Wedding Photographers

[Sugar Ape]

My Brother In Law - Bill Corris Liverpool photographer | Liverpool Wedding photographer | Merseyside wedding photographer | Northwest wedding photographer

 

If he can't do it, he has a few good contacts in the game, including a girl I went to school with - Nadine Lee, she's suppossed to be good.

 

She actually did my wedding photos. I was very happy with her, I'd thoroughly recommend her. Cost £1000 like, so it might be more than you are willing to pay.

[migs]

Obviously you're a photographer and you're defending your profession - fair enough.

Actually, these days I'm no more than a keen amateur who occasionally does weddings by referral, but I do speak from experience, yes.

 

But that still doesn't mean I'm not within my rights to question obscenely high prices and perceived lack of value for money. I don't doubt these people work hard and put effort in

No, you are of course within your rights to question the cost of something but, as to your second point there, you openly questioned how " a couple of hours work and some printing" was worth a thousand of your hard earned pounds.

 

In order to put together a wedding album, a good photographer will spend probably 20-25 hours before the date - at a minimum - establishing what the couple wants and needs, and what facilities and opportunities the venue offers. He will likely visit the church for the same reason, maybe even make an appointment to see the priest/vicar/shamen to establish what local rules may be in place. This will usually be timed to coincide with the ceremony schedule, to check available light. All this time costs money.

 

Add to that the many hours spent on the day. It isn't just a couple of hours work. Most photographers will set aside the whole day including, if it's been asked for, into the evening reception.

 

Then you have umpteen hours reviewing several hundred images (that's where digital makes the job harder, actually), and whittling it down to an appropriate number. After that, there's several hours spent post-processing those images, getting them ready for the happy couple to review.

 

Once that's done, there's the time taken to lay the album out, making sure the flow of the album works well when printed.

 

Oh, and a decent quality album, without any images in it, will set you back probably £200-400.

 

I should finally add that, on any given day, a pro photographer will probably be carrying anything up to £6k worth of equipment, all so he can make that particular album the best it can be. You'll notice, I've mentioned nothing about paying for the photographer's expertise. He's entitled to get some reward for his hard work over the preceding years in learning how to be better with every event.

 

After all, you wouldn't ask your mate to re-wire your house, just because he's got a multi-bit screwdriver.

 

the point of this thread was in the hope that I may find someone who can still offer top quality AND value for money. I'm not looking for cheap and nasty.

 

"Value for money" doesn't mean inexpensive. It means you get what you pay for. You pay 200 quid for a wedding album, and you'll get 200 quid's worth.

 

I'm not trying to put you off, as such, it's not my money and you must do what you feel is best. What I don't want, is for you and your bride to look at the finished album and feel a bit let down. The fact is that good craftsmen, in any industry, don't come cheap.

 

You are, by your admission, willing to pay £200 for a "bog standard M&S cake " that nobody will remember*, yet don't want to spend any more on the only real, tangible memories you'll have of the day.

 

 

 

 

*Unless the photographer gets a good shot of it, that is ;)

[She Knows It]

Can I interfere here? I had a bog standard M&S cake for my wedding. I put it on a fancy cake stand and dressed it with lillies and ivy, and it looked spectacular. To this day, people still comment on how gorgeous my wedding cake looked.

 

Incidentally, I don't have any photos of it. I shredded them all along with every other solitary reminder that I was ever foolish enough to marry that piece of lying cunt arsehole twat.

 

I'm sure your marriage will be far more successful!

[migs]

Can I interfere here? I had a bog standard M&S cake for my wedding. I put it on a fancy cake stand and dressed it with lillies and ivy, and it looked spectacular. To this day, people still comment on how gorgeous my wedding cake looked.

 

Incidentally, I don't have any photos of it. I shredded them all along with every other solitary reminder that I was ever foolish enough to marry that piece of lying cunt arsehole twat.

