p.1 #1 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Hi,
I was recently asked to be a photographer for an informal wedding ceremony which will be taken in the backyard of a house. The ceremony will be about 2-3 hours long. I am an experienced amateur photographer but have never actually done a paid wedding before.
My gears D800, Nikon 24-70/2.8, Zeiss ZF.2 21/2.8, 35/1.4, and 100/2.
1) My question is how much should I charge for this? The work will be about 2-3 hours long. I plan on delivering just the digital copies of the pictures without any prints.
2) Since I plan on taking about 500-1000 pictures, how much editing should I be doing for the photos? Should I pick about 20 good ones and edit those heavily?
p.1 #2 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
First off, how comfortable are you with your D800? And do you have a second body? It would just suck to keep switching lenses every 10-20 minutes for another shot--unless you plan on just using the 24-70/2.8 for 80-90% of the shoot and the 100/2 for farther shots.
Since it's a backyard wedding, the 35mm 1.4 is likely the lens I would keep on my D800 90% most of the time, since you can just walk in closer or back up a bit for the wider or closer shots. That and there's less distortion so your post processing later will be quicker. The 24-70 isn't so great at the short end. Heavier too.
500-1000 photos is a lot for an informal wedding ceremony from which you'll pick out 20 photos from. That's more of the number of shots for a real formal wedding.
Anyways, you should really just make sure of a couple of things first:
- that the bride/groom like the photos in your portfolio already
- you have a backup camera
- you have at least one spare battery for each camera
- you have a speedlight and know when and how to use it
- you have enough memory cards for everything
- you and the couple are clear on the expectations (do not leave room for ANY misunderstanding here)
- you shoot in RAW
before you start charging anything. I would say $200-400 is a good range to pick from, depending on how good you think you are.
Good luck if you do! And do share some downsized pictures!
p.1 #4 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Thank you, Mazerunner, for the detailed response. I was planning on using mostly the 24-70 lens because that's the only autofocus lens that I have. The rest of my Zeiss lenses are manual focus so it might be kind of difficult to use that 35. Unfortunately I don't have a second body camera so I might be relying on just the D800 camera. The couple that asked me to be a photographer is actually a friend so they are familiar with what I can do. Maybe I'll just charge on the low end for about $200.
p.1 #5 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Smridevan wrote:
Thank you, Mazerunner, for the detailed response. I was planning on using mostly the 24-70 lens because that's the only autofocus lens that I have. The rest of my Zeiss lenses are manual focus so it might be kind of difficult to use that 35. Unfortunately I don't have a second body camera so I might be relying on just the D800 camera. The couple that asked me to be a photographer is actually a friend so they are familiar with what I can do. Maybe I'll just charge on the low end for about $200.
I've done this same thing twice, once for $500, another time for $300. One was a full wedding of a friend, the other was a ceremony and reception (about 4hrs). Even though it's a shorter informal ceremony, you will still put in time editing the photos, etc. You're easily at an hour planning for it, 3 hours shooting, and then by the time you work through editing, delivery, etc, you're probably up to 10hrs total easy.
10hrs x hourly wage = price. Mostly it'll vary by what all they want. If they want you to do a lot of specific shots, I'd charge a little more, because you'll have to put time and effort into that process. If they just say "shoot whatever", then go low end
p.1 #6 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Don't charge too low. I mean, post (post-processing) is often the worst time-sucker, especially if you volume shoot.
I'd say you'll spend about 3-5 hours in post for every hour you shoot (since you always want to get it right!)
Just remember to get some angles (take a knee, lie down for another perspective, stand on a chair, shoot with arms framing the picture, mirror shots, etc.) That's more important than the pricing. Do the $200, and if they're super-happy and you're super happy with the photos that come out, I'm sure they would offer you more (tip-wise), if not then at least you'll have some photos to build a portfolio with!
p.1 #7 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Smridevan wrote:
2) Since I plan on taking about 500-1000 pictures, how much editing should I be doing for the photos? Should I pick about 20 good ones and edit those heavily?
"edit those heavily"
Why this thought process? I suggest think photographically, then edit as needed. My mindset is to NOT edit by capturing each image as close to correct in camera as possible.
Bottom line, editing should be depended on make a good photo great or some specific look you're going for, not just pick a certain random number just to do it because others suggest you should.
+1 what has been stated too....except the advice for zooms unless that's what you regularly use. I make a decision on which len(s) to use at the location and based on what I want to create.
p.1 #8 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
For the "average" size wedding I charge $450. I shoot 1000+ shots with an assistant. The wedding is shot RAW but the snaps at the reception are jpgs. The last several I have done have all been DVD's only. This seems to be a preferred way anymore. People can share the photos more easy than with prints. I provide a nice folder with a DVD pocket inside. It contains all the paper work for the shoot, too.
I use Light Room to quickly weed out the unwanted shots down to around 300. People get bored, even with their own wedding if you over shoot it. I do very little to no post, letting LR make some basic exposure or color balance.
I offer full Photo Shop finishing and prints but folks usually only order one or two.
p.1 #9 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Thanks guys for all your helpful responses. So I just learned that this will be a civil ceremony so it's a small gathering of about 20 people at the groom's brother's backyard. She probably won't even be in a wedding dress. Is $200 still too much?
Unfortunately I still only have one camera but I might buy a second body if I end up doing more gigs like this.
p.1 #10 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Hourly rate for the time spent shooting + a la carte rate for whatever you're delivering.
I think $200 is far too little personally if you're going to be shooting for a few hours, weeding through ~1000 photos after the fact and then giving them anything tangible or even a disc of images.
Most of my engagement sessions run 1.5-2 hours even though I say they're only an hour long. I'd be inclined to charge that much if I was only there for 2 hours max. Any more and I'd charge hourly. This means they'd be paying $700-1000 + any deliverables they wanted.
p.1 #12 · How much to charge for an informal wedding ceremony?
Don't overcharge for something you've never done before...unless you're a politician, a budding movie star or a professional athlete. Or a lawyer or a doctor. or a corporate CEO...
