This is great. For those of us who are just breaking into the realm of professional photography and weddings this is priceless information. Thanks for posting!
Wow. I really enjoyed this , done multiple weddings and I’ve been struggling with how to appropriately charge ,makes much more sense after watching this. Thanks.
20:15 you are exactly right there! Learn to put a cap on the number of weddings you accept and leave yourself some breathing room. We try to close the wedding schedule around 32 weddings per year. When you find your schedule full and that you're turning away many wedding requests, then consider raising the price point on your work. I personally just wouldn't be comfortable at all asking someone to pay, even if they would, 3-5K for my photographic services. I still have to feel that I'm providing a decent value for what I'm doing. This is a very helpful video tutorial, there are indeed photographers who are pricing themselves right out of the profession with high package prices. Be careful there, inching your prices up year by year is better than having to fall back and lower them later on. If people say wow, I remember when that photographer only charged $300.00 for a wedding and now it's $2,050.00... good for him/her. BUT, if you used to charge $5k for a wedding and now you've fallen back to $1,500.00 to make ends meet, it's a different message that may send clients to other shooters! Thanks guys, lots of great points!
For the 2008 downturn in the economy Joe Buissink said he had to lower his prices to keep an income coming in, so there are circumstances where you have to lower your prices to keep making a living.
If you're going to sell/give away digitals, have a logo in the corner and encourage them to share them on social media but not print them. You get all the printing money without them doing it themselves and messing up your work, leading to others judging you based on creative decisions/mistakes made by the client. But you also still get the free advertising of social media sharing
Wow, this is great! I learned so much from this video! I am just starting with photography because i'm starting to get sick of my 9-5 job. I didn't even know where to begin charging people. This helped a lot! Thank you!
This was amazing. Not everyone is cheap- some people go into debt for this day. And some people make more in a day than I do in a year. So don’t cheapen yourself! 👍🏼
As a self employed architect, excellent business advice. Rarely do I see anyone give advice so honest and strait forward AND useful! Most of the time the advixe is so generic that there is no value. It is much to vague. Your advice applies to many service style businesses. Great stuff!
Hey Lee, this information help me a lot, I'm recently moved in to NJ from Brazil and I trying to find myself about how much to charge, and now I have a better start point....great job you are doing on Fstoppers.
The problem with this is that so many people are extremely confident about their ability when they can't even tell the difference between an F-Stop and a Bus Stop! Too many charging when they need to spend their time LEARNING and acquiring a skill set.
When I first picked up a digital camera (Nikon 5700 power shot) I wanted to shoot what ever I could to make a few dollars on the side... Soon after hearing how so much money could be made by shooting weddings I was all "ears" on how to...Then I decided "No way!" All it would take is to mess up a few shots and that's it...your reputation is down the tubes!" Several years later, a real DSLR and some serious lenses within my arsonal, I am reconsidering this style of photography.. After listening to your rant, I have taken a few more serious thoughts about it. Not having a base price or charge on what I would charge, listening to you say a few key words, I feel a bit more confident. Thanks for your video - Awesome stuff!! :) :)
Hi this is Sam from remote country side of India where I am the only guy with a command on english. I enjoyed your frank-n-transparent advises. Good luck 🍀
With all types of photography I've found there are 2 types of people. For low priced wedding photography, the people WANT what they pay for. For high end wedding photography the people will PAY FOR WHAT THEY WANT. This is true with every purchase of services and items. And thanks for this video, it's great.
I know my services here in San Diego are worth it (the starting price of) $2100 for 7 hrs, shoot to burn, but the competition is outrageous here! My skill and work ethic are worth that alone, but I've always had trouble upping my pricing. I guess I'm in a saturated market, but I have over 600 weddings under my belt and I still have trouble asking for more.