 

Ah now, see, that's where you went wrong. Everyone knows that Lilies are a funeral flower, and thereby associated with death.

 

Bad juju, your marriage was doomed from the off.

[Skidfingers McGonical]

Try looking at these.

 

http://www.catherinejaynephotography.co.uk

 

It's my Auntie. Just another option and she is in Liverpool.

[She Knows It]

Ah now, see, that's where you went wrong. Everyone knows that Lilies are a funeral flower, and thereby associated with death.

 

Bad juju, your marriage was doomed from the off.

 

I think the fact my husband prefered blokes cast more doom on my marriage than my floral choices.

[migs]

I think the fact my husband prefered blokes cast more doom on my marriage than my floral choices.

Now you're just looking for excuses

[Chocoholic]

Excellent post there from Migs in highlighting the time and effort and thus, costs, that go into a wedding album that some see fit to call 'a couple of hours work'.

 

I, for my sins, used to do weddings, both as backup/incidental photographer to a friend of mine, and latterly on my own. I'll freely admit that I was not a good businessman where it came to the sharp end of things - money, and getting what I was contracted to be paid, and thus, entitled to. But when it comes to weddings and photography in particular, the bride, who is usually the driving force behind such things thinks the wrong way At least the man has some excuse when thinking with the wrong head, what's a woman's excuse?

 

Granted, it's not the same for every couple, but it's a well trodden path. The 'priorities' are sorted out first. The priorities usually start with the dress, a bride's holy grail. It is not uncommon for upwards of a couple of thousand to be spent on this dress which will be worn only once. Designer name, you say? Well, who cares, it's still only going to be worn once, and has none of the 'value' that a well made £2K designer outfit will give a fashion conscious wearer over time.

 

That's not to talk of any bridesmaid and flowergirl dresses, and the mother of the bride's gear too, which are all usually part of the wedding budget.

 

Then there are flowers. Another extraordinary amount of money is spent on these. Much lavish attention is paid on getting these just right, so that the colours all co-ordinate, usually with whatever colour the bridesmaids wear.

 

 

 

The last wedding I did was the one that effectively made my decision final. This wedding came to me late by way of a friend who couldn't do it at late notice as he had been booked for another event. This photographer had had a consultation with her about 6 months beforehand and provisionally pencilled in the date, which was to be confirmed with the payment of a booking fee. Despite many attempts to make contact to confirm this date, and receive the first payment - leaving messages etc, no calls were returned. With this, it was presumed that she had got somebody else and couldn't be arsed to say so.

 

At this point, Kevin then booked in another wedding from a couple who paid 25% of the total cost of the wedding as a booking fee, so keen were they to secure his services and the date. The normal booking fee is only 10% of the total.

 

A week before the wedding, who calls 'to confirm the date' only Little Miss Muffet. She was rather upset to be told that the date had been taken by somebody who had done what she had been given ample opportunity to do - pay up! Bullshit excuses of her little son dropping her phone in the bath, etc., were trotted out to no avail. He couldn't just drop the paid up couple to go and do this wedding not having heard a word from her in 6 months.

 

At that point, he asked if I was willing to take it on, and so, needing what money I could get, I accepted. Details were exchanged and a couple of days later I did a recce to the church to see what options I had to work with. This also happened to be the time when they were having a rehearsal, so when I walked into the church, a good impression was made when they saw I was giving their day the attention they thought it deserved.

 

Well anyway, to make a very long story a little shorter, the wedding was done, and there were some problems on the day, when things didn't go as planned. Needless to say, these were of their own making which I was expected to deal with what way I liked. I won't go into all that shite. But I got my last shot and got out of there and was I glad to get away from them!

