$2500 for a wedding photograhper, plus more for the actual photos?

[jprime84]

We just got married, and i know that her parents already paid the wedding photographer $2500 to come and take pictures. Now apparently the actual pictures cost more to get after seeing the proofs. I dont know how much, but apparently a lot. I havent seen the proofs yet.

In my opinion, for $2500 we should get digital copies on CD of every shot she took that turned out.


For those of you in the industry, what are the norms for this? What sort of prices are out there? what do you get for what you pay? can I ask for the digital copies?

thanks for the help, we just feel like her parents are being ripped off.

[filemanager]

Sounds to me like her parents are definitely being ripped off!!!

At our wedding my father-in-law did the photography, so we didn't hire anyone... so I can't really compare to what we paid, but I can assure you it wouldn't have been that much!

[Haeretik]

Just picked up a book on Digital Wedding Photography, was skimming through it and he mentioned the average price of a wedding photographer in the U.S. was $2500... can't recall what that included...

I've seen some high prices, even here in Canada there's a guy I saw that charges $3200 for an 8 hour day... images are extra but his price includes a $750 "credit" towards prints, dvd's, etc....

[jdepould]

That's pretty normal. I know a shooter who won't even think about doing a wedding for less than $10k. There are people who will do it for less, but you usually get what you pay for.

[Sime™]

Oh Man!... I would have come and... oh, hang on... you're MILES away!...



Not sure on US prices, apologies.

[Loose_Canon]

All of that should be covered in the wedding photography contract. What does it say? Any photog operating in that price range will have certainly supplied a contract which describes what is included.

[jprime84]

Well, if these are amazing shots i suppose that will be one thing..

even still, i dont get separate fees for coming to take the shots, and then producing the actual piece of paper that we get to frame. It doesnt seem like i should pay someone money just to do the service but before I get the results. Do you pay a groomer to wash your dog, then pay them some more to give the dog back?

I guess in my mind it makes sense to have just 1 price that includes the pictures and the service.



on a side note, the photographer aggrevated the heck out of me. She was terrible at directing us. "Why dont you just... stand like.. no.. uh.. maybe a little.... YES! do that..."

Even if the price is fair for an average wedding, all this woman did was come out for the wedding and reception (maybe 3 hours, MAYBE) with 1 camera. It just seemed like they were paying for much more then that.

[Loose_Canon]

Originally Posted by jdepould

That's pretty normal. I know a shooter who won't even think about doing a wedding for less than $10k. There are people who will do it for less, but you usually get what you pay for.

I learned wedding photography from a guy that charges $15,000 for wedding coverage. That's high end stuff, even here in Dallas, TX.

$2500 is not out of the question. We paid that ($2500) for our daughter's wedding last year but got 4 amazing custom albums, a DVD photo montage and 3 CD-ROMs of the photos.

[jprime84]

Originally Posted by Loose_Canon

All of that should be covered in the wedding photography contract. What does it say? Any photog operating in that price range will have certainly supplied a contract which describes what is included.

i couldnt say until after this weekend. we are going back to her parents to see the proofs.

[jprime84]

Originally Posted by Loose_Canon

$2500 is not out of the question. We paid that ($2500) for our daughter's wedding last year but got 4 amazing custom albums, a DVD photo montage and 3 CD-ROMs of the photos.

that would be great, what I am saying is that this woman wants us to pay more to actually recieve the photos/cds


i dont know what the prior arrangement was, her parents were handling it all. i didnt even know what they were spending until the day of. Ill find out this weekend and report back.