Thank you very much for this video. I wouldn't call myself a professional nor an amateur. I definitely am skilled behind the camera so I definitely feel I must increase my price. In the country I live, people are unwilling to break the bank for photos but I am taking the courage to build my price and hopefully it does work out better
I'm an Italian wedding photographer , and i was just thinking the same, here in the north of Italy things are so different, couples do not want to spend nearly nothing for the photography at their wedding.... I am jealous
i was thinking the same! i live in uk and also a photographer and i cant even imagine charging 50k or £39K in pounds... i charge too little (hence why im watching this video) but here in the uk not many people even spend that for the whole wedding haha. i recently got married and our whole wedding cost 7k. we had a posh venue and got married there. we spent £680 on our photography but he was amazing!. so each to their own i think
This was an excellent tutorial. I learned a lot because I do struggle with pricing. You have given me the confidence not to feel bad for charging because I do put my hear and soil into an event trying to capture every moment. So thanks again. I will be implementing many of your suggestions
I added a 2 1/2 hr package after a number of requests, for a budget option, for coverage of the ceremony, some group shots, & bridal party location shots. I found i had to change the way i worked, to speed things up, & this has helped me with full day shoots when things dont go as planed & i am asked to do a location shoot in 30 min. When i was asked to do a 2 hr package i thought, really? thats not enough time to shoot a wedding, but i am glad i did. Be cheaper, be better or be different, if you offer something different you will have less competition. :)
This is all great advise and the advise that he is giving is extremely business minded and will help with growth and development. I did things like this in another business venture and my business sored, especially having set prices, which allows negotiating if you choose, if you stutter when quoting a price, you sound like an amateur, which leaves the door open for people to think they can get the price even lower or question your ability. Having a website is a must in this business. For Video, Pre wedding video are a great service to offer and add depth into why the couple are getting married in the first place and they love this along with their families and friends. They get to see themselves in a cinematic type setting. Regular video for both the wedding and reception are great services and a combination of the Wedding, Pre Wedding Video and Standard Video and offering Blue Ray or Dvd and uploading services (photos) to Face Book or having a server set up so that the client can download the images, you can easily charge the kind of money that this guy is talking about without blinking. Remember all brides want their wedding to be the best and the more services offered, especially with references and a website, the more money that you can command. Your reputation is everything and can get you potential work at the wedding, while you are doing work at the wedding!!! This guys mindset is great because he is looking at and has already thought about how little he will lose on Smug Mug and editing services like Bay Photo and he has balanced it (looking at it as a business expense) with how it will free up more time for him to be creative and take on more customers. Editing photos and or videos is extremely time consuming, but in the beginning you must do it until you can afford not to. Insure your equipment. When this business is good enough for you that you have paid off all of your equipment and can buy new equipment that you need or want with out hassle and still have money in the bank, you are growing. I can't afford to do Smug Mug or Bay Photo at this time, but I'm working toward it. This guy isn't off the mark when it comes to prices and you must offer services that make you stand out. The more you can do and offer, the less likely you are to be asked about your prices. Have a written contract drawn up with what was stated along with 25-50 percent down, I do 50 percent with the photo release paperwork. Your mindset should always be on your craft first, and growth and development second and you should ask question like, how can I grow my business by 10-20-40 percent the next year. A lot of people can be good photographers, but not a lot have the ability to be good business people and the combination of the both will make you successful. Remember this guy isn't talking like a person that takes great photos or does this as side work, he is talking like a business man, running a successful business, which might sound harsh to some, but is the reality of the game.
We payed 400€for our wedding photographer, and to us it was a lot back then. The guy was amazing, spent like 15+ hours on our wedding and even did a lot of editing on the photos. I still see him every now and then and he has become a very succesful photographer who travels a lot for big magazines. The most expensice wedding photographer i ever heard about, was 1200€ (in germany).
Also with a matter of stress, when you charge high you can afford to hire more assistants and buy/rent the gear that you need. Having solid assistants who can get adequate coverage and set up lights and take them down, BIG stress reliever.
Absolutely loved this truly thinking about buying the tutorial because I want to make the jump from my M-F 9-5 job and I believe weddings are a great avenue to start! Love the channel guys keep it up!
This was incredibly useful to me. I've shot a couple weddings and have been struggling to book more. Thank you for sharing your experience in the industry.
thank you so much guys ,,you are serious in busness . i can see we are still playing here in south africa ,, with this facts i think its time to change things in my busness .
You discounted the value of this video when you said it might not be the most exiting one. I have a better handle on the technical issues than the ones covered in this video. You've confirmed some of my theories that I was afraid to test out on my own. Thanks.
