Photographers please

Perhaps have a look on Woucher or something. £250 for a wedding over two separate days is a very low budget.

It's hard to recommend spending £250 for a 'pro', because any pro willing to accept that is likely very inexperienced or just bad.

Out of the two, I would pick the less experienced but more talented photographer over the more experienced but less talented photographer.

I think £750 would be the minimum I would generally 'recommend' people spend. There are occasionally exceptions though where a less experienced photographer is charging £450 but producing work equivalent to a 1K photographer..

I'd say you'd need to look to spend a grand for both days (in total) to get what you want.

It's a catch22, anyone with experience is going to be charging more so you'll have to use someone with less experience.

£250 budget though and you'll likely have to grab a college student. Sorry ☹️

That's what I thought you'd say *sigh* thanks anyway ?

This is a tough one. We initially had similar issues, with photographers quoting a min of £800. We have asked around and have found that our best mans dad used to be a photographer and will take a few photos for us.

I would recommend asking around as you never know who you might know who can take some pictures for you. Hope this helps.

As for professionals with a £250 budget, I think you will struggle to find this, especially if you want to make sure that they are good at what they do.

The guys already have it covered, but I'd be agreeing with their sentiment on this one.

£250 for coverage across 2 days is quite a big ask- just to put it into perspective, it wouldn't even cover our outgoing expenses. If you opt for ceremony only coverage you might have a better chance of finding someone in that price range, although your problem may then be finding someone who is willing to take on a ceremony only booking, when they may be able to get a full day booking further down the line, if you see what I mean? What days do you need coverage for, are they weekdays?

Looking locally will be your best bet, as the smaller the expenses for the TOG the more likely you are to find someone.

Sorry to hear that you've been let down though ☹️

Our ceremony is on a monday, so I was hoping that being an unusual day might get us a little leeway but the evening reception is on a saturday. I'm in the process of looking locally as I type so hopefully something will come up. I do understand the problem believe me and I am fully aware that it is absolutely the right thing to pay for the experience of the photographer and cover their expenses as well as give them some profit - no point doing the job otherwise is there!! Such is life eh, something will turn up - and if not, I'm sure some of the photos our friends and family take will be lovely ?

Best of luck finding someone. I hope it all comes together for you ?

Ouch.......sad to hear about your problem although this is a re-occurring story on this forum......

The one thing in your favour is a Monday wedding. That is a normally relatively quiet day for shooting weddings. That said, the fact that you are after 2 days coverage for a very small fee makes getting someone difficult. The other togs have gone through the reasons why.....

Perhaps if you post the area and exact dates involved, it may help you get someone. If you can re-assess your budget, then that would help more and ensure that you get a more guaranteed quality pictorial memories from your day.....

Sorry if that doesn't help.......

Peter

Do you know any one with a good camera who would do it for you or help you do it yourself? I'm having this dilemma myself. OH has a good camera, I'm thinking of taking it to the getting ready part with my friends, might have to teach them to use it but it's digital so I can check myself - I'm also going to take pictures of the flowers and bits myself - I'm pretty sure I can do that the way I want it to be done.

The ceremony itself I'm going to get another person to take pictures and then the reception I'm thinking of asking my sister or his sister or both who are both quite good plus we may take a fee ourselves.

I might ask OH to go to the reception earlier and take some pics himself - he's very good too.

I'm not paying £1000, we don't have that money. If you can't afford it and are happy to accept pictures from family and could learn to edit them yourself then do that but maybe just give them a ideas of what you need. I know it's not the same as a pro....

With respect, there is more to wedding photography than a good camera

Peter

I'm aware of that Peter, OH did the photography at his nieces wedding the other month, he's very good a taking pictures and there was no money in the budget for a professional. It's not alway possible for people to be able afford the photography they want when there on a small budget and therefor maybe being creative and coming up with a compromise. Whilst you can't replace someone who is a pro you may know someone who is a keen amateur photographer/ student who can help out a bit, maybe having a pro for one part of the celebration.

Helen thank you! My sister takes some beautiful pictures and has a good camera. She is a talented amateur and might be willing to take photographs while we're all getting ready. If we have friends and family taking photos in the evening, then we could look at a ceremony only package which, going on current research, we might be able to afford with a little budget stretching. Excellent advice thank you!!

I'm so please for you that you have found something that is going to work for you.

The others are right re: Mondays. It's generally an off peak day (although some might not consider it is as it's either side of a weekend just like a Friday). You might be able to hire someone for a couple of hours to cover the ceremony at a reasonable cost. Does the person who covers the ceremony need to be the same person who covers the reception?

