Photographer Cost

It depends what you want and where you are....Friends will find the pressure of photographing your wedding onerous....believe me.....I have seen friendships break up over this.....

What area are you in??

Peter

I think it depends where you are and what your wanting. I didn't have the budget for the photographer I wanted but managed to ask her if we could have less time and a disc only so instead of having someone there all day we're only having her for the ceremony and family shots after. I have quite a few pro tog friends but I want them to be at our wedding and not working but I know I will have nice evening photos to top up on the official ones.

I'd get a few quotes from various photographers, then you can compare. Some might do a cheaper deal for fewer hours of photography. However, I do feel that with photographers you get what you pay for. And apart from your rings, the photos are the only thing you'll have left.

We are paying £900 for a halfday, i believe the same photographer charges £1500 for a whole day. It'd be more if you wanted a second tog. £2000 seems like a lot although if it's a decent package that includes a second tog and albums etc. I could see it happen but you should def be able to find someone very good in the £**** range. I've also seen cheaper ones around the price you mentioned though but they may be less experienced etc

It depends how important photography is to you really and what your own tastes/requirements are. There are suppliers to suit all budgets, but as with most things you tend to get what you pay for. For a full time, professional photographer with all the proper insurances in place, experience, the right kit you're looking at anything from £800-£1500ish.

But a lot of it comes down to personal tastes. Some people book a £300 photographer and are over the moon with the results. When we were looking we couldn't find anyone who's work we liked for less than £1250. More often than not for the quality we were looking for, the cost was £1500-£2k for digital only.

Either way, i'd recommend not getting in a friend to do it. Not only is it a huge responsibility on their shoulders, but the most common reason we get frantic emails last minute seeking a photographer is due to a friend/relative dropping out when they realise what a big job and responsibility it is. Often by this point it's close to the wedding, the budget has been spent and you're back to square one.

Thanks for the replies. I hadn't thought about the pressure side of things if a friend does the photos and you are absolutely right. We only want natural photos so I will get other quotes and try and find a happy medium. Thanks all :-)

We got our photographer for around the same price your looking at - we discussed what we were looking for prior to booking and she agreed the price based on a discussion - from getting ready to the first dance/cutting the cake, but we wanted digital only because I'd rather arrange our own photo albums etc. Be open with people, and get a bespoke package that you actually want. No need paying for things like canvas prints or albums that you could get after the wedding when your budget might look healthier!

This ^^^ Get a few quotes and compare but really don't let a friend do it, it will be too much for them on the day, they wouldn't know what to do or when and will miss important shots.

There are too many variables, date/weekday or weekend, location, time you want the photographer for and end product. A lot of couples get caught out by just going by a price on a photographers site without researching what is in the package, heard some horror stories recently and a few new photographers give their clients watermarked full resolution images☹️ so always ask questions before you book.

I'm afraid you really do get what you pay for when it comes to photography, choose wisely and if you need any help choosing then you have come to the right place.

My hubby's uncle did our wedding and has done quite a few weddings, and I have to say he is as good as some professional photographers we've seen, and took great pleasure I. Doing the photography that day also all the children in the bridal party felt really relaxed with him as they knew him already. So if you have the right friend it might work

This is also what I have been seeing, also the friendship suffers because of the let down, only yesterday on this forum a bride had her photography cancelled with only 2 weeks to go by a photographer who was only charging £200.

A friend may well have a snazy camera but do they have a backup one, do they have proper editing facilities to ensure the correct colours as digital cameras are not infallible.

Definitely find a few quotes. OH thought it was only a couple hundred quid, but it was £800+ for all the quotes we got. We ended up going for someone at £1150 because at the end of the day, the photos are with you long after the day! It was something we didn't want to compromise on. Some TOG's will be reasonable and negotiate on the package if you don't need everything that's included.

We're getting unlimited images from bridal prep - late evening, 1 album, 2 parent albums, a printed canvas and a photobooth from our TOG for that price. We love her work and feel like we've got a bargain!

I'm in the North West and I'd say the average here is £1000. Our photographer charges £1500 for a full day (including a slide show of pictures for the evening guests, all images uploaded to a website and pictures supplied on a disc with no copyright restrictions and full usage rights. No album though). We managed to get a special offer of £1350.

Hi where are you based? I live in Manchester and we are paying £495 we get 400 images on a usb we didn't want a wedding album, that price is for all day from around 10-10:30 until about 11pm x

We are paying £849 for coverage starting about an hour before the ceremony (early afternoon) until the end of the reception. Package 2 was within our price range, but I didn't want prep photos, so he said he'd stay late at the reception instead. This is USB/CD only - no album or prints.

https://www.stevegroganphotography.com/wedding-photography-prices/

Meant to add that I trawled through about 10 pages of Google results for 'wedding photographer Manchester' and 'wedding photographer Cheshire' and found everything from £550 to £2000+. I reckon our budget was towards the lower end, but I ended up with at least five within our budget of £850 that I wanted to contact (plus others that I'd eliminated on the basis of having a badly designed website) - I think one was full day (prep to end), but the rest were arrival at church to end, or the equivalent number of hours.

It's difficult to say what the average price is but if you held a gun to my head and forced an answer it would be:

£0-£500 - student / new faces / quality compromise

£400 - £1000 - budget conscious

£1000 - £1500 - decent and consistent professionals

£1400-£2500 - Great quality, unique and extra mile photographers.

£2500+ something special or something over priced.

These are all prices without an album too with overlaps on the fringes.