Thanks for this! I’ve been wanting to shoot families and weddings since I started photography. I’m always intimidated by the people that charge less for so much but didn’t realize that they were only hurting themselves in the business aspect of things
Not at allll, the time you took for the video was just 35 minutes and you shared a experience of at least 5 years of any professional. Great stuff, up to the point, a very wise stuff for every new photographer. Lastly loved it alll
I am more of a videographer but these are definitely some good tips. Thing about photography, is that I find it so easy and simple compared to video. Video is so much more creativity involved and captures so much more emotion and takes more skill. Photography seems like the easy route imo, and nowadays people can take pictures with their iPhone and make it just as good as some of the poor photographers out there
You had me until the idiocy of your last statement. Go find the average good pro and give them an iPhone and see how that fares since weddings are often held in dimly lit churches, for starters. Video absolutely does NOT involve more creativity (and I've done both professionally). They're "different" creatively. Video takes a bit more pre-planning but that's the only thing that's "more" with video.
I'm in a totally different industry but that's true. The base line price comes down to whatever price you decide on. Of course there are things to consider but basically, what's pricy or cheep has nothing to do with the actual number. unless you're going for the "cheaper the better", and that's fine too.
I am working on my videography business at the moment. Just graduated college. And am beginning to book a lot more weddings for wedding videos. I have found that wedding photographers in my area(central Cali) are a everywhere. Everyone has a camera and everyone can snap a picture and edit it with their computer. I just find filmmaking so much more fulfilling and difficult. I feel like wedding photography and videography are about the same price, but it takes much more skill to do wedding videos. I am charging $1100 for wedding videos as my skills are getting better the more weddings I do. As a wedding videographer I need to have quite a bit of gear: multiple lenses, cameras, audio, mic up the groom and speakers. And then editing a video is way more complex. When I see a photographer at the weddings I am somewhat frustrated bc they are getting paid more than me and all they do is walk around with one maybe two lenses and click click click with auto white balance and then edit their raw photos in Lightroom in a few hours(guessing, not really sure how long it takes). Let me know if I’m completely wrong or off about my take on wedding photography in comparison to videography.
Just asking for a high price is not going to fly. Charging a lot as a wedding photographer is about having a charismatic and likable personality, a great portfolio and contacts with wealthy people.
The people who can afford $50,000 for a photographer are wealthy people, they won't nickel and dime you. Market to the right client to get the prices you want.
robbyjai at this price I think people are just expecting glamour. For me it's not really hard cause I'm a fashion photographer; like engagement session posed in a very magazine type of way. All the wealthy girls getting married my age right now die for that, and people hire photographers just to make their Instagram look really good i.e look like a magazine. For me it's not hard to conceptualize cause I know that imagery by heart
When is it best to collect the rest of the payment? at the wedding? or when the photos are being delivered after the wedding. By the way... thanks guys for making this video. I've been watching so much of you guys's videos lately and you have been inspiring to go forward with my business.
I find it interesting that there is no mention of the actual business of pricing. Sure, finding out what the local competition charges is an important bit of information, but what about figuring out how much it actually costs to shoot? There is photo equipment, lighting, computers, repair and replacement costs, likely a car that needs to be deducted for travel, insurances (business, car, liability, etc) Then you need to figure in your hours shooting, editing and in sales and business administration. On ttop of that you also need to live, so you need to factor that number, which will be different for everyone, into the mix. Then, since your "middle of the road" wedding number in Charleston is apparently around $2000 - $2500 you need to determine how many weddings per year you need to shoot to cover the numbers and leave a little profit for retirement, vacations, etc. I think I'm pretty good so I'm going to charge $20K is no way to determine, in a business-like manner how to price a wedding. Sorry, this video is geared to weekend warrior shooters where your wedding income amounts to "play money", not people trying to build a sustainable business.
I would agree and it's even worse in Wedding videography. People get excited by all the cool gear and learning the tricks and being artistic, and go out and do weddings very cheap. Their results are hit or miss. The market is now flooded with amateur to pro-sumers driving prices down and making it harder for anyone to really earn a living doing it. Starts to make you realize why people become 'teachers' of this stuff instead.
Indeed. My biggest competitors are people doing it on the side or for almost free. They have a full time job, buy the full set of gear, know the basics and might be actually good at it, but charge about 500-1000 euros for a wedding. They see it as an extra. Sometimes money straight into the pocket. It can be frustrating. Especially when one of those come to me or send me an e-mail for tips and advice. Luckily, most people have the rationality to look for a full time photographer.
