Hi all - not understanding these prices here so if someone can clarify that would be great.
My fiancé and I are getting quoted between $8500 and $11,000 dollars to have both a photographer and videographer. Without the videographer, it’s roughly $5-$6K. Do they charge this much just because it’s a wedding? I’ve been hearing that most of the time is taken up by editing the photos? I mean why the F are you editing photos? I hired you to take RAW photos god damn it.
Anyway is this right?
Gear and gear up keep
Second and maybe third shooters usually
Insurances
Super/tax
Travel time
Labour time (usually talking sorting and filtering through thousands+ of photos)
Years (usually) of learning the craft/developing a style
Marketing
Consult fees
Software (Adobe, Dropbox or whatever cloud solution) etc
Getting away with it.
Definitely shop around OP. You might find someone cheaper but it means quality might also not be to your liking. Check photographer portfolio and select. Also don’t pay all in one go. Congrats and all the best.
Photos are edited because they look way better than RAW ones. It takes time.
Agree with this point about shopping around. We went to one photographer in a fancy area in Sydney who wanted to charge a fortune and had photos that were blurry in their portfolio!! So bad that we even declined a free engagement shoot with them.
Photographer we ended up with didn't necessarily "present well" - wasn't a smooth seller of himself, but we LOVED his photos and 2 other friends used him after our wedding based on the photos he took for us.
He was about 4k less than similar quality photographers
We chose to just have the pictures and have a friend video the ceremony - we just chose what was more important to us.
Back in the days of film, photographers retained the physical negatives and were able to earn income from publishing enlargements and albums for their clients. In this digital era, the client is the copyright owner (unless you agree alternative arrangements) so photographers charge based on the total cost of imaging your event. You may want them to edit the photos because they're professionals; unless of course you have this proficiency in which case you may be able to negotiate accordingly. I have seen watermarked digital wedding images before but I don't believe this is common practice.
I think you are wrong about the copyright thing. Unless otherwise agreed, the copyright is retained by the photographer.
If you were commissioned to take photos for a wedding, or any other private or domestic use, your client will own copyright, unless you reached an agreement to the contrary. Australian Copyright Council Factsheet, 09 Jan 2024: Photography & Copyright A relative got married earlier this year and I was chatting with the photographer to learn how things now operate.
Looks like you are right.
Generally you agree to a variation of this, or at least a competent photographer will, otherwise after the wedding you can not pay the remaining amount and demand the photos
unless you reached an agreement to the contrary
Agreement to the contrary could be as simple as signing the standard photographer's contract.
Shop around, ask for price if paying in cash ;)
Where are you? I have a photographer in Sydney with reasonable prices that I used for my wedding
If the $11,000 isn’t enough, don’t forget to offer them a meal at your wedding as well.
They’ll be well fed and I won’t have to read a news article about it down the track of them slaving away whilst you all got to eat.
Lmao was gonna say that too
Same reason the venue costs more to hire.
Price is so high because they have to deal with the bride and her family. Why do you even want RAW photos anyway?
Yeah look it sounds like a lot, but it's one of those professions where the equipment costs a hell of a lot of money - especially if you're doing video and photo, they're likely going to bring 2/3 people with them, and edits do honestly take an extreme amount of time, especially for weddings where the output has to be perfect.
In saying that, you can easily hire amateurs to do photo/video for considerably cheaper if it's something that won't bother you - or encourage the guests to record/photograph as much as they can and then do something a lot more casual
Yes, wedding tax.
But, more importantly, ask yourself 'who is this for and am I going to watch it later?'
Granted, I wish Id spent more on photos - cheaping out isnt always smart. But somethings are just a waste of time and effort
Like birthing videos. I can count on one finger ☝️ how many times that thing's been rewatched 🤷♀️
100%.
Wedding photos - for sure.
Wedding videos? - I know I struggle to work out what I’m going to watch across Netflix, Stan, Disney and Amazon but I sure as shit ain’t going to whip out a wedding video to re-watch.
If you want to stream the wedding to relatives who can’t attend for some reason, you can do that a lot cheaper with a phone and a friend.
