Photographer prices

[Erinleigh]

Hi ladies,
So FI and I have found a photographer who we absolutely love! His photography is exactly our style and he''s a really awesome guy (we met with him over the weekend). The only thing I''m concerned about is his price... For $3200 we''d get an engagement portrait session, full day wedding coverage with himself and his assistant, a wedding photo slideshow at the reception, an in-studio photo viewing section after the wedding and an online photo gallery of our images afterwards which family and friends can order off of. This base package doesn''t cover any actual photo hardcopies, and a 10 page 10x10 coffee table album (it''s printed on cardboard-like sheets... imagine a think baby/child book?) costs an additional $1200 (but we get a disc of all the images they shoot on cd). Does this sound reasonable or does he sound expensive?

 

[emeraldlover1]

There are a lot of factors; where you live, their work, how well known they are....ect. It seems like a really good price for what you are getting without seeing their work or knowing what you want in a photog.

 

[cindygenit]

Sounds standard for a good photographer. I have seen one guy charging 11000 for the pretty much the same as what you''re getting but without the photo slideshow at the reception and add in 2 photo albums (one coffee table album for the e-shoot and one large fancy leather album for the wedding day).

 

[Rock_of_Love]

I think he sounds reasonable to standard. I had a really hard time with this one, so I got lots of quotes and then evaluated which one I thought was the best fit. I''m at 3000 with pretty much the same except for the e-session. She did offer to do the e-session for $500 if I want, but I don''t think we''ll do it.

The things that were important to me was a 2nd shooter, a good amount of hours of coverage on the wedding day, and the photos on a CD with full reproduction rights. Then you can make your own wedding albums for MUCH cheaper.

 

[cleokizzy]

the price is relatively "cheap" where i am at. does he have a website? i always like checking out wedding photos! hehe

 

[Morgie44]

What is on the disk? Is it digital negatives, then I think that the price is very fair. If the disk is just a very small picture with a watermark or is too small to actually print on your own, it might be a little high, depending on how much the prints/disk is. For us, it was a priority to get the digital negatives with printing rights included in our package. We knew that we would want to have a copy (either electronic or printed) of each and every image (even the not so perfect ones). I know a couple of people that *thought* they were getting the negatives, but ended up getting a disk with thumbnails of all their pics, so just be sure to clarify.

We paid 2600ish for a very similar package, but the photographer has since raised her rates. You can see our pics in a thread that is floating around here titled something like ''morgie''s pro pics''

 

[rhbgirl24]

Sounds more than reasonable to me!

 

[Rock_of_Love]

Date: 10/13/2009 9:14:14 AM
Author: Morgie44
What is on the disk? Is it digital negatives, then I think that the price is very fair. If the disk is just a very small picture with a watermark or is too small to actually print on your own, it might be a little high, depending on how much the prints/disk is. For us, it was a priority to get the digital negatives with printing rights included in our package. We knew that we would want to have a copy (either electronic or printed) of each and every image (even the not so perfect ones). I know a couple of people that *thought* they were getting the negatives, but ended up getting a disk with thumbnails of all their pics, so just be sure to clarify.

We paid 2600ish for a very similar package, but the photographer has since raised her rates. You can see our pics in a thread that is floating around here titled something like ''morgie''s pro pics''

Thanks for posting this about digital negatives. I went back and checked my contract to make sure that is what I am getting. I''m like you, I will probably want a copy of all the images...and you can print them soooo much cheaper with a place like Snapfish or Shutterfly. Even make amazing photo books!!!

 

[sammyj]

Erin, are you guys still getting married in Milton? If so, we met with a fabulous photographer during our search but ended up going with someone else. I continue to stalk his blog though and I''m doing a boudoir shoot with him in a few weeks. I''ll message admin to give you my e-mail address.

In regards to the photographer you met on the weekend, I think having a DVD of the negatives is key. Our package was around $3100 with the DVD/CD (I forget which one and I''m too lazy to look it up!).

 

[Diva0413]

Date: 10/13/2009 12:18:48 PM
Author: rhbgirl24
Sounds more than reasonable to me!

Ditto. Almost a steal.

 

[honey22]

Sounds about average for a really good photographer. But I would warn you to check what type of images you are getting on the disk.

You want them to be high resolution, edited images. There is no use getting a disk full of proof images that look terrible when you print them.

If your images are good quality (high res etc) you then have the option of making an album yourself if you don''t want to order one from them, and you can always make extras for the parents. We are doing this for our parents'' gift when we get the disk later.