What is the benefit of a full time photographer when you can get as good as a result for a cheaper rate from a hobbyist? Why don't you think about your customers for a change, they have lives too, they don't want to pay more than they have to
If everyone stops hiring professionals and only go for "equally good" hobbyist for a fraction of the price for every job everywhere and all the time, the lives of everyone - including the customers - wil be over.
What would you suggest when a client inquires your services and you give them the rundown -- then they leave you on read? This particular wedding is in a couple weeks and they are desperate. They seemed me out, I told them I'm available, services, price -- but they have not responded to my continued correspondence. I just wanted a yes-or-no, but I think they are avoiding me. I'm getting a bit frustrated, but if I reach out again, they are most likely going to ignore me. Any advice? Should I just give up? Thank you Fstoppers!
My girlfriend hired a weeding photographer and was very upset about the "bad photography." She did not like any of the weeding photos and end up hiring another photographer to do photo shoot after the weeding.
loved d content, but yes ppl from different location may not connect & agree completely as all scenario is way far different. yes 80% content i agree, very detailed info
Advertising your prices is a very good idea aside from "weeding out" the ones who can't afford your package, It goes without really saying; If you gotta ask, you usually can't afford it and being transparent with your price list on your website - like you said; eliminates the less fortunate clienttell saving the photographer time and money. :)
Hi FS thank you guys for nice advice quick question to you guys please..... When you give clients digital images do you give them with your copyrights so as to advertise yourself to the new potential clients or without it?Thanks
We give the files without watermarks. These images were bought by our clients and adding watermarks to the final delivery seems cheap and unprofessional. I do make a second batch of images called websized that I resize for my clients and place them in another folder called "Low Res" next to the "High Res" folder on the USB. Those low res images I do put a watermark. Truth be told though, I've never really booked a client because of a watermark. If someone love's a bride's photos, she will give her friend my contact info
The big take away for me was confidence. Whatever you decide to charge, be confident in the decision. Thanks for sharing.
This is great. For those of us who are just breaking into the realm of professional photography and weddings this is priceless information. Thanks for posting!
I've been shooting weddings since 1995 and EVERYTHING these two are saying is absolutely true!
Wow. I really enjoyed this , done multiple weddings and I’ve been struggling with how to appropriately charge ,makes much more sense after watching this. Thanks.
20:15 you are exactly right there! Learn to put a cap on the number of weddings you accept and leave yourself some breathing room. We try to close the wedding schedule around 32 weddings per year. When you find your schedule full and that you're turning away many wedding requests, then consider raising the price point on your work. I personally just wouldn't be comfortable at all asking someone to pay, even if they would, 3-5K for my photographic services. I still have to feel that I'm providing a decent value for what I'm doing. This is a very helpful video tutorial, there are indeed photographers who are pricing themselves right out of the profession with high package prices. Be careful there, inching your prices up year by year is better than having to fall back and lower them later on. If people say wow, I remember when that photographer only charged $300.00 for a wedding and now it's $2,050.00... good for him/her. BUT, if you used to charge $5k for a wedding and now you've fallen back to $1,500.00 to make ends meet, it's a different message that may send clients to other shooters! Thanks guys, lots of great points!
For the 2008 downturn in the economy Joe Buissink said he had to lower his prices to keep an income coming in, so there are circumstances where you have to lower your prices to keep making a living.
This was the best video on weddings and pricing, period. Thank you for sharing your knowledge
This was AMAZING, Lee and Pat!!! Holy cow!
Even almost 5 years later, all of this advice stands true. Love everything you guys said.
If you're going to sell/give away digitals, have a logo in the corner and encourage them to share them on social media but not print them. You get all the printing money without them doing it themselves and messing up your work, leading to others judging you based on creative decisions/mistakes made by the client. But you also still get the free advertising of social media sharing
Wow, this is great! I learned so much from this video! I am just starting with photography because i'm starting to get sick of my 9-5 job. I didn't even know where to begin charging people. This helped a lot! Thank you!
