Wedding photographers rant

arknor said:
and grammar nazi's are the new hitler?
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No, grammar nazis are the new educated people. Everyone else is going to the death camps.

curtain twitcher alert! sir i believe there is a neighbourhood watch group seeking your assistance
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You've got me wrong guv, I don't even read the Daily Mail.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I prefer Jessica Claire and The Image is Found myself. Particularly the latter.
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I'd trust a mans recommendations when they can take photos like this:
img6989qb5.jpg


:D
 
£500 isn't too bad for wedding photographer.

You may think that they only do an hours work but there is a lot more involved before an after the shoot, theres also other expenses for them to cover other than their wage.

Always check their portfolio before hiring to get an idea of their style and skills.
 
mejinks said:
If you put it in computing terms, arguably a security specialist is more valuable a person, yet they don't charge as much. I can appreciate that they have all the costs, but even if they are solely responsible, you don't really have any recompense if they get it wrong or miss good opportunities.

When my older brother got married 11 years ago, the pictures I took on a 2m digital point and click were miles ahead of the "professional" who had all the gear and seemed to be doing it all correctly. All the relatives have my photos on their mantelpieces, not the photographers, whose efforts are consigned to a book up in the loft.

Maybe then I am just embittered at my perceived rip off?
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I would love to see examples.

Your photos are on mantelpieces because they got them for nothing
 
Depends really on the quality of the photographs... way to many cowboy outfits who just discovered a DSLR... but a real quality experienced wedding photographer is worth every penny.

Many years back I remember at my aunts wedding the photographer was a real jerk, making sarcy remarks to anyone else trying to take pictures, portly bloke decides to stand on his upright metal briefcase style thing to get a better angle on a group shot... it split in half and he ended up on his arse :D
 
mejinks said:
Am I getting old or are we just accepting rip off Britain taking us from behind at every oppertunity?
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Nope. You're just demonstrating an ignorance of the profession at which you are directing your rant.

Let's forget about the 500 quid cheapskate wedding photographer you talk of. A proper wedding tog will go equipped with a minimum of two bodies (that's anywhere between 2 and 8 grand), 3 to 6 lenses, probably a grands worth of flash and other lighting kit, a second photographer with their own kit and probably another helper. They will have had a couple meetings with the b&g, one at the venue, to plan and discuss their requirements. Then add in the hours of post-processing after the event. And all of this is before the shots are selected and albums and prints are produced.

You get what you pay for - as with anything. Having a £500 wedding photographer will result in corners having to be cut. If the b&g want a proper job done then they will have to pay between 2 and 4 times that amount.
 
I'm a wedding photographer and there's a lot more to wedding photography than turning up with some big camera and clicking off a few shots.

We charge what some people might consider highway robbery but we use the best equipment, are fully insured, look after our couples extremely well and produce shots that we are proud of from every wedding.

You also have to remember most weddings are on the weekends, they're long demanding days and mostly during the summer months with not much during the winter. So there's only a finite amount of working days in the year in which you can make a living. You then have to take in to account travel costs, food as well as the small things that add up like parking fees etc.

Also you need to sort, process and work on each image after the wedding. Design an album, with multiple requested changes. Couples invariably come back with certain images they want in black and white or little things done which saps away time but that's part of good service although it does eat in to profit.

If paying for a professional isn't your thing then you can great memories from putting a laptop at your wedding with a card reader attached and asking everyone to download their pictures before they leave.

It's all down to what you want in the end, we have never had an unhappy customer and no one has ever begrudged paying us the money for what we do. In fact we are now friends with some couples we have shot for.

I think there's a lot of people doing £500 weddings because it sounds like a lot of money for someone with a DSLR and a lens to be making for a days work. Unfortunatley they can take pics all day, run them through photoshop quickly, erasing the ones that came out terribly (for a non pro at a wedding probably 4 out of 5 shots would most likely be chucked rather than 1 out of 30). They then hand them over on a blank dvd in a plastic sleeve and think about what to spend all that profit on.

No wonder people question why they get no better than uncle bob with his camera because it's virtually the same apart from you're paying someone elses uncle ;)

If people care about their photos then they will hopefully see why wedding photographers who produce results and really care cost so much.
 
£500 is silly... A DJ charges around £200 and he has far more gear to set up and transport...

I can understand camera gear is pretty expensive tho, so don't expect them to charge peanuts...
 
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MikeHunt79 said:
£500 is silly... A DJ charges around £200 and he has far more gear to set up and transport...

I can understand camera gear is pretty expensive tho, so don't expect them to charge peanuts...
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Well, the DJ's job ends at midnight, and he can forget about it when i sleeps that night. A Photographer's work is only half done. He will still have to go back and go through the Thousand or so images in his computer, and process each and every one of them, then select thee agreed amount and put them into an Album with a printer, sort out any larger prints, and put the shots in his gallery site for the client.

The client don't see that, that's about a week's FULL work there.
 
2blue4u said:
Nope. You're just demonstrating an ignorance of the profession at which you are directing your rant.

Let's forget about the 500 quid cheapskate wedding photographer you talk of. A proper wedding tog will go equipped with a minimum of two bodies (that's anywhere between 2 and 8 grand), 3 to 6 lenses, probably a grands worth of flash and other lighting kit, a second photographer with their own kit and probably another helper. They will have had a couple meetings with the b&g, one at the venue, to plan and discuss their requirements. Then add in the hours of post-processing after the event. And all of this is before the shots are selected and albums and prints are produced.

You get what you pay for - as with anything. Having a £500 wedding photographer will result in corners having to be cut. If the b&g want a proper job done then they will have to pay between 2 and 4 times that amount.
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I have no interest in wedding photography, so why does that make me ignorant?

Oh, I am so sorry, it must be nice having a privileged life where you can think nothing of spunking 500 quid. It must be fantastic to be you eh.

Im paying to hire someone to take photos, not to buy their equipment. I can get any half decent student to alter the photos in photoshop and binders can be done by any high street shop.

Second photographer? Sounds like they need as many photos as possible so they can weed out all the poor ones they take.

Justify £100 for a CD of the photos.
 
mejinks said:
Justify £100 for a CD of the photos.
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Justify £5k for a 20 page document that took a day to write.

Except the document is from a QC.

If you don't think he is worth £500, get your 5 year old niece to photograph your wedding. Seriously, you are judging things on the surface and have no idea how much time, effort and TALENT it goes into it.
 
Professional footballers get paid loads of money, I've seen kids kicking the same ball around a park and they're not paid a penny it's insane!!!
 
Raymond Lin said:
Justify £5k for a 20 page document that took a day to write.

Except the document is from a QC.

If you don't think he is worth £500, get your 5 year old niece to photograph your wedding. Seriously, you are judging things on the surface and have no idea how much time, effort and TALENT it goes into it.
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Shes 4 actually.:p

Fair point there though. My rant is more towards Venture I suppose.
 
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