Why Do Photographers Cost So Much?

Last week I got a call from a young groom looking for a photographer.  When I told him my pricing, he audibly gasped.  I asked what his buget was.  It was $400 for 7 hours of photography. 

Now I had the job of trying to tell him, without sounding snotty, that he’d have to look very carefully to find someone in that price range that would take nice images.  More than likely, he’d have to hire a student that needed practice.  “Practice?”, he said, “I don’t like the sound of that”.  I encouraged him to utilize Wedding Wire and really investigate his potential photographer before signing a contract. 

I was kind of depressed hanging up the phone…it is one thing to have a low budget and another to have no expectations of how much things will cost.  Spreading a budget paper thin and spending next to nothing on every aspect of the day is not going to result in a favorable outcome.  My solution for the above situation?  Hire a pro for the formals and then get friends to photograph the rest of the day.  You are going to be able to hire a much higher caliber of photographer when your $400 budget is for just a couple hours versus seven.  

So why DO photographers cost so much?

There is a saying I’ve heard many times about how pricing doubles when you mention it is for a wedding.  Though some businesses abuse this way of charging, most wedding professionals charge more for weddings because of the stress.  Not just the stress of calmly dealing with the craziness of a wedding day (whether good or bad, it is usually a bit crazy), but the stress that this can only be done once…there are no do-overs for weddings.  To sucessfully photograph a wedding well, with good images taken with a positive attitude and high customer satisfaction takes a lot of experience, education and equipment, and the photographer that has all that will not be charging $400. 

Think of the cost of wedding photography like you do a hotel.  You can stay at a hotel for $60, you can stay at a hotel for $600, and heck, there are $6000 a night hotels.  I’ve stayed at a couple $300 a night rooms that didn’t impress me, and some $150 a night rooms that were over the top awesome.  However, I think it is fairly safe to assume that you can expect to spend $70-150 a night for a clean bed and decent hotel room.  Yes, you can spend $30 a night in some places, but even that is hard to find.  The point is that you need to know what to expect for costs before setting your budget. 

In reality, there are some amazing photographers that don’t cost that much.  Yes, having the sticker shock of $4000 for 8 hours of photography can be daunting at first, but there is a reason for that pricing.  One of the biggies?  There are only so many weekends in a year. 

It would be different if we were able to charge $4000 a day every day of the year.  For wedding photographers (especially in Minnesota) spring, summer and early fall Saturdays are precious.  Yes, the charge may be $4000 for a wedding, but spread that out into a daily rate, and it dilutes that money fairly quickly.  And not only does that price include the initial cost of the PROFESSIONAL equipment, hours of prep work, the hours of shooting the wedding, and HOURS of editing on the back end, it also has to cover small business taxes, our computers, continuing education, liability insurance, health insurance, babysitting, paper, ink, studio space, DVDs, backup systems, online viewing systems, etc etc etc. 

I have had people say to me before, “wow, you make $250 an hour?  must be nice”.  Well, I shoot maybe 2-5 portrait sessions a week (lets be honest, it is more often that lower number!) and it not only takes that hour of shooting, but 1-2 of editing, then I have to pay for online viewing, little costs like the disk and jewel case, gas to get to and from the shoot, babysitting for when I’m gone, depreciation of thousands of dollars of camera and computer equipment and taxes.  So that $250 stretches pretty thin by the end.  If I was shooting 10 sessions a day, then the pricing could go down, which is why you have the big box studios of the world able to make a profit at a much cheaper rate.  We want to stay a boutique, having 1 on 1 rapport with our clients and making customer service a priority along with high quality work.

How do you bargain with your photographer?  There is always room for a little negotiation.  I find the biggest turnoff for me is when someone completely low balls me.  Asking for way too much or saying that your wedding would be good for my portfolio (therefore I should shoot it for half price) is condensending.  Some photographers give winter or military discounts, some discount for personal reasons, and it never hurts to ask, but don’t have your feelings hurt if the photographer says no…it is their business afterall. 

I just love when couples are honest with me.  If you tell me the range you want to spend and the hours you want, I will see what we can do and be honest right back. 

I hope that this article doesn’t sound preachy or hurts anyone’s feelings.  I have experienced sticker shock as well and found it helpful to know what went into that pricing…I hope this blog entry helps you make a reasonable decision about your photography budget and choice of photographer for your wedding!