This was amazing. Not everyone is cheap- some people go into debt for this day. And some people make more in a day than I do in a year. So don’t cheapen yourself! 👍🏼
As a self employed architect, excellent business advice. Rarely do I see anyone give advice so honest and strait forward AND useful! Most of the time the advixe is so generic that there is no value. It is much to vague. Your advice applies to many service style businesses. Great stuff!
Ive been shooting weddings for 10+ years, and this vid is 101% on the mark about everything! great share...
This was a great video! So much great insight and really helped me think about pricing in a totally different way
Hey Lee, this information help me a lot, I'm recently moved in to NJ from Brazil and I trying to find myself about how much to charge, and now I have a better start point....great job you are doing on Fstoppers.
This was perfect! Just what I needed. Thanks for being real and explaining everything so well.
The problem with this is that so many people are extremely confident about their ability when they can't even tell the difference between an F-Stop and a Bus Stop! Too many charging when they need to spend their time LEARNING and acquiring a skill set.
A bus stop is when the bride is a fatty, right?
@@AimingAtYou helpful comment...thanks
When I first picked up a digital camera (Nikon 5700 power shot) I wanted to shoot what ever I could to make a few dollars on the side... Soon after hearing how so much money could be made by shooting weddings I was all "ears" on how to...Then I decided "No way!" All it would take is to mess up a few shots and that's it...your reputation is down the tubes!" Several years later, a real DSLR and some serious lenses within my arsonal, I am reconsidering this style of photography..
After listening to your rant, I have taken a few more serious thoughts about it. Not having a base price or charge on what I would charge, listening to you say a few key words, I feel a bit more confident.
Thanks for your video - Awesome stuff!! :) :)
Hi this is Sam from remote country side of India where I am the only guy with a command on english.
I enjoyed your frank-n-transparent advises. Good luck 🍀
Thanks for making this video. You really put all the things in perspective and in a nice way... Thanks again
Great info! I gained a lot by just watching the video alone! You guys are awesome!
Great points. Thanks for sharing. No need to apologize, the length of video had a lot useful info.
I was surprised how much useful content this video has! Thanks for this.
With all types of photography I've found there are 2 types of people. For low priced wedding photography, the people WANT what they pay for. For high end wedding photography the people will PAY FOR WHAT THEY WANT. This is true with every purchase of services and items.
And thanks for this video, it's great.
I know my services here in San Diego are worth it (the starting price of) $2100 for 7 hrs, shoot to burn, but the competition is outrageous here! My skill and work ethic are worth that alone, but I've always had trouble upping my pricing. I guess I'm in a saturated market, but I have over 600 weddings under my belt and I still have trouble asking for more.
I am videographer for 9 years, this is great video and much true!
This guy reminds me Ashton Kutcher and IDK why!
Ashton Kutcher and Quentin Tarantino!
Excellent video, very informative! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and understanding of wedding photography.
Thank you very much for this video. I wouldn't call myself a professional nor an amateur. I definitely am skilled behind the camera so I definitely feel I must increase my price. In the country I live, people are unwilling to break the bank for photos but I am taking the courage to build my price and hopefully it does work out better
Woa, I can't believe how much money Americans are willing to spend on a wedding! Totally different situation here in Europe
I'm an Italian wedding photographer , and i was just thinking the same, here in the north of Italy things are so different, couples do not want to spend nearly nothing for the photography at their wedding.... I am jealous
i was thinking the same! i live in uk and also a photographer and i cant even imagine charging 50k or £39K in pounds... i charge too little (hence why im watching this video) but here in the uk not many people even spend that for the whole wedding haha. i recently got married and our whole wedding cost 7k. we had a posh venue and got married there. we spent £680 on our photography but he was amazing!. so each to their own i think
ikr
wld0 i thought europe was more expensive
So, either provide more value and ask more, or push up your prices...
Great information as usual. I am on the edge of going back to wedding photography and I have followed you often. Thank you.
This was an excellent tutorial. I learned a lot because I do struggle with pricing. You have given me the confidence not to feel bad for charging because I do put my hear and soil into an event trying to capture every moment. So thanks again. I will be implementing many of your suggestions
See the entire tutorial, LOTS of great info and ideas to implement.
