What is the average price for wedding shoots?

[mwkh]

Hi guys,

I would like to do some survey of the price of charges for being wedding photographer? I'm asking on behalf of a friend whom interested to do some wedding shoots in Aussie if possible.

Maybe the price quote can be listed as
1. pre-wedding shoots?
2. on-wedding day itself?
3. etc?

Feel free to voice out your opinions, as it would be helpful to us.

thanks in advance.

[ricktas]

$400.00 - $25,000

[Longshots]

Let me get this straight, you're asking for a friend who isnt in Australia ? And one of the options you want people to consider is "etc" ?


Hardly useful I'm afraid.

How long is the piece of string ?

I'd like a house, I have friend who's a builder and might like to come here and build in Australia.

1) Quote on a roof
2) Quote on building it with walls
3) Etc

[para]

$400.00 - $25,000

nice answer rick

[Longshots]

Well in all honesty - I would extend Rick's range from $0 to $100,000 (yep - heard of them).

[Dan Cripps]

At a guess:

<$2000 95%
>$2000 05%

[virgal_tracy]

I would love to help out but the question is too open ended. answers to the following would help -

Where is the photography to take place? eg major city, country town
How many hours of coverage is to be offered? 2 hrs, 4hrs, all day?
What does the client get? coverage, proofs, album, prints, Hi res jpgs?
1 photographer or 2?
Experience of the photographer?

All of these questions will determine what the charge wil be. A jerry Ghionis, Yervant, David Oliver or Marcus Bell can charge much more than Bill Smith or Jane Public in South Countryville for example.

Answers to these questions will allow us to answer your questions more fully.

[Analog6]

Why not have a look in some bridal magazines for ideas - at the least you'll get some websites to follow up to get an idea

[kiwi]

95% of the last amount quoted

[jasevk]

Well in all honesty - I would extend Rick's range from $0 to $100,000 (yep - heard of them).

agreed - I priced one a few weeks ago for a lady who called me from melbourne, she got back to me saying that she had a friend of a friend who will do it for $0 for the experience, and asked if I could also do it for free as she liked my work more than the other guys work. I said that my price was a reflection of my costs plus a reasonable and fair margin for my efforts, she hung up on me. She calls me back the next day saying that they can cover my flights and accommodation if I'd otherwise do it for free... I told her that my price already included travel costs, she hung up on me again.....

So my point is, there does seem to be people out there who demand free wedding photography!

[kiwi]

There are PLENTY who will do anything for free

[jasevk]

There are PLENTY who will do anything for free

Correct, if I'm honest I'd have to say I've been guilty of this myself 3 to 4 yrs ago... but it wasn't until I turned the tables and are now competing against this beast that I realised the problem...

[campo]

I think we're all guilty of undercharging especially when we start out because it's difficult to ask 5k, 10k, 15k when you can't produce workmanship like the greats. I know I struggled with the confidence to ask higher rates initially. It's when you start to factor in your real expenses do you realise that $500/wedding is unsustainable and your business will never work.

I attended a Marcus Bell workshop recently, and he did an exercise to work out an effective hourly rate and how much you're actually earning. Most of the people in the class put their hands up to say that they'd be paid better as a junior at Maccas!

It's those who continue to charge low and unsustainable rates that give the public an expectation that they can get cheap/free photography. Unfortunately, in this day and age, anyone can have a dSLR and go around saying "I'm a photographer".

I'm not scared to say no to a client if they don't want to pay proper rates, because i don't want to go broke!

[Jules]

There are PLENTY who will do anything for free

And in a lot of cases (not all) the clients will get exactly what they paid for.

[jasevk]

I'm not scared to say no to a client if they don't want to pay proper rates, because i don't want to go broke!

Yeah I've buckled to clients before for portrait queries just for the sake of getting the job... but to stand behind my price and watch the job slip from my hands was surprisingly not difficult!

I almost got the sense in my earlier days that SOME potential clients could clearly sense that you weren't a seasoned pro and tried very hard to take advantage of it!

[campo]

Yeah I've buckled to clients before for portrait queries just for the sake of getting the job... but to stand behind my price and watch the job slip from my hands was surprisingly not difficult!

I almost got the sense in my earlier days that SOME potential clients could clearly sense that you weren't a seasoned pro and tried very hard to take advantage of it!

Its a balancing act, without jobs you go broke too, without jobs you can't build up a portfolio, without jobs you can't get experience and then there's the almost certain fact that clients only willing to pay cheap rates are also the ones who'll try and take advantage of you.

[I @ M]

What is wrong with shopping around for the cheapest wedding photographer, after all you do it when buying a car, new or used?

[jasevk]

What is wrong with shopping around for the cheapest wedding photographer, after all you do it when buying a car, new or used?

Absolutely nothing wrong with it... but there's a difference between shopping around and targeting decent 'up & coming' photographers and screwing them down knowing they'll buckle!

[Kym]

What is wrong with shopping around for the cheapest wedding photographer, after all you do it when buying a car, new or used?

If I pay $500 for an old Merc - I know it will be c**p. If I pay $100,000 for a new one - I can expect some nice motoring.
So buying a wedding 'tog service should be the same.
I need to evaluate the product/service and be prepared to pay for value.

[I @ M]

Absolutely nothing wrong with it... but there's a difference between shopping around and targeting decent 'up & coming' photographers and screwing them down knowing they'll buckle!

Working on that theory then you wouldn't go to a car dealership that you know might be struggling in order to see if you could get a car a bit cheaper because they need the sales to keep the doors open?