LOL just shows the dumb ignorance … RAW images actually need THE MOST POST PROCESSING …
The cost will be due to the lack of people willing to do it … Everyone with a smart phone thinks they know better than the poor old phtographer/videographer … I got out of doing weddings a couple decades ago because the fussy couples expected product that would take me 200+ hours of processing to deliver, but would never be willing to pay the price :P
another possible way is to contact Swinburne, RMIT etc and see if a photography student (last year) is interested in taking it on as a side hustle or project - it will help them build a portfolio so a bit of win win and a lot cheaper. may not end up with the same result but you can always vet them on their current work - just throwing it on the table as a suggestion.
Same idea goes for paintings for a new house.
Went through this about 15 months ago. Many refuse to give originals (although as mentioned copyright law seems at least grey), and want to watermark all the photos. As much as the industry seems wired to not do what many of us want, there aren't many good alternatives.
The conditions you want/agree need to be very clear before the event. Have heard of a few cases of photographers withholding output until they get their way. (Are you going to get everyone back together and re-do the day?)
We ended up getting primarily one friend with a helper to use our decent DSLRs/Lenses to take RAW photos. Processing them all was a bit of a slog though.
OP shouldn't worry, I'm sure he will probably get another crack to get it right at his second or third wedding.
Hire 4 film and photography students for 1k each, bonus 1k to the best.
All covered for 5k.
I can video the wedding night back at the hotel at no charge to you. I’ve got all the equipment needed including an online profile
So much crap that is spent on weddings that isn't needed though because it's what others do, we go along with it.
All in all, you probably only need about 10 good edited photos of the hundreds taken. Also limit the time they are there. Do you really need professional photos of people getting ready? IMO they look terribly staged and aren't used afterwards. Get the video taken on a decent iPhone etc. Unless of course you've decided that it is the most magical day ever imagined and worth spending every last cent.
For context we concentrated on the nice venue, plenty of alcohol and good music. We all had a great time.
Because you want your wedding photos to look good. To ensure that you pay someone who is talented and experienced and knows their craft. There is a higher risk of complaints or negative reviews for weddings due to people’s expectations, so they’ll put more into ensuring there are a lot of good shots and they get all the right people in photos. You’re probably looking at 2-3 days work for the photographer, plus the cost of their equipment. Also factor in that most weddings are Friday-Sunday so there’s a limited number of days that they can be booked, you’re paying partially to reserve that time. The photographer might not get booked every week so they need to earn enough for a reasonable annual income if this is their main gig.
Having said that, that does sound expensive. I negotiated a cheaper package for the photographer of my choosing to only do the ceremony and shoot after at scenic spot rather than having them for the whole reception. Two photographers of my choice were willing to do this. I didn’t do a video, just had a friend film our wedding dance. Also got lots of great photos from friends from the reception. You can also just set up a tripod somewhere discrete to film the ceremony if you’re not too fussed about quality and just want the memories.
My tip. Ensure you get photos with your immediate family only, no partners or spouses of siblings in at least some of the photos. Super common that one of these becomes an ex at some point and ruins the family photo. Also get one with each sibling, just parents etc.
I mean why the F are you editing photos? I hired you to take RAW photos god damn it.
Tell me you know nothing about photography without telling me you know nothing about photography. FFS.
Yeah definitely shop around. I think we paid 2.5K for photos and maybe the same for the videographer, who gave us all the original footage. Videographer I think we found on fb marketplace. Send me a direct message if you want the details of both, happy to pass them on.
And of course they're going to be editing photos, good chance a RAW one will need touch ups and most people who hire a photographer just want them looking perfect when they receive them.
This is going to shock you. Most dont even give you the raw. Lol.
You might as well buy your own camera and have a family member take the photos.
Well kind of.
That’s a big conversation right there tbh but I’d be surprised if you found anyone charging this much , and be willing to fork over sooc raws (and no edits)
Link to their portfolios? Shop around if it’s not in budget.
Quickly off the top of my head:
Gear and gear up keep
Second and maybe third shooters usually
Insurances
Super/tax
Travel time
Labour time (usually talking sorting and filtering through thousands+ of photos)
Years (usually) of learning the craft/developing a style
Marketing
Consult fees
Software (Adobe, Dropbox or whatever cloud solution) etc