Average Cost of Photographer and Videographer in Essex?

Our photographer is £1200 (for a fairly substantial package) and our videographer is £800 so your quotes seem about right I'm afraid!

Hi Raef,

Thanks very much for that - they are soexpensive aren't they.

Paris x

There is a lot of work on both wedding photography and videography that goes on after the wedding in post production. This is where much of the cost comes from as it will often run in to days.

I would argue that where the real expense "often" comes from is the wedding dress itself. I see many dresses costing double or treble the cost of photography where the dress is often a design that is mass produced. Good photography and videography is like a designer dress where it is tailored to the individuality that is you.

I am bound to get few comments about this post!!!!! Then again, I am naturally biased........?

Peter

Hi paris, im now going with these guys, http://www.affordableweddings3.moonfruit.com/#/our-services/4520502570 im paying 800quid which will includes to discs 1 evening 1 daytime shoots the diamond albumn and he will be there right up untill late. hope this helps x

We've got a Colchester based tog and we are paying £1000 for a full day's coverage (until speeches) then a DVD with approx 300 high res prints for us to print out. I wanted that control and flexibility. We do get an engagement shoot as well next summer before the wedding. If I want her to stay later into the evening then it's £100 per hour.

The other quotes I got were similar. HTH!

Hi Paris

We're paying £500 for our photographer (really nice lady called Jo Curtis - found her through Barrett & Co). Its a basic package (because we couldn't afford anything more) but she modified it to suit us (we're getting two locations as they're fairly close when it should have been one). She was really helpful and understood that we couldn't afford much. She also keeps all the photos she takes for a few years so that once we've had a chance to save after the wedding we can purchase more photos (or the disc) if we want to. She's also doing a 'pre-wedding shoot' so that she can see the venue and give us a few tips. If you would like her details feel free to email me **********@*******.***.

Can't help with the videographer i'm afraid as we're not having one.

HTH

Hi Paris,

The prices seem about right I can recommend a few good photographers and videographers.

www.coffeeandcake.biz - Lovely lady call Hayley.... she puts in lots of effort and stays all day (and I mean all day!)

or

www.randallmurrow.co.uk - he's a great chap and works hard and can do all day too!

http://www.special-memories.co.uk/ - great company

http://www.crystalclearvisual.co.uk/weddingContact.htm: Crystal Clear Visual

Contact: Andrew Shepherd

Contact number: ****

HTH

Kim x

Hello All,

Thank you so much for all of your tips and advice, I really appreciate it and will look into your suggested companies over the next few days. :-)

I've actually spoken to a photographer called Alan Shubrook who seems really professional and his work looks great, plus fairly reasonably priced - has anyone used him or heard him? I got quite a good 'vibe' from him and as I said, really liked his work.

Thanks again all of you.

Paris X

HiParis09,

Good luck with your search!

Congratulations also

xx

Hi

I'm getting married in cambs but my photographer travels within 3hours of Wisbech, Cambs and its included in price. Her photos are fantastic! Her prices range from £200-950. Check our her website and facebook pages. Little flowers wedding photography. The package which prob fits bill would be either £500 or £650. However it does depend on when ur wedding is because its almost fully booked for 2010 and most of summer 2011.

We've got a consultation with her in few weeks time.

Hope this helps

Lucie

Thank you, I did actually see someone's engagement shots taken by Little Flowers and it looked wonderful. I'll have a look at the site. X

Thanks Smileybride :-) x

It's a really difficult one, because it's like trying to compare apples with oranges but many years ago a famous poet by the name of John Ruskin quoted:

"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey."

£850 is a lot of money, no getting away from it, but on the other side of the coin for the expense and time required to fulfil your order it's not a lot of money at all. I know the albums I supply typically cost £200-£400 to produce, plus about 5 working days to Administer, Shoot, post process and design, you only ever see the tip of the icerberg. On those sort of prices it means you are paying your photographer £450 to £650 for a weeks worth of work, not unreasonable for a highly skilled person, hour for hour much less than you'd pay a plumber or electrician and out of that we have to pay our marketing costs, equipment, insurance and pension.

There is a huge problem because people perceive us as earning '£850 a day' and get all funny about it, truth is £850 is a week before costs and that's cutting it to the bone.

There is huge pressure on photographers to slash prices at the moment because of consumer perception and demand and sadly that is causing couples to lose out. To cut prices you have to cut costs and one of the best ways of doing this is in album choice and printing, so tons of couples are buying their 'bargain' packages which include offset printed storybook albums rather than photographic, a technology designed for short run leaflet printing which is simply not designed to be lightfast (not fade) in 15, 20 or 30 years time. I've heard of lots of 'bargain' photographers who use local labs for their printing who don't use archival papers or printing techniques which aren't going to last.

The other way around is to 'stack 'em high and sell 'em cheap' and do lots and lots of weddings and spend the minimal amount of time on each one.

My real bugbear is couples who just want the 'CD only' package, I offer it because they want it but I really feel they are getting a bum deal, I earn just as much becuase I have to charge for my time and they are paying to produce the best possible files and then they are not going to extract the quality out of them because they are going to go somewhere cheap to get them printed or use an uncalibrated inkjet on cheap photo paper.

There is also the issue of motivation, if a photographer has the opportunity to upsell to a bigger album, parents albums or extra pages because you love the photo's so much there is an extra incentive to work that little bit harder in capturing and post processing the images to do something outstanding, if it's just the CD and there is no chance of any additional sales that extra incentive is not there. It's basically performance related vs base pay.

There are photographers out there charging less than my albums cost me to buy in, but I don't have a problem with that, as John Ruskin also said

""I have no quarrel with the man who sells for less, for they know what their product is worth"

wise man that Mr Ruskin!

Hi Brian,

Thanks very much for your response - I especially liked the quotes (I'm an ex English teacher and love a quote! ;-) ).

I suppose never having produced photographs etc., I didn't really think beyond the day. I just thought about someone being at the wedding for a few hours with a digital camera. I didn't think about the work that would need to be put in after the day. Sorry.

We are still undecided as to whether we should actually have a video, despite now realising the work that goes into producing it, it is still rather expensive when we only really want it for the church service and speeches. We'll have to think it over a bit more.

Thanks again.

Paris. :-)

Are you thinking of the photos and video as an expense... or an investment.

There is very little that you walk away with after your wedding other than your memories and they fade over time. But the imagery can last you a lifetime and even transcend generation. Do you remember the first time you saw the photos from your parents or grand parents wedding?

So after everyone has destroyed the £300 cake, eaten the £1500 in food your imagery can serve as the record of that... done right of course.

We spent £300 on our photographer. Yes, we have pics but I regret ever spending that little, we dont look at that so they were an expense. I would gladly do it all again and spend £3000 on our photos and double that on the video (of course I'd say that though).

With decent photos and video you should want to look at them over and over. Thats where the true value comes in.

Hi Paris,

Sorry but as far as I can tell there is no such thing as an 'Average' price for a photographer in Essex!

There are companies starting at around £200 and going all the way through to £3000...

To get a good video is really, really hard work. And a lot of companies put so much effort into post production, that it's understandable that they cost so much!

Pete x