I added a 2 1/2 hr package after a number of requests, for a budget option, for coverage of the ceremony, some group shots, & bridal party location shots. I found i had to change the way i worked, to speed things up, & this has helped me with full day shoots when things dont go as planed & i am asked to do a location shoot in 30 min. When i was asked to do a 2 hr package i thought, really? thats not enough time to shoot a wedding, but i am glad i did. Be cheaper, be better or be different, if you offer something different you will have less competition. :)
This is all great advise and the advise that he is giving is extremely business minded and will help with growth and development. I did things like this in another business venture and my business sored, especially having set prices, which allows negotiating if you choose, if you stutter when quoting a price, you sound like an amateur, which leaves the door open for people to think they can get the price even lower or question your ability. Having a website is a must in this business. For Video, Pre wedding video are a great service to offer and add depth into why the couple are getting married in the first place and they love this along with their families and friends. They get to see themselves in a cinematic type setting.
Regular video for both the wedding and reception are great services and a combination of the Wedding, Pre Wedding Video and Standard Video and offering Blue Ray or Dvd and uploading services (photos) to Face Book or having a server set up so that the client can download the images, you can easily charge the kind of money that this guy is talking about without blinking. Remember all brides want their wedding to be the best and the more services offered, especially with references and a website, the more money that you can command. Your reputation is everything and can get you potential work at the wedding, while you are doing work at the wedding!!! This guys mindset is great because he is looking at and has already thought about how little he will lose on Smug Mug and editing services like Bay Photo and he has balanced it (looking at it as a business expense) with how it will free up more time for him to be creative and take on more customers. Editing photos and or videos is extremely time consuming, but in the beginning you must do it until you can afford not to. Insure your equipment. When this business is good enough for you that you have paid off all of your equipment and can buy new equipment that you need or want with out hassle and still have money in the bank, you are growing. I can't afford to do Smug Mug or Bay Photo at this time, but I'm working toward it.
This guy isn't off the mark when it comes to prices and you must offer services that make you stand out. The more you can do and offer, the less likely you are to be asked about your prices. Have a written contract drawn up with what was stated along with 25-50 percent down, I do 50 percent with the photo release paperwork. Your mindset should always be on your craft first, and growth and development second and you should ask question like, how can I grow my business by 10-20-40 percent the next year. A lot of people can be good photographers, but not a lot have the ability to be good business people and the combination of the both will make you successful. Remember this guy isn't talking like a person that takes great photos or does this as side work, he is talking like a business man, running a successful business, which might sound harsh to some, but is the reality of the game.
Great information guys.. what a beautiful job you did putting this video together, straight to the point, and information packed. Bravo!!! Thank you!
While I don't care for this guy in general, he definitely has some excellent thoughts and ideas. Great video Lee!! Thank you!!
We payed 400€for our wedding photographer, and to us it was a lot back then. The guy was amazing, spent like 15+ hours on our wedding and even did a lot of editing on the photos. I still see him every now and then and he has become a very succesful photographer who travels a lot for big magazines. The most expensice wedding photographer i ever heard about, was 1200€ (in germany).
Also with a matter of stress, when you charge high you can afford to hire more assistants and buy/rent the gear that you need. Having solid assistants who can get adequate coverage and set up lights and take them down, BIG stress reliever.
This was a great confidence booster for me and everything you said was on point.
Absolutely loved this truly thinking about buying the tutorial because I want to make the jump from my M-F 9-5 job and I believe weddings are a great avenue to start! Love the channel guys keep it up!
Totally agree with every word! Great video!
damn, i've been low balling myself this whole time.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! thank you, I love you now. Thanks again
Also, most people won't say a number, thank you so much for saying one!
This is amazing! I wanted this for so long! I was so lost! I’m on track now
This was incredibly useful to me. I've shot a couple weddings and have been struggling to book more. Thank you for sharing your experience in the industry.
thank you so much guys ,,you are serious in busness . i can see we are still playing here in south africa ,, with this facts i think its time to change things in my busness .
You discounted the value of this video when you said it might not be the most exiting one. I have a better handle on the technical issues than the ones covered in this video. You've confirmed some of my theories that I was afraid to test out on my own. Thanks.
Excellent advice. This video was a huge help to me.
Thank you so much for the great advices
Thanks for this! I’ve been wanting to shoot families and weddings since I started photography. I’m always intimidated by the people that charge less for so much but didn’t realize that they were only hurting themselves in the business aspect of things
Thank you for this! It answered so many questions I had and addressed many concerns I had. This is definitely something helpful for me.
