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Resident Antagonist
Genuinely Surprised By This
For the last few months, I have been second shooting at some weddings with a view to launching my own photography business in the first or second quarter of next year. I've sat down and worked out my business plan and in the process, I've worked out that - on average - every DJ event that I am booked for comes to about 15 hours altogether (from the initial answering of the enquiry to the pack away of gear at the end of the night and everything in between). I decided that I would double that for photography work as, based on my little experience, 30 hours should be enough to cover the pre-wedding stuff, shooting all day and all the editing afterwards. Based on that logic, I saw fit to double my DJ fee - twice the work, twice the price, and all that.
After that, I decided to refer to Bridebook's annual survey to see what the average price of a Wedding Photographer was in the UK in 2018 - £1,264.00. This has genuinely surprised me, as I thought that it would be much higher than that! I wasn't expecting my starting out price to be at the low end of the market, but I certainly wasn't expecting it to be above average (albeit by £31.00).
I'm not going to lower what I'll be charging as I based it on a business plan and I feel that it correctly values me. I'm just genuinely surprised at the average price and I think it shows how many are making a 'business' decision and how many are making a 'who is charging what' decision. I always knew photography would be similar to the DJ world when it came to this stuff, but I am gobsmacked at (on average) how little photographers are charging.
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Originally Posted by
Benny Smyth
I am gobsmacked at (on average) how little photographers are charging.
Sadly, the world of the professional Togger is just as bad as ours as a DJ.
EVERYBODY is now a photographer....you go and buy a camera, point it and shoot....innit?
WE ALL KNOW that's not the case, the same as with DJs, and I think that somewhere along the line there needs to be some proper education of the public as to what things cost (I can't keep doing it on my own!).
I know several photographers round here who are getting close to the wall. They're full time and just can't make it pay anymore. It's a great shame because there's some exceptional talent amongst them. But whilst brides and grooms are seeing all day packages for as little as £500 (and even less)....you have to ask when it's all going to end.
Good luck with the photography though. It's something I've always fancied but never really had the time or opportunity to get into.
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I generally expect to see at least a couple of guests at every wedding who are now waving around at least a mid-level DSLR with a reasonable lens or two attached to it. I mean, even DJ's are at it!!
I'm even seeing a few DSLR's turning up at kids parties and school discos now. I did a double take last weekend when a parent turned up with a Sony A7III with a couple of £k of lens attached. Turns out one his friends gets a discount as he works for Sony!
Photographers these days have to have a damn good portfolio and, ideally, some kind of pedigree in photography (ex-press, etc) to be able to discern themselves from their competition.
Julian
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Most photographers near me seem to go out around the £1,500 mark (these are good photographers at nice venues). Speaking to the photographer on Saturday, and there's a few going out for £4k a wedding!
However, a good friend of mine does £950 for a wedding - or £1200 if he brings a second shooter (his wife, who is also a pro photographer).
Doesn't seem much, but he does around 80 weddings a year. Add in some corporate work during the week, and you can do the maths.
He's nearly paid off his mortgage and regularly goes for lengthy holidays.
So it's not all bad...
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Resident Antagonist
Originally Posted by
rth_discos
Most photographers near me seem to go out around the £1,500 mark.
Snap, which is probably a big contributing factor to my surprise at the average.
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Dinosaur
Originally Posted by
rth_discos
He's nearly paid off his mortgage and regularly goes for lengthy holidays.
So it's not all bad...
Indeed, but I think you'd agree that he's earning his money. Sounds to me like " Work hard, Play hard".
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Resident Antagonist
If, as a professional photographer, you are competing with Uncle Brian with a DSLR (great or otherwise) then there are some grave issues in your business approach. Much in the same way that I'm not competing with DJ iPad.
75% of weddings last year (according to Bridebook) had a photographer present (up from 66% in 2017). Again, I'm surprised by those numbers but I'm willing to put a bet on which end of the market isn't having a photographer and if you're marketing yourself towards that 25%, then you deserve to miss out.
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Originally Posted by
Benny Smyth
If, as a professional photographer, you are competing with Uncle Brian with a DSLR (great or otherwise) then there are some grave issues in your business approach. Much in the same way that I'm not competing with DJ iPad.
Agreed Certain demographics are being tempted to allow Uncle Brian to do the photos to save a few quid. Definitely not where you want to target your services though...
Julian
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