Or, 6 things that can affect the cost of your wedding photography or videography.
This is a great question that lots of prospective brides and/or grooms will have, and a little bit different than our post titled ‘Why is wedding photography so expensive?’. Knowing how much wedding photography or videography costs, the question is, how much should or can you spend? What is the value of the photos or videos at your wedding?
First, I think it’s important to establish what the value of the photos is to the couple, then we can go into more the differences in services.
What is the intrinsic value of your wedding photos or videos?
A wedding is potentially one of the most important days in a couple’s life. So depending on the couple, the intrinsic value of wedding photos/videos will vary from person to person. Some questions that you could ask yourself are:
- Is your wedding really just paperwork and a formality, or have you been dreaming of this day and all its details for years or decades?
- Will you want to look back on this day, and want to remember what it was like, or reflect on what that day meant to you as a couple and to your friends and family in attendance?
- Are you someone that looks at pictures of your past often, whether on your phone, wall, slideshow, or in an album? Or if not that often, maybe you are hoping to be reminded in your day to day with no effort?
- Was a lot of work, time, effort, and yes money, spent on putting the whole thing together so that it could be as perfect as it could be?
- Would you like to share this memorable event with others, such as relatives who were and weren’t there, children, friends, family etc.?
- Do you want to celebrate and capture your relationship as a couple on this one big day?
Everyone’s answers to those will differ, but most likely if you are looking at hiring a wedding photographer or videographer, your answer to at least some of those questions was yes.
Depending on how many were yes, and how close to 10 they were on a scale of 1 to 10, you might be able to determine how much the value of the pictures should be. Some people chose to elope in a couple hours, and not have any pictures! That is completely fine. Others want to spend $26,000 on both photo and video for a 16 hour day with multiple albums. Also fine!
So, how much should you spend on photography and videography?
First off, to get a sense of how much photography coverage you might need, check out this post here, and to get a sense of the price of wedding photography these days, check out this blog about why it costs what it does, and this page on our pricing (or if you prefer, the pricing on any other photographer’s page!).
What are the factors that affect the price of your photography or videography?
Some things to consider
- How long you need coverage for
- What do you get in the end?
- Are there one or two shooters
- The experience of the crew
- The level of service you can expect from the company
- Is it local or will travel be involved
Let’s go over each of these points.
1. How long you need coverage for
This is the easiest to explain. More time equals more money! But it’s typically not a linear scale. The shorter the coverage, the more you can expect to pay per hour. It is hard to convince a photographer to come out for an hour for $200, considering all the other work that goes into it behind the scenes. Also, it’s not just the time on the day of, but also the time spent working on your pictures after, and doing all the other tasks needed to actually have found you and booked you. See this post on the cost of wedding photography.
2. What do you get in the end?
Not all companies deliver the same things, for a variety of reasons. It’s helpful to compare apples to apples. Some different things to look for being included:
- Prints and albums
- Engagement shoots
- Level of editing, and why it is or isn’t included
- High or low resolution images
- Number of images or videos
3. Are there one or two shooters?
A wedding is a live event, and there are tonnes of things happening at the same time, all day long, even during portraits, and especially during live parts like the ceremony or the reception. Some things to think about when considering one or two photographers
- Do you mind the possibility of missing key moments if something unexpected happens to a single shooter? For example, during the ceremony, someone could stand up in front of the photographer just at the wrong time, or equipment can malfunction. For some people this might not be an issue, for others it is a big one.
- How important is it to you to capture all the key moments of your ceremony, while also letting your guests truly take in the event without distraction?
- Would you like to see other parts of your reception that you may not be present for, to know that everyone was having fun?
- Would you like a greater variety of angles and perspectives from your portrait shoot?
- During bridal party pictures, having two shooters can speed things up and make things more efficient. While with one shooter, you have to take turns photographing both sides, leading to a little more waiting around time.
- Do you need to capture all the elements of your big day as well as possible?
- Do you want more options in your pictures, or fewer?
Having two photographers has benefits. The drawback of course is that it costs more money.
4. The experience of the crew
This is a big one. Someone just starting out, with just one or two weddings under their belt, will quite simply not be able to charge as much. Their cost will be low.
That is the one big pro for a new photographer just trying it out. They will be cheap! If you answered no to a lot of the questions about the intrinsic value of the photos, this could be the way to go.
However it would do you a disservice if I didn’t point out some of the possible drawbacks. These may not all be true, depending on your shooter’s background, but you run the risk of at least some of them being the case:
- A new photographer hasn’t seen it all. They don’t know what moments to expect or when to be in the right spot – they can’t anticipate what’s going to happen.
- They may not know how to pose people well
- They may not have the technical skill to keep up with a wedding day. It is a fast-changing environment on so many levels, and knowing how to evaluate everything that is going on, and adapt accordingly, takes experience & skill
- They just might not be very good with people at a wedding. Half of why you hire a photographer is how they act with people.
- Their equipment might not be at the level needed to deal with all the situations that arise. You can’t shoot a wedding with a smartphone! And the right equipment will help ensure that everything is captured properly. Speed of use, ability to shoot in dark situations, etc.
- They might not be good at shooting in all situations
5. The level of service of the company
Do you expect to have professional service for your pictures? That is
- Good turnaround times
- Clarity on what you can expect
- Consistent quality
- Transparency in processes
- Transparency in costs
- Ease of working with them
- Equipment they use
- Etc.
If any of those sound important, you can expect to pay a little more. As a comparison, someone who is just starting out, or someone who does it on the side, may not deliver on many of those – since it’s not yet their primary revenue stream. For example, a new photographer or a hobbyist might not have the greatest gear – which means it won’t be capable of capturing things in all situations. Or they just don’t have the experience to speak to many of the points above.
A company or photographer/videographer that does exclusively photography or videography, and needs to continue to do so to survive, will take pride in those things – as it’s their reputation on the line.
6. Is it local, or will there be travel involved
This is a question we get all the time – do you charge for travel?
I have written a blog post about this question on its own, but the short answer is, it depends on the company – and where the travel is. As far as I know, most companies don’t charge for travel within their community. That is true for us.
Outside of that, depending on where it is, it is only fair to consider the time your shooters are on the road, and the cost of the use of their vehicle. There are some shooters who for a variety of reasons, don’t charge for travel. Which you can also read about in my blog post on the topic!