This question gets asked a lot and it's very much how long is a piece of string, someone who charges £500 might use a basic camera like a Canon 7D and those at the higher end might use medium format digital to shoot with like the 645z and that's an £800 7D vs a £****z camera. That's just one factor too, the ability and amount of experience counts for a lot as well.

When you factor in having to have backup kit to shoot with and all the costs involved then the prices start to rack up. It's expensive being a wedding photographer and that expense trickles down to the clients.

We are paying £900 for all day coverage, plus usb and album for £200 extra after the wedding

We are paying £900 for all day coverage, plus usb and album for £200 extra after the wedding

We're paying £295 for ours. Digital only, 2 hours coverage (arrival/ceremony/formal shots only). She doesn't often do weddings/is pretty new to them, but the ones she's done look more than good enough for us and everyone has to start somewhere!

We are paying just under 2k. That is for 9 hours coverage, pre wedding shoot, 2 togs and an album. After getting our pre wedding pics it is definitely worth every penny. Everyone has said how amazing our pics are and they already want copies to frame. I think we have really good value for money with what we have spent I would definitely recommend getting a professional, meet up with some and see who you click with, it's really important. Ours have been amazing

Oh we also get every single photo taken on the day edited and sent to us in black and white and colour. Watch out because some will do whole day coverage and only give you 300 shots.....we got 60 from our preferred wedding shoot and that was only 45 minutes long and I love them all so watch out for this or you could miss out on shots you would have loved

As with everything 'wedding' you really do have to shop around. We're paying £400 for all day (prep-midnight). Our TOG is fairly new to the wedding industry but has lots of previous photography experience. We booked him a year advance though and he'd already got a wedding in every month up until ours!! And I'm pretty sure he's had plenty more booked in since. He was recommended by another supplier so I have confidence that he's a reputable guy!

When we had our engagement shoot I was really worried as we'd spoken on the phone but not met in person. However we clicked straight away and he was really easy to get along with. We got some really great shots and he even got a few of us all together as a family, which was really nice!

You really do have to do your research and speak to your other suppliers to see if they know any good TOGs that don't cost the earth!

Thanks everyone. I think I am going to explore the option of just having a disk and doing our own album. I think someone relatively new to wedding photography might also be worth exploring. Thanks all for the advice :-)

With respect, and every photographer does have to start somewhere, this does come with a risk.....

Peter

Do try to hire a professional, even if the budget allows for just a few hours. I design wedding albums for couples who go for the coverage and a disc option from their pro photographer and for those who had friends shoot their wedding for them. The difference can be like night and day not just in the creative and technical side but in the standard of the processing.

I have put together albums where the images needed a lot of work - removing objects, swapping heads, colour correction, balancing etc. The most important element is the standard of the images - an album can be sourced later when funds allow.

Wendy

www.evergreenalbumdesign.co.uk

Just curious Wendy - swapping heads... Is that what it sounds like it is? I have a really strange image of it in my head!

Hi Calella,

Head swapping sounds a bit Frankenstein doesn't it!!! Take a look at the "editing" section of our website @ www.evergreenalbumdesign.co.uk to see what I mean!!!

I would hope that every photographer should be doing head swapping or any kind of editing to the photos.

Hi Wendy - that's pretty clever! I had images of it being like, bride and groom swapping for a laugh, bridesmaids swapping their heads on to different bodies and stuff haha! (I'm having one of those days!)

Hi Bruce, They should (we do in our sister business www.weddingphotographersheffield.org) but you would be surprised! Most of the editing work we do is on amateur/friend photos.

Yes its an area that can get overlooked when couples are looking at cost of a photographer and canot understand why one costs £500 and you get 1000 images and yet another will cost £900 and yet you "only" get 300 images and then think that the 1000 imager is better value, All the 1000 imager usually will be are 10 shots of the same thing, whereas the 300 images will be the same amount of subjects but the very best 1 or will be chosen and then extra editing applied.

Not all photographer have the skill or are willing to invest in the equipment needed to be able to do this.

Some say that all images are edited which could just mean they are put through an automated process on a cheep laptop while they watch telly.

The very reason I am on this forum so often is because I spend so much time on a proper computer in a purpose fitted editing suite "fully" editing my images

Head swap is something that I do all the time, I may take 4 shots of a group and there maybe one that is perfect -- say the sun came out or whatever it may be, perfect apart from one person, it could be the eyes half/shut looking the other way, but then another shot where there was lots wrong apart from this person who was perfect, so I will take the open eyes from that and put them on the other, and thats where head swap may come in because you have to be very careful with eyes and to swap the donor has to be looking exactly the same direction so sometimes it easier to swap the whole head.

Here are some shots to give you a better idea between "editing" and editing

I have a page full of animated before and after shots here

As with this one you could argue that it takes away the realness of how the room was - the chaos of the morning perhaps, so no problem the bride and groom would just get both versions from me.

Most photographers just shoot and give the photos as they were shot, you should see some of the photos I have been asked to edit which then costs the couple extra so they might just as well hired me in the first place?

I got mine for £200. She is actually a professional fashion photographer - as I had a designer dress I wanted 'model' type images of myself and hubby, them a few of parents/siblings etc. We had her for 2 hours and that included 8 retouched images (extra images were £10 each) and we loved the pics so much we ended up ordering all of them!

I find that when hunting around, as soon as you mentioned the word 'wedding', the price would increase. Hence why I approached a non-wedding photographer. if you would like her details I can pass them on.

Hi MissBtoB,

Have a look at www.lightsourceweddings.co.uk, they are a supplier on Hitched (Essex based but covers nationally)

The photographs are amazing and the website has prices too which are reasonable for what service you receive.

I highly recommend them.

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