Not at allll, the time you took for the video was just 35 minutes and you shared a experience of at least 5 years of any professional.
Great stuff, up to the point, a very wise stuff for every new photographer.
Lastly loved it alll
Guys do more videos like this, or "How To Photograph A Beer", etc.
Your channel has great content and I love to watch and learn.
Ty. =)
GREAT TIPS. Thank you.
thanks guys very helpful this might just give me the kick in the butt to start
Best info on pricing I've found
I learned so much from this video. Thank you guys so very much!
Great video, guys. I don't shoot weddings, but your approach is good advice for anyone struggling with the business end of photography.
Thanks, Fstoppers for these inspiring tutorial. :-)
Good teaser for selling the course. Pretty much common sense stuff. Thanks for posting.
I am more of a videographer but these are definitely some good tips. Thing about photography, is that I find it so easy and simple compared to video. Video is so much more creativity involved and captures so much more emotion and takes more skill.
Photography seems like the easy route imo, and nowadays people can take pictures with their iPhone and make it just as good as some of the poor photographers out there
You had me until the idiocy of your last statement. Go find the average good pro and give them an iPhone and see how that fares since weddings are often held in dimly lit churches, for starters. Video absolutely does NOT involve more creativity (and I've done both professionally). They're "different" creatively. Video takes a bit more pre-planning but that's the only thing that's "more" with video.
Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!! This made sense and truly appreciate it!
MBA material. Great stuff.
Thank you. This sharing has given a kind of clarity about pricing.
The best video on How to charge for weddings.
I'm in a totally different industry but that's true. The base line price comes down to whatever price you decide on. Of course there are things to consider but basically, what's pricy or cheep has nothing to do with the actual number. unless you're going for the "cheaper the better", and that's fine too.
You are too awesome! Thanks for all the information. I look forward to meeting you one day.
I am working on my videography business at the moment. Just graduated college. And am beginning to book a lot more weddings for wedding videos. I have found that wedding photographers in my area(central Cali) are a everywhere. Everyone has a camera and everyone can snap a picture and edit it with their computer. I just find filmmaking so much more fulfilling and difficult. I feel like wedding photography and videography are about the same price, but it takes much more skill to do wedding videos. I am charging $1100 for wedding videos as my skills are getting better the more weddings I do. As a wedding videographer I need to have quite a bit of gear: multiple lenses, cameras, audio, mic up the groom and speakers. And then editing a video is way more complex. When I see a photographer at the weddings I am somewhat frustrated bc they are getting paid more than me and all they do is walk around with one maybe two lenses and click click click with auto white balance and then edit their raw photos in Lightroom in a few hours(guessing, not really sure how long it takes). Let me know if I’m completely wrong or off about my take on wedding photography in comparison to videography.
Another great video! Thank you !
love your advice.
I will use it in my next advert
Just asking for a high price is not going to fly. Charging a lot as a wedding photographer is about having a charismatic and likable personality, a great portfolio and contacts with wealthy people.
Not today. Stats show that couples' number 1 reason for choosing the photographer is price, regardless of their portfolio.
The people who can afford $50,000 for a photographer are wealthy people, they won't nickel and dime you. Market to the right client to get the prices you want.
that's what we would like to believe...
robbyjai at this price I think people are just expecting glamour. For me it's not really hard cause I'm a fashion photographer; like engagement session posed in a very magazine type of way. All the wealthy girls getting married my age right now die for that, and people hire photographers just to make their Instagram look really good i.e look like a magazine. For me it's not hard to conceptualize cause I know that imagery by heart
Yep, where I live it is ALL about price, they could care less about quality. The cheaper gets it.
When is it best to collect the rest of the payment? at the wedding? or when the photos are being delivered after the wedding.
By the way... thanks guys for making this video. I've been watching so much of you guys's videos lately and you have been inspiring to go forward with my business.
T5
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Nice video! Learn a lot from it. Thanks!
So helpful!!! Thank you guys!
thanks a whole lot guys I really enjoy watching your video I will be checking out your website. you gave a lot of information that was useful
Excellent Guys!
This was so helpful!!
