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06/03/2006 01:56:51 PM · #26 |
Originally posted by elru21:
I definitely agree with your first statement, that it has less to do with skill and more to do with marketing. I think your last statement about manipulation tactics is a little cynical (but perhaps appropriate at least some of the time). Believe me, I have no problem with cynical :). I really think it has to do with finding clients who are in the market to spend the amount that you are looking to charge. I totally agree that $10,000 wedding photographers are not $8,000 better than $2,000 wedding photographers. They just have different client bases. |
Originally posted by mk:
... I'd say that the convincing doesn't necessarily require a strong portfolio to back you up - maybe you just need to be good with words and manipulation tactics good salesmanship. |
;) |
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06/03/2006 02:00:49 PM · #27 |
I'm really seriously thinking about trying to put myself into the $5-$10G range. I mean why not? I'm just trying to figure out what I need to be doing to charge those types of pirces.
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06/03/2006 02:02:05 PM · #28 |
Originally posted by BeeCee:
a la carte wedding package, $875 thou... two hours with photographer, two locations, wedding only, no reception, prints extra. But for that you get a free pen and the photographer in a suit!
So at the 8% guideline, that would be a $10 mill wedding... Okay, this is too good a deal to pass up, right? ;) |
LOL, well if there are suckers willing to pay that kind of money...Good for him...he's laughing all the way to the bank at the measly hourly rate of $437,500.00 (and that does NOT even include one photo!) |
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06/03/2006 02:23:19 PM · #29 |
Originally posted by doctornick:
LOL, well if there are suckers willing to pay that kind of money...Good for him...he's laughing all the way to the bank at the measly hourly rate of $437,500.00 (and that does NOT even include one photo!) |
He's got to be going broke charging those prices... LOL... I mean hell even McDonald's pays those sort of wages ;-)
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06/03/2006 02:28:02 PM · #30 |
i'm from a more practical standpoint.
if I ever get married, there will be no $10,000 an hour photographer.
or even $500 for that matter.
I'd like to think money would be better spent on say... oh, I don't know... a down payment on a house, or another car.
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06/03/2006 02:31:15 PM · #31 |
Originally posted by saintaugust:
i'm from a more practical standpoint.
if I ever get married, there will be no $10,000 an hour photographer.
or even $500 for that matter.
I'd like to think money would be better spent on say... oh, I don't know... a down payment on a house, or another car. |
I wonder how your bride will feel about that? ;-)
Message edited by author 2006-06-03 14:31:26.
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06/03/2006 02:40:09 PM · #32 |
Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
Originally posted by saintaugust:
i'm from a more practical standpoint.
if I ever get married, there will be no $10,000 an hour photographer.
or even $500 for that matter.
I'd like to think money would be better spent on say... oh, I don't know... a down payment on a house, or another car. |
I wonder how your bride will feel about that? ;-) |
how would she feel about living in a basement apartment her whole life cause we're paying off a wedding for 10 years?
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06/03/2006 02:56:33 PM · #33 |
Originally posted by mk:
I mean, there are wedding photographers charging in the thousands who shouldn't be allowed to take photos for free. |
Hey, leave me out of this! :-)
Here's another one that was posted in a similar thread a while ago...
Gary Fong - Storybook Studio, Inc.
Since he's charging less than $350,000.00 I guess that means he's one of those "just starting out" wedding photographers. LOL
The way I see it, wedding photography, just like any other product or service, is worth whatever a customer is willing to pay. So, if you find an idiot that is willing to pay you $850,000.00 to photograph a wedding, then that is what your photography is worth. The quality of the resulting photos is immaterial.
If you do find such an idiot, please give me a call. I'll only charge you $100,000.00 to act as backup photographer. I can afford to work so cheaply because wedding photography is just a hobby for me and I only need to cover my expenses. :-)
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06/03/2006 03:11:05 PM · #34 |
| My wife and I spent a grand total of $50 on our wedding and that was for the license. We had a freind bring a disposable camera and I'm not even sure if we got copies of the pictures. |
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06/03/2006 03:19:38 PM · #35 |
Originally posted by NathanW:
My wife and I spent a grand total of $50 on our wedding and that was for the license. We had a freind bring a disposable camera and I'm not even sure if we got copies of the pictures. |
LOL! Sounds like our wedding, but we didn't even have the disposable. :)
Still, our wedding has lasted a lot longer than many high dollar ones.
