Why is wedding photography so expensive?

You're the one who came here defending $4k rates for wedding photos. My contention is that such is a ripoff. Your financial condition is largely irrelevant to that point. You might be broke which means only means that you suck at ripping people off, not that you aren't doing it.

Don't be silly. There are many things that I buy. It's a matter of value. I bought my couch, for example. i shopped around for a good deal, weighing against it my desired characteristics (comfort, utility etc) and made a decision.

I also pay to get my hair cut. I could pay $15 at the barbershop down the street or I can get a $400 cut at a fancy uptown salon in New York. There are certainly men willing to pay $400 for a haircut but that doesn't really make it less of a rip-off.

That's quite the dichotomy you've set up for the world. You either piss away money like cheap beer or you live the life of a lonely miser. Christmas at my house is just fine, thanks. But I also don't go overboard and we observe a three gifts per person rule. But, apparently, you feel that Christmas is no fun unless I blow through a whole paycheck on crap that will amuse them for a week before its forgotten.

wow, the guy who wants to sell you $4k worth of photos subscribes to the "you can't take it with you" attitude of money. What a surprise! Let me guess, if you die in debt, you win, right? So why bother demonstrating any sort of fiscal responsibility? Just pay whatever for anything. After all, if the guy selling it to you says it's an indispensable thing it must be true!

Oh, wow, is there a group of amateur HR enthusiasts meeting regularly near you? Do you know of anyone who spends every non-working hour brushing up on HR best practices? How many retirees, on average, would you say you run into who decide to get really serious about getting into Human Resources now that they have all of that free time?

Oh, none, huh? But how many people take up photography as a serious enough hobby that they develop sufficient competency to reasonably offer a comparable product? Yeah, thought so.

Therapy isn't required by law but a license to practice therapy is. However, if you really want to offer "advice" (not what therapy is, by the way) then you can easily hang out a shingle and call yourself a life coach. No schooling. No prep. Just get yourself a clean notepad and sharpen your pencil (I'd also recommend getting a Square to accept credit cards).

Anyone can write a novel I'm not sure why you think otherwise. You can even publish it yourself. And, in doing so, you have the opportunity to set a price. What if you write the most amazing novel of all times and sell it for $1,999 in the Kindle edition? Good value? Worth it?

I'm sure you think we are all suitably impressed by the fact that you have a blog. After all, much like all of your odd comparisons above, it isn't as if just anyone can write a blog.

Best wishes to your readers.

 

It means spending money on a lavish wedding just because you think it's expected, or "that's how it's done", or because someone else is paying for it, especially if done without regard for financial realities.

I have no opinion on the price of your services. I assume you do a fantastic job, and I'm sure there are people who are happy to pay for that. I'm just not one of them.

P.S. I actually have to amend that some. I do try to have professional portraits done of the immediate family every couple of years, but that costs nowhere near that kind of money. Also, I am also ever so glad I got the extended family to gather for professional portraits while it was still possible to include 4 generations. I don't think the cost was that high, but it was fairly high because so many people purchased large framed prints and canvases.

 

Deleted: Duplicate

 

At least this is a sensible conversation, thank you for that.

On the point of it being nowhere near that kind of money - my average wedding is 10 hours, plus a couple for an engagement session - two to three times that for editing and polishing of images. so maybe around 40 hours?

That looks like $100 per hour. However, there is the wedding album that's included to come out of that right off the bat. And that large equipment investment.

It's a living - certainly not a "rolling in money by ripping people off" scenario. I have happy clients, and that's all that matters.

Again, thanks for the reasonable response - as far as the other guy is concerned, I won't waste another second on him.

P.S. He will surely see that as some sort of victory.

 

Keep up the good work Hugh. I have a friend who is a photographer. His profit margin isn't that high. Keep your chin up, I know you guys work hard.

Merry Christmas,

Abner

 

I'm with Hugh, too. I particularly like his statement "I have happy clients. That's all that matters."

Besides technical / artistic skills, wedding photography needs a particularly high order of people skills. I don't have ANY people skills - so no wedding photography for me. And wow! Judging by some of the authoritative pronouncements about the photographic process in this thread, I've concluded that some posters really must know a LOT! :smile: I bet they come up with a masterpiece every time they press the shutter button! ... I am not worthy! :shock:

I might well want to pay less than $4,000 myself. It's a free country. We all have that option. Freedom includes shopping around. In a country where college football and basketball coaches can earn $5 or $6 million a year (maybe 50-60 times what a professor earns) there are way more suitable things to get incensed about - and use unpleasant words like "rape us with their fees " - than a $4,000 quote from a photographer.

I've been an amateur photographer for many years. Won a couple of prizes here and there but never earned a dime from photography - never wanted to, never tried. Nearly 73 now, I still take courses, try out new software, etc. Just a hobby - and I love it that way - but I've learned to appreciate what the pro's do.

My advice: Save the invective for the guy who cornered the market and jacked up the price of the AIDS drug up by 5,000%. Oh, I just noticed - some of you did.

Good job!

As Abner said - keep up the good work, Hugh.

J.

 

Hugh,

I recall what Christopher Buckley, son of the late William F. Buckley said regarding a piece of sound guidance his father gave him:

-- "Never debate with an amateur; they'll kill you every time. An amateur would just shout and say anything, and it makes rational argument impossible."

 

supply and demand

 

Some people also stop discussing because they get all huffy and decide that they are "above" the conversation.

 

I have only had two experiences with professional photographers/photography. The first is something that everyone can relate to, it's those stupid school photos. You sit/stand in front of some horrible backdrop and the photographer takes about half a second to get you ready and then CLICK, it's done and too bad for you if it didn't come out well. Then your parents get to shell out $49.95 for some package that includes 17 wallet sizes pictures and they all wind up in some drawer somewhere. That's a total rip off. My second experience is in road racing. Photographers are stationed along the route as well as the finish line and they take photos of everybody who's running. They contact you based on your race number and you can buy some photos of your race. That's kind of cool and I've actually bought a few over the years. So, mixed reviews from me.

 

And some will make the decision that to continue with some exchanges will only support an exercise in futility…

My reasoning in referencing Buckley…

 

I will admit that some of my beef with professional photography does come from school photos. I actually do not appear in my high school yearbook my senior year because I absolutely refused to shell out the $200 that the local photographers wanted for a senior photo (and if you didn't pay, you didn't appear in the yearbook. The school provided photos for all underclassmen, regardless of their willingness to purchase photo packages).

I did buy some boot camp photos from the photographer who took our divisional and individual photos. That was pretty neat. But they were also relatively cheap. I actually just ordered a reprint of my divisional photo (the NEX in Great Lakes has them on file going back into the mid 90s) and the cost was $30. Not bad!

But I largely think that everything around weddings and funerals is just a racket. A cake that would cost $200 if I just purchased it during the week costs $1,200 for the addition of a few edible pearls and a plastic cake topper. My most recent family photo session cost $500* for nearly a half day of a photographer chasing my kids through a park. But if that same photographer was doing the same work for a wedding, the price is $2.5k.

*I was also pretty pissed at paying $500 for family photos, mind you. But they did turn out fantastically and I can't complain for the amount of time and care the photographer took.

 

just when you thought the wedding photography thread was gone and gone. These wedding photos cost $1.08 million dollars

Jury Finds Newlyweds Defamed Dallas Wedding Photographer Andrea Polito Over Album Cover Fee - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth