Nov 08 2008
Why is it so hard to get jobs for wedding photography?
ERUDITE asked:
Three years ago so much work couldn’t keep up. Now Brides say “My friend will do it for 300 dollars”. We (Wife and I ) do outstanding wedding pictures but no one wants to pay money anymore.
“BUT” they pay big money for beer or wine.
Bartender always makes big money. I say “I refuse to make less money than the bartender”.
We want to know what you think!
Three years ago so much work couldn’t keep up. Now Brides say “My friend will do it for 300 dollars”. We (Wife and I ) do outstanding wedding pictures but no one wants to pay money anymore.
“BUT” they pay big money for beer or wine.
Bartender always makes big money. I say “I refuse to make less money than the bartender”.
We want to know what you think!
19 Responses to “Why is it so hard to get jobs for wedding photography?”
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Do you have a website that you could display some of these outstanding wedding pictures? I understand your dilemma. But there are so many couples out there trying to pay for a wedding themselves and there is just not a huge budget for photography anymore. I agree, everyone wants to spend it on alcohol. My advice is to move to a region where there are less people to say “my friend is a wedding photographer” that is what is really kicking your **** right now. Find somewhere and make a name for yourselves!
People do like to look back at pictures but if their friend is a photographer & they will charge them $500 less than a pro will then they are going to take it! My mom’s friend isnt a pro by any means but she has done a few weddings & is going to do mine for free so I was like heck yeah!
I can’t afford $1500 for a freaking photographer! Maybe try lowering your prices or having smaller packages??? Anyways Good Luck 
Yeah outrageous prices. I would rather pay a little more for professional pics, but thousands of dollars (or a thousand dollars) for time - NO thank you! Unless you got a PHD, your time isn’t worth hundreds of dollars an hour.
Which is, I’m sorry, not to say you probably don’t do beautiful wedding pictures. It sounds like you really love doing wedding photography, but it is really hard to budget 1500-2000 dollars for that. A “friend” wanted 1000 for her time to do our pictures.
Ugh! I feel your pain on this one. Now with some many people having nicer digital cameras they automaticillyl think they are professional. think they are a professional. Try getting booths at area bridal shows, networking with other wedding vendors such as dj’s and florist. Also, people love blogs, so if you don’t have one you should start one!!
Good Luck!
I really don’t see the point in paying someone $500/hour to take pictures, when I have friends and family who are photographers and will do it for free…
I disagree with you.
I’m paying $2500 for a photographer.
The bartender is covered by the cost of the hall, but as two non-drinkers, my fiance and I are not covering the cost of the booze.
I am a photographer too, and I think that brides simply don’t realize the value of a professional wedding photographer. They don’t realize that it involves WAY more than just pointing and clicking. A photographer needs to understand different lighting (as it can change multiple times between church, outdoor pictures, and reception lighting), they need to be able to be the calm in all the stress and action of the day, they have to capture true emotion and completely understand posing, their equipment, and also how to market themselves. They need to be able to show brides their great personality and run their own business. And of course most brides do not think about it this way. Professional photographers put years into learning their craft, and should be compensated as any other competent professional.
BTW, photographers generally do NOT make hundreds of dollars an hour. Most of the time is spent planning (scouting locations, meeting with clients, engagement pictures, creating the website) and doing post processing, which can take another 50 hours+ to give the couple amazing photos and albums. Another thing for brides to keep in mind is that the mileage really adds up.
I am a bride on a budget too, so I understand their frustration. But real professionals are not trying to rip a bride off. They produce quality work, and need to make a living as well.
I think that if you break it down by telling them what they are paying for…
$15.00/hour for “x” amount of hours
$200.00 for digital only
$300.00 for digital w/touchups
$???.?? for package “A”
etc.
Give them options. If you only have one set package and one set price then they are less likely to use you. Also… isn’t making $300.00 for the day better than making $00.00??
The economy doesn’t help anyone.
The other reason I could think that there would be a difference between photos and beer would be the number of people each good/service pertains to. Everyone who attends a wedding has a better chance of buying a drink/or the bride and groom make sure everyone has drinks, than everyone being concerned with their pictures. I think the rate of importance has gone to courtesy rather than the luxury of professional photos.
. It is simple in a recession when people are saving money they have to cut stuff. Three years ago there was the housing boom the economy was better. what State are you in? I think because most people want just pictures that their friends can take with a digital camera when planning a wedding the art of photographer is not as important. Sad i know . Good food and fun triumphs no one said wow they had artistic pictures because no one sees the pictures most people Will say they had great food, because they will eat the food. I think you need to have an edge for example i want engagement pictures however i just want a hi- resolution CD not actual pictures because i want to uses them for e-mails web sites . I am finding this hard in MD
Some people may not care about having professional pics. But I do…I got a rather expensive photographer who did an amazing job. He’s been featured in many wedding magazines, and I felt that our wedding pictures were magazine quality.
But QUALITY is key. I’m not going to pay a bunch of money for a “professional” photographer when their portfolio does not stand out to me. And believe me, I met with a couple of photographers whose work was no better than what cousin X can achieve.
So basically, maybe you need to invest in creating a better portfolio. Are you with the times? Brides don’t just want pics of guests standing together in a posed shot anymore. Journalistic style; candid shots; a variety of black & white and color shots; the over-all artistry is a MUST if someone’s going to shell out the big bucks.
Especially since digital photography and programs like Picassa make generic photography more accessible to the layman.
So really, what are you doing to differentiate yourself?
Blow them away with your portfolio…and once you’ve got ‘em hooked you can get to the small matter of the fee. Oh, and you should really be offering digital copies of the pics…
Of course we pay big money for booze, some of us thinks it’s tacky to inivite people to a wedding and have them pay for booze (providing you can afford it), where as the pics are just for us.
We are paying about $5000 for our pics, but we’re paying ourselves and it’s the most important part to us, so we were willing to spend the money.
Don’t be so rude as to assume all people are paying for their own wedding. Some have set budgets and mom and dad cannot afford that.
Also, some people simply do not take that much emotional stock in wedding pictures.
Truth be told, if you were my photographer and I saw this post, we’d have issues.
Honestly it’s the economy in general right now…..our business isn’t doing quite as bad as some others. (I’m a wedding photographer as well) But you also have to make sure you are with the times…..you didn’t give much detail but pay attention to your website….new digital crazes as far as editing goes…..newest albums, etc….you don’t have to appeal to the masses, but must have something different and unique about your photography in order to stand out. Send me your website please!
because the the economy *****! no one is making alot of money anymore.. money is tight! i found a photographer for $650 and one for 1,000 which one do you thing i went with?
I wanted a good photographer, but I also couldn’t afford 2 or 3 grand for one. I am paying about 1k for a gal that did my engagement shots.
She’s a few years out of school and does the photography on the side. She’s only giving me a disk with the pics and a release to do with them as I please.
I think one of the big photographer “rip offs” (forgive my lack of a better term) is requiring the bride/groom to buy packages of photos.
Give ‘em to me digitally and let me do what I would like with them!
I’m not opposed to paying a photographer for their time, but much more than $125 to $150 per hour is a bit too pricey for me.
There are people willing to pay.
The economy isn’t doing that well and many people are trying to find ways to cut expenses. Photography is a big ticket item and some couples will decide they would rather spend $2000 on better food for their guests than a photographer. Photography is exclusively for the couple and the guest doesn’t get any benefit from it, so it falls into the expendable category.
Also, I think fewer people use traditional photographers these days. I’m an amateur photographer, who has won awards (I’ve been told that I’m pretty good), and many people ask me to do senior pictures for them because the schools have started requesting digital images and most photographers in this area are still using old fashioned equipment or they won’t do outdoor photo sessions and I will. However, the economy could be the primary problem here as well.
For our wedding, we’re interviewing photographers that my fiancee has used over the years, who work with digital equipment. We’re not the type of people to hang portraits in our home because the walls are reserved for art and portraits don’t mix well with our taste in art. Also, he’s a designer, so he wants to be able to correct and use the images for his own purposes after the wedding.
Well, we really wanted to hire a professional but it just wasn’t worth it where we live. They were basically all the same… charged $2,000 to photograph just the ceremony and one hour at the reception and we only got 200 photos in the end. We wanted someone to photograph us getting ready, the ceremony and a few hours at the reception because we planned on spreading out things at the reception…we didn’t want to have to do all the traditional stuff in the first hour. And we wanted more than 200 photos… To get what we wanted would have cost us $6500 and on top of that for more photos was $10 per sheet. We would have been paying more for our pictures than what we are planning to spend on our entire wedding day.
PS We aren’t paying for the booze, where we live it is perfectly acceptable to have a cash bar and that’s what we are doing.
We got a great deal for our wedding photos–we spent less than $200 and a professional photographer did take the photos. However, it was my husband’s cousin’s husband that did. Some of them didn’t turn out as well as I would have hoped, but I’m not going to complain. He took a ton of photos AND he gave us all the negatives. I can’t argue with that!
People are so into the wedding being a party now days that the whole photo thing isnt as important. I have done some phoography, and the photos are my biggest investment. Itll be the only thing I can look at in 40 years and remember the whole day without making pictures in my head. And I can show them to my grandkids. Pictures should be the biggest thing.
BUt not everyone understands someone can do it for 300 dollars but that doesnt make them any good. Every one thinks you can just click a camera and get amazing pictures (Stupid digital Point and Shoots ruined it all for us!). BUt its not that easy to take an amazing photo.
My photographer does an all day deal with an album, a big album and release the proofs for 4500. Its 12 hours, 40 page 10×10 album, proof release(online and digital), engagement session, 2 photographers and nice pricing on the extras I might need.
I chose him because his pics are amazing and I didnt want to go that high for photos but, it’s my main wedding cost.