What should we be charging for wedding photography?

Hi there, I'm a first time poster and a photography assistant.

Some background info about my question:

The 2008 summer season was our first wedding season. We used it to build our portfolio, network, and gain more

wedding photography experience.

Our market is Vancouver, BC. It's a quite saturated market with a lot of people who have a lot of money to throw

away. Therefore, lots of people who own fancy cameras and think they are photographers. In our bridal directory,

there are actually more Vancouver photographers than there are Toronto photographers and yet we have a smaller

population.

In terms of competition, there are a few very skilled highly trained and talented folks like Pendersen, Dean

Sanderson, Chris + Lynn, and HEE Photography. There base prices usually start at close to $3000. There are also

some other photographers who I feel produce images like guests at a wedding that charge way more than we do.

They charge $2000 as base price.

Our current pricing is $1000 for 5 hours of coverage. Are we charging too little for our quality and what the services

we are offering? I would really appricate it if someone can take a look at our website at www.butterflyphotography.ca

and give me some feedback and suggestions. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rosaline

Your price $1000 includes one or two photographers?

As for your web site - the photo on your main page looks out of focus (it looks like the focus is on the center of the frame, not the couple). Also, the bride's hand has some reddish tone, probably a result of some processing afterwards. I'm sure you have a better photo for your home page?

It includes 2 photographers.

The photo was shot with the glass frame as the focus but I've covered that up with the text.

Mario - I am pretty sure the 'reddish' tone is a Henna tattoo.

I think for what you are including in your package you need to charge more, especially for 2 photographers. Not sure what you should be charging, but definitely more.

Why only 50 images on an online gallery? Is it a proofing gallery for the client to order photos, or a way for your clients to show off their photos to friends and family?

I'd probably say $1500 or more... depending on what you offer. I'm just a single photographer in Calgary (my wife, a non-technical photographer sometimes assists, although i don't rely on her for images) and I have no problem charging $1500 - $2000.... my clients don't mind paying that much and have been very happy with the results. However, i'm not big on wedding photography, and usually seek out advertising jobs instead which is a very different market... most photographers in my area that are 'good' start at about $1500... and there are more than a few that charge $3000 - $5000 for a full day. One fellow in particular who is quite good charges $4000 as a base price.

Regarding your portfolio site, i'd go with what some of the others said... i'd start by replacing the main image... the first thing I saw was an out of focus image... and not in a creative way (can't see the window pane). A few other images in your portfolio seemed to have a few focus issues (Ranging from very mild to one that was drastically out of focus). Meanwhile some seemed very sharp with crisp focus... is one lens causing problems perhaps?

That being said, there were some shots on there that I actually really liked... and it's not what you asked in the first place anyways :)

I would refrain from charging per hour, and just charge extra for a full day. Make the commitment to be there for everything and convince your clients that trying to save a few bucks by going hourly may seem good now, but not in ten years when you are missing photos you could've had. You can charge $2000 for a day and not really be raising your rates. My weddings take 10 hours easily.

As far as charging more, your photos are good enough, but is your marketing? You need to convince people to pay you $3,000 for pictures...as they say, photos are 10% of the business, marketing is 90%. If people see you first and think you're worth 3 grand, its your job to amke sure they dont bother comparing you to your peers and hire YOU as well as your photos.

Thanks for the input. Yes, I think I should change the main page picture. The area that is in focus is covered by the text so there is no point in putting it up. It will just confuse people.

And to answer some questions: the top 50 images is just for sharing with family and friends. The client will get all photos on a DVD.

One more question: which photo are you referring to that is extremely out of focus? Please let me know as some of them are done on purpose with post processing. If it looks unnatural, then I wouuld take it down.

If you haven't put a business plan together you might want to go to some seminars on starting a business. In order to know what you should charge, you have to know what your expenses will be and how much you need to make in order to survive. Without that it won't make much sense to come up with a price even if it is an average competitive price in your market. Why lump yourselves in with everybody else anyway? It just means you are another leaf of lettuce in the head. :) Determine the value of your work and the needs of your income, and write up a good business plan with the expectations of growth over time. That will get you the answers you are seeking.

Lou

What I did, since I was rejoining the Phoenix, Az area was to go to a Wedding Show at the beginning of the year. While I was there I was able to pick up all of the brochers that were being put out from the photographers in the area. I found the market ran from prices for packages $800-$10,000. I was able to also get a feeling for were I would fit into the flux of things by talking to the other photographers and also seeing their work, I also had all of their web sites to look at also.

Now I am only going to be doing my business part time, so my pricing will also be based on this also.

Also I was able to ask the photographers how long they had been doing weddings, and this gave me an interesting view of the market also, about 30-40% had only had 1-2 yrs experience. All of this information was very valuable in helping me set my pricing, and also helped me set up my packages based on what I saw in my market.

Joel