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06/03/2006 06:21:02 PM · #36 |
"Procrastination is like masturbation, it feels good at the time, but in the end your only screwing yourself." ..too funny i,m still cracking up on this one!!!
I,d be so careful doing weddings, one source of photography you wouldnt want too screw up on the day ..but time and time again i hear of these sad wedding photo stories.
Message edited by author 2006-06-03 18:24:22. |
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06/03/2006 06:32:33 PM · #37 |
| there are a lot of fancy prices around but $875.000 I would have Bailey at that price at least hes famous |
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06/03/2006 07:18:47 PM · #38 |
check out 'studio photographer' magazine.
i think in general the price is set in the brides mind by a referral, and a chat with the photographer. if the bride feels the photog can shoot images to suit her needs, any price is good ( so to speak ). so it isn't only taking sharp photos and capturing the kiss and the cake cutting. it's more that the couple feels comfortable with the photographer, suit or not.
i just looked at 200+ proofs from a relatives' recent wedding. nothing to brag about, some typical images. the couple was satisfied, though i don't know how much the photos cost. the proofs were full res JPEGS on a CD... ;}
i guess my point is to ask the big dollars you have to KNOW the couple. if you can't relate to the couple you should NOT shoot the wedding.
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06/03/2006 07:40:18 PM · #39 |
personally I think you would do fine at those prices fotoman. the thing about charing more is you get a differnt customer base. many of you mention that some cheaper photographers do better or as good work as the more expensive ones but what you may not be thinking of is the fact that people that are willing or want to pay 10,000 will not even look at someone that charges 1,000. If you decide you are going to spend 20,000 for a car woudl you start at the 2,000 cars? most people wouldn't they may start at 15,000 and move up till they find the one that suits them. same thing for a house if your budget is 100,000 you don't start looking at 10,000 ones. maybe some of those cheaper ones woudl suit your needs but you will never know.
unfortunatly most people look in thier budget and just think that they are paying for more because they are worth more. so if you put your prices higher then those people will look at you and you will then have the chance to earn thier business.
I like that some of you charge 500 bucks or so because that means some good hardworking regular class people get some damn good wedding photos:) |
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06/03/2006 07:56:23 PM · #40 |
Originally posted by Elvis_L:
I like that some of you charge 500 bucks or so because that means some good hardworking regular class people get some damn good wedding photos:) |
Good point!
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06/03/2006 08:17:52 PM · #41 |
Originally posted by micknewton:
LOL! Sounds like our wedding, but we didn't even have the disposable. :)
Still, our wedding has lasted a lot longer than many high dollar ones. |
This summer we hit the 9 year mark. Not bad since we only knew each other for 8 months when we got married. Never asked each other out on a date, and neither one of us proposed to the other. *shrug* |
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06/03/2006 08:28:25 PM · #42 |
Originally posted by micknewton:
Originally posted by mk:
I mean, there are wedding photographers charging in the thousands who shouldn't be allowed to take photos for free. |
Hey, leave me out of this! :-)
Here's another one that was posted in a similar thread a while ago...
Gary Fong - Storybook Studio, Inc.
Since he's charging less than $350,000.00 I guess that means he's one of those "just starting out" wedding photographers. LOL
The way I see it, wedding photography, just like any other product or service, is worth whatever a customer is willing to pay. So, if you find an idiot that is willing to pay you $850,000.00 to photograph a wedding, then that is what your photography is worth. The quality of the resulting photos is immaterial.
If you do find such an idiot, please give me a call. I'll only charge you $100,000.00 to act as backup photographer. I can afford to work so cheaply because wedding photography is just a hobby for me and I only need to cover my expenses. :-) |
//www.garyfong.com/newsplash.html Anybody else amused that gary fong is the authour of a cd package entitled 'getting rich'! |
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06/03/2006 08:53:54 PM · #43 |
It's all psychology I think, there's two factors at work.
Firstly, the "price equals quality" myth, that the more you pay, the better the product/service is.
Secondly, having spent that much money on something, the customer has a vested interest (pride) in being happy with the results... who wants to spend $20,000 or $200,000 or more on wedding photography and then admit that they didn't get what they paid for? Not many people have the strength of character to admit that. If they do get bad photos, then it's "arty" or "avant garde"; if they'd paid only $500 for the same photos, then it would have been "rubbish". |
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06/03/2006 08:59:46 PM · #44 |
nothing wrong with that !
to get the good photos you need to connect with the couple.
connect with the couple - create good photos
get a referral - charge a bit more maybe.
work your way up to big money. referrals and connection.