I find it interesting that there is no mention of the actual business of pricing. Sure, finding out what the local competition charges is an important bit of information, but what about figuring out how much it actually costs to shoot? There is photo equipment, lighting, computers, repair and replacement costs, likely a car that needs to be deducted for travel, insurances (business, car, liability, etc) Then you need to figure in your hours shooting, editing and in sales and business administration. On ttop of that you also need to live, so you need to factor that number, which will be different for everyone, into the mix. Then, since your "middle of the road" wedding number in Charleston is apparently around $2000 - $2500 you need to determine how many weddings per year you need to shoot to cover the numbers and leave a little profit for retirement, vacations, etc. I think I'm pretty good so I'm going to charge $20K is no way to determine, in a business-like manner how to price a wedding. Sorry, this video is geared to weekend warrior shooters where your wedding income amounts to "play money", not people trying to build a sustainable business.
not scouting the competition is a little dangerous ....
I would agree and it's even worse in Wedding videography. People get excited by all the cool gear and learning the tricks and being artistic, and go out and do weddings very cheap. Their results are hit or miss. The market is now flooded with amateur to pro-sumers driving prices down and making it harder for anyone to really earn a living doing it. Starts to make you realize why people become 'teachers' of this stuff instead.
Indeed. My biggest competitors are people doing it on the side or for almost free. They have a full time job, buy the full set of gear, know the basics and might be actually good at it, but charge about 500-1000 euros for a wedding. They see it as an extra. Sometimes money straight into the pocket. It can be frustrating. Especially when one of those come to me or send me an e-mail for tips and advice.
Luckily, most people have the rationality to look for a full time photographer.
What is the benefit of a full time photographer when you can get as good as a result for a cheaper rate from a hobbyist? Why don't you think about your customers for a change, they have lives too, they don't want to pay more than they have to
If everyone stops hiring professionals and only go for "equally good" hobbyist for a fraction of the price for every job everywhere and all the time, the lives of everyone - including the customers - wil be over.
What would you suggest when a client inquires your services and you give them the rundown -- then they leave you on read? This particular wedding is in a couple weeks and they are desperate. They seemed me out, I told them I'm available, services, price -- but they have not responded to my continued correspondence. I just wanted a yes-or-no, but I think they are avoiding me. I'm getting a bit frustrated, but if I reach out again, they are most likely going to ignore me. Any advice? Should I just give up? Thank you Fstoppers!
Your right in everything your saying guys
My girlfriend hired a weeding photographer and was very upset about the "bad photography." She did not like any of the weeding photos and end up hiring another photographer to do photo shoot after the weeding.
Well, the weeding photographer's portfolio full of dandelions and such should have given away that they weren't a great wedding photographer.
Man, thank you so much for teaching me this.
I needed to hear this today! Thanks!
great video !!! a lot of information, thanks !!!
Awesome dude 😎🤠
loved d content, but yes ppl from different location may not connect & agree completely as all scenario is way far different. yes 80% content i agree, very detailed info
Thank you bro!! 🔥
Great content. Thank you
MUCH LOVE FOR THIS VIDEO
Thank you! Great lesson!
Excellent advise 😃
Advertising your prices is a very good idea aside from "weeding out" the ones who can't afford your package, It goes without really saying; If you gotta ask, you usually can't afford it and being transparent with your price list on your website - like you said; eliminates the less fortunate clienttell saving the photographer time and money. :)
Great video.
Really enjoyed this video.
Whats the website, id like to check out this a la carte menu
Hi FS thank you guys for nice advice quick question to you guys please..... When you give clients digital images do you give them with your copyrights so as to advertise yourself to the new potential clients or without it?Thanks
We give the files without watermarks. These images were bought by our clients and adding watermarks to the final delivery seems cheap and unprofessional. I do make a second batch of images called websized that I resize for my clients and place them in another folder called "Low Res" next to the "High Res" folder on the USB. Those low res images I do put a watermark. Truth be told though, I've never really booked a client because of a watermark. If someone love's a bride's photos, she will give her friend my contact info
Thanks a lot for your input
Thanks guys. Very informative.
wheres your website of how much u charge, I want to look at it for price ideas like you said in this video
Excellent video👍🏼
Thanks a lot.
You guys always slam dunk it!