So what am I paying you for?

I get this question all of the time, mostly from friends who have no need of a wedding photographer and are trying to give me a hard time, but sometimes from clients:  “So what am I paying you for?”  Potential clients who look at the price lists of wedding photographers are sometimes surprised at what it costs to hire one (a good one anyway).  A wedding photographer’s price point can be anywhere from free (yes, even I shot weddings for free back in the day to create a portfolio) to upwards of $10,000.  I have found that most photographers in my area (Southern Ontario) seem to run anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000.

The problem arises when clients don’t understand exactly what a photographer does.  They see the price and think “this person wants me to pay the $X,XXX for ONE DAY of work!?”  I have this problem too.  I have no idea what my accountant/lawyer/mechanic/Member of Parliament or whatever does with the time I’m paying them for, and I sometimes question what I’m paying them for how much work they do. 

Here’s the thing that most people don’t realize.  The actual taking of photographs on the day of the wedding is probably the smallest part of my job.  This sucks because it’s the best part, but you do what you have to.  In case you’re interested here is how a typical job goes from start to finish:

1. Consultations: I meet with my clients a minimum of two times, but more if they want.  The first is where I present my work, tell them how great I am and they hire me.  The second (or more) is where I get the logistical info of the day itself as well as an idea of what kind of style the bride and groom are looking for.  Say this takes 4 hours.

2. The Wedding Day:  The actual best part of the deal, usually takes about 10 hours.

3. Editing: The longest and dullest part of the job is going through all of the images, culling the ones I don’t like and editing all of the rest.  I usually take around 1,000 shots so it takes some time…like 20-30 hours.

4. Presentation:  After the editing is done the DVD is delivered, album/print options are discussed and the couple leaves to look things over and get any orders into me at a later date.  This usually only takes an hour.

5. Finally there is all of the miscellaneous stuff: advertising, equipment maintenance, professional reading and practice which is hard to measure.

So from start to finish I figure that the average wedding involves anywhere from 40-50 hours of work.  On top of that I have fairly constant equipment updates to keep current with technology and the usual costs of running a business.  So the next time you look at wedding photography prices and wonder why you’re paying a certain amount of money for one day’s shooting…now you know!

Visit my website at: www.brentlaverphotography.com