Originally posted by Elvis_L:
Originally posted by Elvis_L:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I like that some of you charge 500 bucks or so because that means some good hardworking regular class people get some damn good wedding photos:)
Good point! |
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06/03/2006 09:27:00 PM · #45 |
Depending on the market like New York, Chicago or Los Angeles it is not all that outrageous for a studio to charge 10K for a wedding.
A friend in the NYC metro area has been trying to start a career in photography for a couple years or so and do weddings. Her boyfriend has his own studio and regularly charges 2-5K for weddings. But he has employees to pay as well. Many photographers do other events to make ends meet. My friend books her own Bar and Bat Mitzvahs which are popular in the NYC metro area and she also does private sittings for maternity, infant and child photography specializing in "photojournalistic" portraits. She does that under her own business name. Unexpected print sales to relatives tends to add to what she earns.
Most of her work comes from word of mouth. For larger events she negotiates print packages and things like that. She seems to work a couple times a week now booked well in advance but still cannot sustain a living at it, but is getting closer.
She recently booked her first wedding on her own and hired a second shooter to help. I think she charged $1,500+, took about 1,300 pictures, offered a nice hard copy album with 70 images or so with a disk and a print package I believe.
To break into wedding photography and also to sustain a supplemental income a lot of photographers there work as independant contractors for large studios that book lots of weddings even if they already have their own businesses. The studio just calls and says they need you for such and such a date. Contractors usually work with one or more photographers and videographers that they often have never met in advance of the wedding. The studios sometimes have a "coach" they assign to the contractor but I think that is more for their own quality control than to help the contractor. Forget about having weekends off.
She is doing more of that kind of work for a couple different studios. It does not pay a lot but gets you great experience and adds to your portfolio. In that line of work second shooters at weddings get about $250 and first shooters get about $500. But their responsibility is only to take the pictures, burn them to disk and turn them in. That is it. The studio does everything else. But those can still be pretty long days. Most are high priced weddings often into the 10K+ area. There are lots of rich people in NYC and they seem to re-marry on a regular basis. LOL!.
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06/04/2006 12:24:40 PM · #46 |
I think I'd be quite upset being contracted to shoot a $10k wedding and getting paid $250-500 to shoot it.
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06/04/2006 12:49:46 PM · #47 |
Why do people spend that much or how to photogs get that much?
Reputation. Cache, bragability...Bambi Cantrell is a name. Whether she is any better than anyone here can be debated, but hiring her gives the bride something to be snobbish about, and the price adds to that snobbery.
Exclusivity - not everyone can afford $10,000 for photography.
Experience, style, reputation locally. This is my second year shooting weddings - i have like no reputaion to speak of, have yet to really get a style, and my experience level is low...so for me to get taht kind of money is not likely.
Some can start out at that price level - "ask it and they will pay" but most of that is salesmanship and 'big balls' on the part of the photographer.
The general theory amongst wedding photogs is the work is the same for all weddings (more or less) so the more you charge the more you make. It seems everyone wants to be a $10k photog - but the clientele is different and expect to be treated differently. I meet my clients at starbucks and they buy their own coffee - a $10k client expects to meet at the RitzCarlton and have the photog buy the champagne.
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06/04/2006 01:06:35 PM · #48 |
Here is a local guy in the States. His pictures blow away that guys for 850k. His range up to $30,000+.
www.iastudios.com
Message edited by author 2006-06-04 13:09:24.
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06/04/2006 02:23:28 PM · #49 |
Originally posted by rpwsrw:
Here is a local guy in the States. His pictures blow away that guys for 850k. His range up to $30,000+.
www.iastudios.com |
Thanks for the link. See, I look at links like his and I see nothing I can't produce. It makes me wonder why I do weddings for under $1K
Message edited by author 2006-06-04 14:23:40.
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06/04/2006 09:47:45 PM · #50 |
Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
Originally posted by rpwsrw:
Here is a local guy in the States. His pictures blow away that guys for 850k. His range up to $30,000+.
www.iastudios.com |
Thanks for the link. See, I look at links like his and I see nothing I can't produce. It makes me wonder why I do weddings for under $1K |
so raise your rates:) quit wondering and do it! I would honor what you have out there and those people that are recomended to you in the very near future and start raiseing the rates. |
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