look back on which you like although it's so easy to say 'photographs aren't that important anyway' until after the day was past in a blur and you wish you had maybe just a few stunning images to look back on.

Phone the local college as students are always looking at getting experience and they would be so much better than guests unless some guests have done even just a basic photography course.

Interesting thread this....wedo want nice photos of our wedding but are struggling to justify the cost of a photographer which is very very expensive - despite the amount of work that goes into it. What I find hard as well is that there are so many photographers out there (London has enough to cover teh whole of Europe) yet there isnt much give or negitation on their prices.

In years to come it will be nice to have great pics, but at the time its hard justifying the huge cost! I appraoched a contact of mine via work and he charged £2500 for a day - eeeeekk!

Still undecided on this and you can have a really mixed result!

I should have said that my photographer only charged £600 so I wasn't paying thousands and thousands of pounds.

My cousin had the ushers handing out slips of paper with bride and grooms email address on so that they could email the photos direct to them

They got loads of good ones

As I can tell by this thread, everyone has different views of what they want from their photographer. We met a couple of different ones before deciding. One offered a very cheap deal for most of the day and all the photos on disc. But when we met him he seemed ineffectual and just wouldn't have been able to do the job we wanted, he also had no insurance and didn't seem concerned that we found this a problem, his photos were fab. He was quite clearly just starting out and no doubt had potential, but we just didn;t want this. We ended up booking someone more than half again on our original budget but he gives us 2 togs all day (from morning through 4 hours of the reception), is fully insured, carries back ups of all his equipment, includes a photobook album, all images on disc with rights, and a signature board.

It comes down to what you want. We stretched our budget as the photos are something that we really want to be great but without the hassle of having to organise everyone ourselves. I don't think the standard of the actual photos would have been that different but I certainly don't think we are being ripped off by the togs we have booked, especially for the package that we have chosen. If you look around you should be able to find someone who suits your budget and will give you the pics you want.

xx

hannahhewlett1989:

Yeah I totally understand! What I dont understand though is how photographers can charge so much. I had this converstaion with a photographer on here the other day - but really how can they sleep at night when they're charging £700 for a CD! As I said to mum Very easily making that much money! lol.

 

x

 

I, like you, was astounded by the prices of professional photographers when I initially started looking. However, I have done a lot of research since, and contacted a lot of different photographers in my area. Price tends to be (not always) reflected in experience, and also in the photos themselves. Never thought I'd say this, but I can understand why some (again, not all) do charge quite a lot now. It's not just the taking of the photos, but the time spent afterwards tweeking them, which I know takes a very long time.

That said, there are some deals to be had. Many photographers I have come across offer a CD only package, with reprinting rights (not to be confused with copyright - which would mean that the photographer would not be able to use the photos in their own portfolio). Also, a lot offer different time options from 2 hours to full day coverage.

My advice, if you do decide to get a professional, is to research photographers in your area, as nearly all have websites. Have a look at their portfolios, and also whole weddings to get proper representation of their work (not just their best photos). Compare prices of those you like, and contact them letting them know your budget and ask what they can offer for around that price. Some are willing to negotiate on price.

xx

PurrfectGems:

hannahhewlett1989:

Yeah I totally understand! What I dont understand though is how photographers can charge so much. I had this converstaion with a photographer on here the other day - but really how can they sleep at night when they're charging £700 for a CD! As I said to mum Very easily making that much money! lol.

x  

 

Gosh seriously it's not just a CD. For a start they are using equipment which costs thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds! My photographer wasn't a full time pro and his equipment has cost him over £10,000!!!

That equipment gets you the best quality of photographs and they need to recup that money because after all it's a business. Then you need to think about the fact the photographer/s (some have 2 people present all day) are there from say 9am until 9pm so that's 12 hours of work x 2. So now you are maybe paying for 24 hours of photographers time. So say they are getting paid £10 per hour each that's £480 for their time alone. Then they need to look through all the photos, edit, produce a proof album or online album and then you have the cost of the album plus the printing costs. My album without photos cost £200 + and that was at trade price.

Honestly I don't think people realise how much work goes into creating a wedding album and it's really unfair to say 'really how can they sleep at night'.

If you aren't fussed about getting decent photographs then yeah getting your guests to take photos is a great idea. I gave ALL my guests a blank cd, had printed out lovely inserts and put them into the cd cover and asked them to take photos and return to us...easy you'd think?! I got 3 back out of 100 guests. This hasn't happened to only myself and there are countless other hitchers who had the same experience.

Think about the possible chance of not getting any photographs to look back on which you like although it's so easy to say 'photographs aren't that important anyway' until after the day was past in a blur and you wish you had maybe just a few stunning images to look back on.

Phone the local college as students are always looking at getting experience and they would be so much better than guests unless some guests have done even just a basic photography course.

 

absolutely and totally what PG said.  i think that the statement i've put in bold above is actually quite rude when you think about the amount of work that photographers do to make your pictures perfect.

i had a very good friend of mine do our photos - he is a very keen amateur photographer.  our photos were great and we didn't spend anywhere near £1k.  we've got a hard drive with all our pictures on if we want to print them out in the future.

think very very hard about asking friends to do your pictures - see other jobs or pictures that they have taken before committing yourself.  out of ALL of the things you pay for in your wedding day, your pictures will last the longest, so it is worth getting someone with at least an interest and a skill in photography, with the right kit, to take the official pics.

Photos are really important to me (I take hundreds each year) and I had no doubt in my mind that i wanted a professional, creative tog. We are having ours from 10ish in the morning right through to 9pm ish in the evening. We are having mostly reportage style shots and also just getting them on a CD so we can do what we want with them. 

That said it is costing about 10% of the overall budget. Some friends of ours are on a limited budget and they are going for a professional tog just for the ceremony and immediately after. 

I've been to a couple of v. informal weddings where the couple haven't had a professional tog and used the guest's photos. The photos are fine but they are like a collection of pics from a party without the 'staging' & creativity that a professional can add. That is fine for them though. 

Also at a wedding we went to last year, they had created a special wedding Flickr account and gave cards to everyone with the login details. About 4 of the guests uploaded their pics (although they did have loads of photos between them!). 

If I was going down the route of using the guest's photos, I would specifically ask certain guests to take lots of pics and perhaps provide some trusted ones with a list of what you might like photographed. Also think about whether you want people to be rounded up for group shots and who would do this. Also, I've seen some photos where props have been used, e.g. a picture frame that people hold to have their pic taken, that looks quite cool!