Wedding photography-confused.

A lot of people r going for this option, means u can print them off at your own leisure, either at home or through profesh printers.. To choose 40 pics from 800 is cruel!!!! its nigh on impossible so take all of them

If you do end up going for this option, do check with the photographer what resolution files you will be getting. We have heard several times on this forum about couples only being given files that will print up to 6x4.

It is also the case that many photographers will profile the files. Check to see if this is the case or there may be printing issues. Also, remember that any decent pro will print the images on quality archival paper. Many high street printers and online labs don't do this, so ultimately, the images may fade or change colour.

Finally, be aware that cds/dvds have a debatable lifetime. Back them up by copying them every 3 years or so and handle carefully. One scratch could be enough to make the disk unreadable.

Hth

Peter

We have picked an option like yours which also cost £400. We get a 40 page album with edited pictures and another album that hasnt been enhanced and then every picture taken of the day on disc. I just hope ive gone for the right option.x

It really depends on a lot of factors if it's better or not. E.g experience of the photographer, quality of the photographs, amout of time processing, whether that have insurance, are they full time/part time, quality of equipment etc etc.

You'll find that packages with a nice quality album can never be that cheap, as wedding albums are expensive even for wedding photographers to buy - as they have to be a high standard, if they are doing a CD obviously their overheads are a little lower (price of a CD).

But on the other hand CD's can take a photographer a long time to do if they do lots of lovely editing on them, put them in a nice case and get them print ready for you. If your buying a CD only package, generally I would say that the less you spend you are either going to get someone who is not as experienced, or they won't take as long editing your images, or as said above the images are limited to say 6x4" or 7x5" (obviously there are exceptions).

But if you're happy with their quality of work and have asked all the right questions then it is totally down to you.

It's all so confusing! Your deal sounds good. The cheapest I can get is either a cd only package for £400, or for £700 I get a only get a 40 page album with a dvd with the images on- currently trying to negotiate a cd with additional images and no copyright to print more off! Brain ache....

If you say whereabouts you are getting wed maybe a bride or photographer on here could offer some more alternatives.

I think £400 sounds very cheap for wedding photography - I'm currently looking at CD packages (with high res photos on) that are about £1K.

I think to say that wedding photos are expensive because of the word 'wedding' is really unfair. Ok, I was shocked when the price of the photographer we wanted was £1650, but I understood why. His work is absolutely amazing and the quality of the products we get are really good. THere is a lot more to photography than just pointing the camera and clicking a button. You are paying for their skills and experience, and obviously time. And it's not just time on the day, there is the time spent with you beforehand, discussing your requirements and also the time editing the photos, compiling the album etc.

Personally and I may be shot down in flames for saying this....

......I would worry that with only paying £400, you may not get such a good photographer.

To me, it appears that most of the togs who charge more, do so because they are brilliant artists, capturing the moments beautifully, then editing them to make the finished photo even more stunning. I'd hate for you to only have one regret with regards to your wedding, that being your photos. Although I don't know much about photographers, so I may be talking a load of codswallop!

But it all depends on what you want and can afford.

That would be a very good idea......

I was actually trying to say this without actually coming out and saying it!

This link to a US photographer's site gives the photographer's side of the story re: prices - http://christinetremoulet.com/investment/behind-the-price

It makes for an informative read - I think I got the link originally from Hitched - I bookmarked it to show to my H2B when I was setting out our budget!

If you are around Norfolk/Cambs direction, I may be able to point you towards a good photographer who is the wife of someone h2b knows. SHe photographs children and has recently started on weddings (after we boked ours!), and her packages were really cheap for what she does ( I think she should be charging more). I guess once she gets known they will go up.

Hi there,

I thought I'd throw my tuppence in here too! Choosing a wedding photographer can be daunting and some photographer's websites are less than transparent. A package for £400 sounds cheap for a full day - is this what they are offering you? Be careful when someone says you get a CD - you need to make sure that you know the resolution of the images you'll be delivered so you can print them any size you want. A DVD is actually the best way to deliver images as a CD doesn't have enough space for a large no. of high resolution files.

As a wedding photographer I understand your frustration at the cost of things - we've actually launched a credit crunch package for exactly this reason. With this you get 3 hours of shooting time - I shoot a mix of reportage and portraits and group shots - and you'd receive a DVD with roughly 500 images on it.

Do let me know if you are interested in talking things through.

Ultimately you must rely on choosing a photographer based on how much you like their work balanced against how much it'll cost ... and I'd say that someone quoting £400 for a full day may not be the best option to go for - cheap though it seems.

Unfortunatly the old adage works here, 'that you get what you pay for'

And the first and foremost question to ask yourself is that is the cheaper photographer actually any good? Have you seen a wide ranging portfolio from him / her? Have you spoken to them about their experience? and do they have backup equipment and insurance?

and from there how are they supplying the images to you? Are they in full res? and are they post processed and colour calibrated?

You also have to ask yourself how much you'll save by getting them printed yourself? and what kind of quality you'll end up with. Even with the best photographer in the world, with the best equipment if he gives you uncalibrated and un post processed images, and you then take them to your local high street printer, you'll definetly end up with images that look no better than your holiday snapshots.

My local professionl lab charges a minimum of a fiver to post process and colour correct an image.

When it comes to professional photographers, the word 'wedding' doesn't instantly make them 'rip you off' but what is does do is get you a reasonable quote adding in all the additional work that a photographer will have to do to get you top notch images at the end of the day.

Thanks for all the advice, I really appreciate it. It would only be 3hrs we would require a photographer for 4pm-7pm as we are having a late ceremony. I don't think I'm going to go with the cd only option now. There are so many photographers who offer a range of packages, and who shoot great photos so my brain is frazzled. I understand that you get what you pay for- but the range of expense (not necessarliy to package contents) is huge, so to a certain extent I disagree with that. I've contacted a few and waiting for them to get back to me, I do have the money to pay more but its so hard making the decision when I don't know anyone who has got married recently, so I'm grateful for all your words of wisdom Oh I live in shropshire, the wedding is at the Park House in Shifnal in March next year.

Can any-one recommend a photographer in the west midlands? The other thing I have come accross is additional milage charge ggrrrr ☹️

Hello

Your post reminds me of what I felt like last autumn before we found our photographer!

We're getting married in Warwickshire so we saw some photographers in the Birmingham area - not quite Shropshire, but what worked best for us was meeting photographers who had done weddings at our venue before. It might be worth searching for photographers in the immediate area, and then you should meet them and see examples of their work. We did this and it changed our minds about the photographer to go for.

Also I would say £400 is very cheap for a CD of photos. We are going to pay £750 for a CD and make our own album. We did meet photographers that had cheaper prices but they had significantly less experience and the quality of the shots was less good, meet the cheaper guy plus at least 2 others and see their work before you book.

If you want any details for the photographers I found (all Birmingham area) email me at ***********@*******.***.

Pixcellence Wedding Photography can provide you with a wedding photographer covering the West Midlands and we do not charge for travel. I hope that helps..

http://www.pixcellence.co.uk

Clwyd - Wedding Photographer for Pixcellence Wedding Photography

We shoot weddings all over the Uk and don't charge for travel.

Take a look at the website and let us know if you'd like to meet and talk through your plans for the day.

Stefan