The thing is if the OP wants professional standard photos she is either going to have to "blow it" and lower her expectations by entrusting her wedding memories to relatives who can probably take perfectly acceptable photos but they most likely won't be the professional standard she "really wants", or she needs to blow it and stretch the budget enabling her to invest in a pro. Another consideration is does the OP's sister want to be taking photos all day, or does she want to be enjoying seeing her sister get married?

There's a pretty cool 'tip of the iceberg' infografic on this blog which might help people understand why professional photography costs what it does. £1500 for a 2 day job isn't all that unrealistic...

https://francescospighi.com/wedding-photography-price-explained/2014/02/

Of course she wants to be enjoying seeing me get married - but I have asked her only to do the 'bridal preparations' shots - so getting ready and leaving the house, not photos of the ceremony itself.

I really appreciate the advice from all you professionals but sometimes, as much as we might like to have the best, we have to accept some compromises - if I choose to have the best photography - we don't get married because we can't afford it - seems a bit daft to me!! We will have 100+ guests at our evening reception - chances of them all taking naff photos is pretty slim I think ?

With the greatest of respect to all the photographers on this thread sometimes you have to make big compromises when you simply don’t have the money to spend on a proper photographer. Our budget is also 2k, we also have three young children between us who we also need to take care of. We would love a proper photographer but if we did it would most probably be at the expense of being able to take the kids on holiday or we would get in debt for it which would also impact the quality of what we can give them, we’re just not prepared to do that to them. Our wedding isn’t just all about us, it’s also about bringing our step family together. I’m sure you all do beautiful weddings photography and for lots of people who have the budget it’s perfect for them. So yes I’m somebody who is lowering my expectations and trusting what my family can do.

As a quick note I would be a bit upset if my sister said she wouldn’t take pictures give she knows our budget and our situation.

Budgets are something that I totally appreciate. If they are good photographers, the camera itself becomes less important and their visual eye more so..........I have lost count of the times when a client has said, "that's a fantastic photograph, you must have a good camera".....sometimes that photograph might have been on a point and shoot camera............Its never about the camera, its the creative visual brain behind it.

One thing to consider is that as the family will be taking photographs of you, you are likely to be very relaxed around them which may well help the style.

Hope all goes well?

Peter

Semi-professional - a second photographer who was starting out on her own and wanted to begin her portfolio. She was doing us a special deal to get her own portfolio started but we had seen examples of her work and we were really happy to help her out. Unfortunately, she's decided to do another wedding because they've offered her more money. OK, so we hadn't signed the contract yet, we were due to do that next week but I feel that she should have honoured our agreement and the only reason we hadn't was that she hadn't got her liability organised and she didn't want to put us in a position that was awkward if she couldn't get the insurance.

I will be happy if we can find a photographer to give us a ceremony only deal and have lined up some appointments on that basis with good initial quotes so hopefully by this time next week, I'll have it all organised.

The best photography doesn't always = the most expensive photographer. There are ways you can involve a pro in your day(s), as someone else said already said you might be lucky and find someone charging £400 for a £1k service, you could check on Gumtree for photographers portfolio building, or wait for a Groupon deal to come along.

I'm very respectful of the fact that people's budget won't always stretch but my response was directly to the OP who said she wanted to pay £250 for 2 days professional photography coverage as being unrealistic, not a criticism of anyone else who is having to compromise elsewhere.

We had the same kind of problem. We didnt want to spend any more than 400 on a TOG. We found a lovely guy at a local wedding fair for £350 up to first dance. We love his work and he is great. Could you possibly spend less on something else?

Sarah

x

Not easily, but I now have 3 photographers willing to do us a great deal on ceremony only who are coming round to show us their work over the next fortnight so hopefully we will soon have something organised. thank you all for your help!

My friend got married last year and found a guy who was really into photography but not a professional for £50 plus expenses which he estimated at £30 on ebay to cover the day up to about 8pm. She covered his meal at the reception, which he wasn't expecting, so all in in cost her about £100. He edited 100 photos that she chose and gave her a disc with all images on it, about 600 in total, and said can do whatever she likes with them, including editing any others and getting whatever copies she wants.

Whilst he wasn't a professional photographer, he was really good and her photo's were beautiful and a couple even made the local paper (specific reason for that). He just really enjoys photography and so offers his services for a token price.

Another friend who got married a few years ago, approached a local college and had a few students come and do her photos. I can't remember the cost but it really wasn't much, just covering expenses. There was an agreement that they could use them as part of their course work. She had loads of student offering to do it and chose three of them who had really different styles and had some gorgeous photos. They gave her all the raw photos on a disc and edited loads of them as part of their course and she had those on a disc too.

In a nutshell (!) try ebay or the local colleges. Or have a look if there is a local camera club where a few people might be happy to do it for a token price and expenses.