Lets talk about the bottom line $$$

Yes, the big debate about pricing for wedding photography.

How do I justify such a price? What service should I offer? How much should I ask for such a task?

The greatest fallacy of digital photography is that many enthusiasts feel expensive camera = professional photography. There is absolutely no relationship between the two. Camera’s have reached such a high level that people can just point and shoot and get good results. That simply isn’t true. Sure the picture will be in focus and probably exposed correctly, but that is about it. The camera is not located in the photographer’s hand it is located in the photographer’s head.

To put it bluntly, a lot of people in the photography business are no good. They are not functional at a professional level and they are people still grasping with the basics. Photography is an art. If you see it as simply a recording device, you have no idea how artibtrary your work is.

This is basically an excerpt from a wedding pricing guide by Stacy Reeves. If you determine your cost of running the business and that includes:

•studio rent
•studio bills
•marketing
•office supplies
•equipment repairs
•purchases
•workshops and seminars
•computers
•software
•accounting and legal fees
•websites
•bridal fairs
•association dues
•sample items
•travel for business
•website membership fees

then add a portion your cost of living if you depend on photography money at all to live!


•rent
•utilities
•bills
•student loans
•food
•health insurance
•car payments
•gas
•etc.

Add the “cost to run a business” to your “cost of living”, let’s give a conservative estimate and say it is $10,000. If you plan on shooting 10 weddings, you end up with a $1,000 per wedding in overhead. You need to make this much to break even!
It doesn’t mean you have to do weddings for $600, but maybe expanding your business into other areas or including additional low cost items in the wedding packages that take little time to produce. So people who are charging $1000 and including the digital files probably are terrible at business (they don’t understand the true cost of operating) or they do not live from their art or creativity.

To overcome the good camera=pro photography section of the market, not the clients but the photographers who charge for crisp, well-exposed snapshots, is going to take an education of the public of the cardinal rule: you get what you pay for. Quality then comes into the equation. How do you value your time and work?

What do you think? How do new photographers on the market get business if not by pricing?

What do you offer that makes your business or product different from others?

What are brides looking for when shopping for a wedding photographer? here is a great article http://www.bridaltweet.com/profiles/blogs/3-things-brides-consider-...

Let’s talk!