Why do Wedding Photographers cost a LOT of money?
Many times, I hear couples either ask or complain about the overall cost of wedding photos and wedding photographers.
Listen, we completely get it.
You’re spending a lot of money to have a wedding day where you can celebrate with friend and family, loves ones sharing and enjoying your special wedding day along side with you.
Well, there are some answers that I want to share with you and they’re valid ones too. If anything, I want to help you understand why wedding photography (and sometimes videography) can cost a lot to begin with and understand why in the process.
In Part, You’re Paying for Time, LOTS of Time
One of the biggest things that couples tend to focus on is the amount of time a wedding photographer or videographer may spend at the wedding day when thinking about costs, however, it’s the post-production that takes pros the most time to produce great images.
I know what you’re thinking “we only need a professional for x number of hours at the wedding.”
That’s awesome, BUT you’re missing a bigger picture, the post-production time.
“For every hour spent at your wedding day, you can expect roughly 2-3 hours in post production. Couples mostly think about the time [professionals] will spend at the wedding, not the prep or post-production.”
Hours Spend with Wedding Couple
If for example you have a 10 hour wedding day, your professional may spend 30-40 hours or more in total with your wedding.
Before your big day, a photographer is going to spend an hour or two doing general prep for your day.
That can include:
Charging batteries
Formatting memory card
Cleaning lenses and sensors
Testing equipment
Going over the wedding timeline
Finalizing any timeline pieces they may need
Finish any travel plans (if needed)
During the wedding, they will be working most of the time, gathering photos, staging some detail shots, working with you and your spouse on getting intimate pictures and getting those things that you otherwise may not see. Usually, you can expect them to stop and take a break during dinner service, so expect that.
Us professionals need to take a break to eat, rest and regroup for the second half of the day, your reception.
Secret Wedding Tip
Allow your wedding vendors to eat before your guests, that way they eat while you eat and as you start to make your rounds with guests, they will be able to follow along and gather those images and video clips.
Okay, getting back on track here, you can expect your photographer to gather the following types of images throughout the wedding day:
Creating detail photos
Candid bridal prep photos
Bridal group images
Couples images
Ceremony images
Reception images
Venue images (drone)
Misc Images (dancing, reception highlights, behind the scenes)
After the wedding day, while you are starting your honeymoon, your wedding professionals are going to be busy with post-production. They are slightly different for photographers as well as videographers and I’ll try to separate them out there.
Photographer Post-Production
Photographers will start with dumping their raw images into a computer system and if they are true professionals, they’ll first make a backup or two before doing anything.
Having a backup on a NAS, network drive, USB or other device helps ensure that your images will not be lost if a computer system crashes. Trust me, it’s happened to us before as well as other pros our there too.
Depending on the number of images they take, speeds of their systems, that alone couple take an hour or two.
From there, they will usually go through and pick out a handful to quickly edit so you can get what’s called a ‘teaser’ before the real work begins. It’s typically 5-10 images that are edited and processed and put up on social media for you to share.
Many professionals will then catalog your images, group them into a few categories and start the process of going through each one.
There will be images that are duplicates, those that may not be in focus, those that are too similar to others and the like.
Some will get weeded out, others will be edited in software programs like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom.
Some will be perfect and not need any editing whatsoever.
The amount of time will depend on experience, workload, other projects on their plate as well as day-to-day operations of their business.
In all, you can easily double, triple the time and in some cases, it could be 4 times the amount of time spent at the wedding.
Videographer Post-Production
Wedding filmmakers and videographers will go through a similar process although there are some slight differences that include having to catalog multiple cameras for the ceremony video, drones, we also have an element of audio to deal with and matching everything up in post-production.
Videographers can take just as much time if not longer to produce videos for your wedding day.
“When you think of hiring someone for your wedding, you need to consider all the time they will spend working on your event, not just the time onsite.”
You’re Also Paying for Equipment
Another consideration is the equipment that professionals will purchase to create those great images and videos.
Without getting into great detail, just know that the demand for having great content requires camera systems that can take very clear, details images and videos.
While the average cost of a wedding photographer can range nationally from $1,000-$10,000 or more, a typical photographer that is of average range could easily bring $5,000 to $20,000 or more in gear.
That’s camera bodies, lenses, memory cards, bags or cases, spare batteries, flashes, mics (for video), filters, drones, tripods and monopods, stands and just about anything else to help them for the day.
Videographers will spend a lot more generally since they have to have more camera systems, lights and those microphones.
Just know that true professionals have a lot of overhead making great content and some of that money is passed on to you, the client.
While it’s hard to tell a cheaper $500 camera system from a $5,000 camera system, cost does play a huge factor in those amazing images and being able to do them correctly to begin with.
“$500 wedding photographers will not have a $5,000 setup and $5,000 wedding photographers will not have a $500 setup either. Keep in mind that the more professional a camera system is, the better your images may be, having redundant copies and faster systems, allowing for more burst images during important piece like the first kiss.”
I’ve seen $800 photographers do wonderful work with an expensive camera body and I’ve seen them do horrible work with a $500 budget camera. Just know that the equipment can make a difference in getting the perfect first kiss shot.
Finally, You’re Paying For Experience
Someone with 10 years experience will be much more expensive than someone with two years under their belt, thats just the natural order of the industry. As you get more experience, you get better at what you do and that usually translates into less mistakes, better quality and covering the wedding much better too.
“Combined with experience, the cost of the gear, the amount of time they will spend working on your images and videos as well as their demand, that will determine the price for their services.”
And thats why there is a huge range of people you can hire when it comes to price. You need to filter through people, learn about them, chat with them and see if they are a good fit for you and your wedding, compare style, quality and also read reviews.
It can be a task finding the right person to work with you and your wedding day, so take your time, ask great questions and make sure the value they have to offer is beyond what you are seeking.
Final Takeaway
So, if you’re in the market for a wedding professional, you need to remember these things when searching:
Think BEYOND just the time they will be onsite for the wedding day.
For every hour spend at the wedding, you can expect 2-3 hours in post-production.
You also need to consider the cost of their equipment, thats a factor in the cost. $500 people will not have $5,000 cameras and $5,000 photographers will not have $500 budget cameras.
Consider their experience. Experience means the less likely they will not miss a moment, make a mistake or if there is one, will be able to correct it.
Be sure to check out some other factors that affects wedding photographers' pricing.
