Having given this some thought, I’m not sure that looking for an “average” price for wedding photography is a useful means of deciding anything, because of the huge range in pricing and services offered.
In the past 15 years, digital photography has swept the world and to a large extent changed the game of wedding photography. Professional-quality digital equipment is capable of producing just as crisp and clear photos as the film photography of yesteryear, and with many of the same effects. Professional-caliber digital cameras also have the same full range of lenses and filters, making them just as versatile, with one HUGE advantage: you can see immediately if you “got the shot.” Additionally, the ability to color-correct and retouch the photos on a computer screen, while still very time-consuming, is not the onerous task it was when the corrections had to be made to a developing negative.
Consider instead the “levels” of photography out there:
Level: The Sky’s the Limit: For those for whom money is no object, you will always be able to go into a luxury photo salon and sign up for thousands of dollars of photography services–with vastly more expense yet to come when it’s time to order prints and/or albums, because they are flat-out NOT going to give you the rights to their photos. If there are special effects, such as infrared, or double-exposures (one image “floating” atop another) that you wish to include in your package, they will require film photography equipment. They will arrive at your wedding with assistants and a van chock full of state-of-the-art equipment. You will have to give them very little instruction, and they will produce a truly fine, if predictable, product. Again, you will have to pay dearly for every print, and their albums and photobooks will cost hundreds.
They will have portfolios to die for–but remember, they are probably nationwide and shoot thousands of weddings a year, with hundreds of different photographers. The photos in their albums are the best of the best–some of them shot by photographers on the other side of the continent, who haven’t worked for them for two years.
You want to meet with the photographer who they propose to send to YOUR wedding; and ask for THAT photographer’s portfolio. (Also, surprisingly, the higher the price, the snottier the photographer can be on your wedding day; the hands-down most expensive wedding I ever attended featured a top-dollar photographer who threw tantrums if there was not dead silence and all attention focused on him, even singling out and belittling those who ended up getting snapped with their eyes closed. The bride was nearly in tears several times, and everyone was angry. Nobody should have to put up with this at their wedding. And the pictures? About the same as everyone else’s. You don’t even want to know the price.) So not only should you see a portfolio of your particular photographer’s work, but ask how much experience your designated photographer has personally, and insist on meeting with him/her. You don’t want to pay for the master and end up getting the apprentice. But even if you are getting “the master,” you don’t want to end up with an ego as big as his price tag–make sure they understand that helping make your wedding day more pleasant is part of your expectations.
Level: You Have An Actual Budget and/or Mom & Dad are Helping: There are also many well-established studios that will give you at least most of the bells and whistles, for around $2,500 - $5,000. They may not have a velvet fainting couch in their lobby, but they can usually mix digital and film photography, and should have substantial experience. They are generally a bit less rigid and more open to mixing in some of YOUR ideas, than to insist on just shooting their stock list of poses. More and more, these photographers have gone to digital format, and will be willing to color-correct and retouch your photos, and burn them to a disk for your non-commercial use–you can take them anywhere to have them printed. Or, for an extra charge, they will do (or arrange for) the prints and enlargements for you. Many of these studios also offer albums or photobooks. Again, the most important thing you can do is assess how well you like what’s in their portfolios.
Level: Watching the Bottom Line: In researching the matter of wedding photography costs, I kept finding the statement “beware–you get what you pay for” being repeatedly given as a warning by bloggers against lower-cost photographers. I don’t think this is quite fair. You can level the playing field by taking the time to consider the years of experience and the quality of their product that they provide for your to see. You may find well-experienced photographers for whom wedding photography is an avocation, a passion; and isn’t that what you want? They are not getting rich from their photography. They very likely have day jobs, no formal studio, and may not have the manpower to support doing a wedding every weekend and still getting the finalized photos turned around in the usual 3-4 weeks, so they are content to stay small. Most likely, they won’t have a van full of equipment. Still, you may be surprised to learn that if you do want some film photography, many professional “digital” photographers learned on film-photo equipment, still have the equipment, and can provide it upon request. Infrared is an “in” medium right now, and requires a film camera (you may have to pay extra for the cost of the film, which is expensive and generally not part of a low-priced package.) Or you may flat-out not care about “eclectic and artsy” (the majority of people don’t, especially for their wedding.) For this category of photographers, I would say prices “average” between $600 - $1200.
Craigslist is a good source of inexpensive wedding photographers; so is simply Googling “wedding photographers (your city).” It’s also useful to Google your venue, scrolling down beyond the actual listings for the venue itself, where you might find several different photographers’ photos from weddings held at that venue, posted for all to see, not only giving you an idea of the skill of the photographer, but one or two ideas you might like for some shots for your own wedding.
Things that you might assume from a salon or a studio, but should ask a small-business photographer:
• How many years experience do they have? (Not just in professional photography, but in shooting groups of people, such as weddings or other events–you want to make sure they know how to organize their time and will be pleasant and polite to your wedding party and guests.)
• Do they have more than one photographer for greater coverage of your event?
• How much of their time will you get for the money you’re paying? (Some give only 4 or 5 hours.)
• These next two can be uncomfortable questions–but (1) can you expect them to dress decently for your wedding (slacks and a shirt for men; slacks and a dressy top for ladies–sometimes photography requires getting into positions that just don’t work with a skirt) and (2) will they be intrusive during your ceremony? At one of my daughters’ weddings I cringed in my front-row seat when the photographer suddenly leapt up like a gorilla out of nowhere between the minister and the couple during the ceremony to “get the shot.” (Isn’t that what telephoto lenses were invented for?)
• Will they give you a copyright release along with your disks of electronic images, allowing you to have them printed as much as you like? (Usually the release is “for non-commercial use only”–meaning you can get all the prints you want, but if your caterer or cake-baker or florist would like to put the photographer’s shot in their brochure (or even a home-made album), they should talk to the photographer–and the same if you are somehow chosen to have your photos featured on a commercial wedding website or in a wedding magazine. The photographer is almost certainly not going to say “no,” and may likely not even charge anything for their use–it’s free advertising–but it is copyrighted art, and it’s not unreasonable that they’ll want to be sure they get appropriate credit.)
• Ask approximately how many shots they will take at an average wedding and/or how many finished photos you might expect to end up with to choose from–bear in mind that some venues have more photo-ops than others, and that some weddings are very simple and brief, so the reality will vary from the estimates accordingly.
• All-important, however, is: meet with them and view their portfolio. Some may have websites (or a photo site such as Shutterfly) where you can see their portfolio online; others you might arrange to view their photos at a mutually-convenient coffee shop. If you’re pleased with what you see, that is the best representation of whether they are capable of capturing your wedding in a way that will be pleasing to you. You should arrange to meet in person with them even if you love their photos online, so that you can get a feel for what they’re like.
• If you see an ad that offers to take wedding photos for little or nothing to “build their portfolio,” this is a photographer with insufficient experience, and it’s not a good idea to entrust them with an occasion this important. If you’d like the extra photos, you could contact them AFTER you’ve hired your main photographer, if he or she agrees to have a secondary photographer on hand (many won’t), and offer them that opportunity on the condition that they not interfere in any way with the primary photographer.
Hope this information is helpful.
In western Washington State, I recommend this small but high-quality photography enterprise: www.artandsoulphotographyseattle.com
02.27.09
