Introductory rate for new wedding photographer?

[bluehiro]

Hi all,

After focusing on chidren's photography for the last year or so I am attempting to break into the wedding photography market. So far I shot two weddings for acquaintances at reduced rates. I am now wanting to advertise my work on craigslist, etc.

Offering full day coverage
Full resolution images on CD

How much should I charge? I'm new to this so I obviously do not feel comfortable charging thousands of dollars. At the same time I've hit a wall, I just need to start shooting weddings so that I can improve and THEN begin charging a regular market rate.

Thoughts or advice on introductory pricing? I don't want to get branded as a "cheap" photographer...

Link to my wedding portfolio here

[OsmosisStudios]

((How much you want to make an hour) x (hours on site)) + (how much you want to make an hour) x (hours editing)) + (materials, rentals, etc) + (markup for artistic vision, skills, etc) = rate

The first bit is easy: Figure out how much you want to be paid per hour, and multiply by the number of hours A) on site and B) working on the images afterwards.

Then add on whatever charged you accrue for the event. This includes equipment rentals (for anything specific the couple might request), your travel costs (airfare if applicable, vehicle rentals, gas, hotels, food, etc), physical costs (CD, Prints, other consummables, etc)

The last bit is hard: how much you want to charge for your skills as a photographer, your vision, artistic eye, etc. This is totally subjective and will depend on how good creative you feel you are. I know that for some people this is very little (photojourno style wedding) or a lot (in some cases, it's essentially doubling the rest of the charge).

So, if you plan on making, say, $40 an hour for full-day coverage (from getting dressed to the end of reception, assume 10am-midnight, if not later), then you get something along the lines of $40x14hrs = 560. That's also low-end of the pay grade.

Then add on the time you spend working on editing. I usually charge a bit less, but it depends on how much work you're doing. I dont do as much post work, but some people do tons and charge more. Let's say, for sake of argument, that you charge the same amount. So, $40 per hour, times, say, 8 hours (being conservative). That gives you another $320.

So, we're at $880 so far, just for your time. Round to $900, for sake of argument.

Assuming you have very little materials, rentals, etc, we're talking probably at least $100. That's like a minimum. Which already pushes you above $1k.

From there, your artistic vision fee (or "creative fee") gets added on. As I said, this can range from very little to a whole lot.

This is, of course, a very simple breakdown and you're more than welcome to add or remove stuff from this list. But as you can see, even a very simple wedding can end up being expensive.

[ARKreations]

And then you should take into consideration that you will declare that as business income and have upwards of 1/3 of it go towards taxes. You should also be amortizing wear and tear on your equipment and factoring that into each job as well.

[zona5101]

i'm not sure craigslist is your best marketing avenue... lots of $125 "all day everything ful rez on a CD" for your 'competition'. In my area theres a guy on CL who shoots for donations.

[Jim Bryant]

Craigslist = bad deal. There's already way too many photographers advertising on craiglist willing to shoot wedding for $150 to $300. And there's way too many couples who accept their rock bottom deals only to get screwed in the end.

[bluehiro]

Wow, thanks for the response everyone. Especially Osmosis Studios, breaking down the price like that really makes it easier to see where the money is going and how much I would really be making. Based on all of your feedback I think I'm getting closer to establishing an introductory pricing scheme.

Ok, I know that Craigslist is full of bargain basement shooters... but where else can I advertise for free? I really appreciate your advice but I recently moved to a new city and I don't really know anyone, so word of mouth is just not going to work for me (until I become more established).

So my new question is; What are the alternatives to advertising on Craigslist?

[neubauer6]

I am not a wedding photographer but it seems to me like the $250 you are charging as listed on your website is ridiculously low. You want people to take you seriously right? Try creating a business page on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Get a spot in the local yellow pages, hand out business cards, do some volunteer work to get your name out there.

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by bluehiro

Ok, I know that Craigslist is full of bargain basement shooters... but where else can I advertise for free?

Well, you can start by optimizing a web page to do the advertizing for you. Not totally free, but not too pricey either.

Facebook, etc isn't horrible if done right, but you have to realize that there is a market that is much more profitable that doesn't spend it's time on facebook.

As far as free advertising in general, you usually get what you pay for. At some point, one has to take things seriously and do some real marketing.

I don't know why everyone disses craigslist. It's free, and it doesn't hurt anything. I say go for it.

There's a lot of myths about craigslist, most are untrue. You will not be known as a "bargain shooter". You will be able to raise your rates in the future. You will not get a bad reputation from advertising on there. I personally know a couple people that advertise on craigslist...some suck, but some are quite good. Prices range from $1000 to $2500.

Newspapers are a waste of money. Facebook advertising is hit/miss (mostly miss for me).

Best bang for the buck? Bridal shows. Interact first hand with hundreds of potential customers in a few hours. Stay away from the really expensive ($2000+) bridal shows and focus on a few of the lower cost shows ($0-$500). Try and find the best bride/cost ratio (the organizers should be able to tell you how many brides they usually have). And here in the U.S., we're coming up on Bridal Show season (usually during the winter).

Be sure to be registered with as many free bridal websites as you can. You might not get any sales from them, but you will increase name recognition (which helps). Gathering Guide has been pretty good for us as well...usually one or two inquiries a month from them.

Get a facebook fan page and invite all your friends. I've gotten a few jobs from that.

Donating your services to local charities can also generate future jobs. After shooting an American Cancer Society event, I landed a wedding with one of the organizer's daughter, and another wedding with one of the hotel staff's daughter. Get in with one charity, and word will spread to the others (a lot of board members sit on more than one charity). It's great exposure.

Some people diss it, but shooting for free occassionally is good exposure. I've done several free shoots for friends and co-workers, and that's generated some paying gigs in the future. Those photos end up all over facebook and cubical walls...great advertising

[bluehiro]

Originally Posted by neubauer6

I am not a wedding photographer but it seems to me like the $250 you are charging as listed on your website is ridiculously low. You want people to take you seriously right? Try creating a business page on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Get a spot in the local yellow pages, hand out business cards, do some volunteer work to get your name out there.

I was wondering if anyone would notice that ;-)

You are absolutely right, $250 is ridiculously low. That pricing page what prompted me to make this post, I realized that I was in the woods on pricing and had no idea what I was doing.

New pricing will be going up soon. For right now, I've done nothing to promote the page and will NOT be promoting it until I resolve the pricing question.