When I started thinking about getting into photography, I wondered why Photographers charge as much as they do. Today, I try to settle in a range that's fair dependant on my experience, equipment and what I offer.
Some photographers will charge up to, and beyond the £2,000 mark and they won't even stay beyond the first dance, but some do. Photographers vary by area, experience, the equipment they use, staff, promotion and other factors.
The main factor for me is equipment. Although I have professional standard cameras and lenses, there is always new technology coming out that allows us to get even better results more consistently. More expensive lenses let more light hit the sensor, which stresses it out less, allowing for less grainy, sharper images with blurry backgrounds. The difference between a semi pro and a pro lens can run into the £1000's. Whilst the cameras bodies offer different and quicker focusing abilities, shots per second, grain improvements, and post production abilities, as well as ease of use making the day more efficient. I will put a rough guide of my current expenses since 2016 and wish list below so you can see for yourself.
P.s, you don't need the best gear for good results, but if you know how to use it, the gear and how you use it go hand in hand to improve the end result.
Do you want grainy, unsharp, everything in focus images ? Or images to stand out, be pin sharp where the focus is intended ( on the eye and face or an object ) with clean non grainy images. Different lenses and camera bodies produce different results.
Along with equipment, websites, creating booking forms. There's also planning, cleaning and charging all the equipment and making sure we're all ready including clothes and food. A whole day lugging around the gear is tiresome, along with the pressure of making sure we capture your special day just right. And then there are days worth of editing, uploading the pictures, distribution and after care. All involves time, paying for web services to allow us to share your images and so forth.
So in a nut shell, just turning up and taking a few pictures would be great, but its far from that simple. But its an amazing job and one to be proud of. It's a job worth doing because you are capturing someones special moment with family, and those pictures are the pictures the family, kids, and grandkids will see again and again through the generations. To do something that lasts forever........
Its priceless.
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