 

The images were processed while they were on honeymoon in Abu Dhabi. When they returned, she called and asked when she could see the album. I told her of some difficulty I had and was dealing with, and it was then she chose to piss me off by calling into question my professionalism. This, without ever having seen any of my work, but knowing I was a trusted colleague of the photographer she wanted to do her wedding. So unprofessional was I, that I made recce trips to the church and the reception so that I could plan where I would take particular shots on the day and not be wondering what surprises I was going to find when I arrived to do the wedding. When challenged about this, she failed to retract her statement, but instead changed track and that was to my relief as well, as I didnt want any confrontation with her. I may have had her wedding photos, but they were bugger all use to me without any payment.

 

 

As an aside, she had in the weeks before the wedding, attempted to hire a photographer who at that time had a series on Irish television station, RTE. We found out later he told her to take a running jump, as he is also a close friend of Kevin, and had been aware of this situation from the start.

 

When the problem I had with the lab was sorted out, I made up the album and arranged the delivery. At this point, I also requested the balance of payment be made, seeing as I had been paid a small amount on the wedding day, which only covered the cost of the printing. More stalling tactics were forthcoming and I just felt worn down and weary of the whole thing.

 

In the end, when viewing the album, with her husband at her side, and her parents either side of them, she went through the album page by page totally silent and expressionless, while from each of the others, there were oohs, aahs and occasional gasps amid the many complimentary comments. But still she said nothing. Until, having reached the last page, she flipped back a couple of pages and said "I don't like that one, it lets the rest of the album down" Well, a backhanded compliment it may have been, but from her, it was as good and as much as I reckoned it was going to get. She couldn't bring herself to be positive and say it was good apart from just the one. That might have been showing weakness on her part.

 

Having agreed to replace the offending image, I sat and waited as she and the husband disappeared and spoke with her parents, who couldn't have been any nicer, then, or on the day. Moments later, the husband returned with a cheque, and a request that an invoice be made out to 'photographic services' for her interior design business. The cheapskate. She'd created all that shit, tried so many times to wriggle out of paying what she had agreed to, calling into question my professionalism and integrity and here she was asking for an invoice so she could write her wedding album off against tax. Actually, she couldn't even do it herself, she got him to ask.

 

The moment that cheque was cleared, I printed off something that may or may not have passed as an invoice for tax purposes, but at that point, I didn't care about her or weddings any more. She didn't contact me to complain, which I would have expected had it not been to her satisfaction. But I had purposely tried to leave it as ambiguous and non specific as possible, just to piss her off a little.

 

This goes to show that so many couples, and brides in particular will think nothing of spending vast amounts of money on things such as the dress, the flowers and the cake, which are used once and then no more. But the one thing, the only tangible thing they have from their wedding, if they're lucky enough to be together in 20 or more years time, is the one thing that they do not want to spend money on: the wedding album. It's all arse about face. Upside down economy.

 

So, a couple of hours work just to take "a few snaps"? Or a hard working profession of a never ending trail of problems to resolve, subtle diplomacy, stage managing the biggest day of two people's lives, countless images to edit and process, production of a volume of work to be proud to put your name to, all while being paid the money your capital investment and many years hard earned expertise warrants and is deserving of.

 

You decide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS. I hear the neighbour of the above mentioned has recently put up new fencing between their gardens which he hasn't been paid for yet. Just hope he knows what he's dealing with!

[captainharris]

You are, by your admission, willing to pay £200 for a "bog standard M&S cake " that nobody will remember*, yet don't want to spend any more on the only real, tangible memories you'll have of the day.

 

 

 

*Unless the photographer gets a good shot of it, that is ;)

 

Again, I think that's where i'm obviously mistaking people. We ARE prepared to spend the money on getting what we really want. The point was that this thread might unearth some new options that maybe CAN deliver the same level of quality and professionalism but not at the high prices we've been quoted. I'm essentially just shopping around.

 

Maybe there's a budding amateur out there who is actually better than a professional and would do the job cheaper but for a better level of quality.

 

Like i've mentioned I was blown away by the costs being quoted. I really wasn't expecting it. Which prompted me to start the thread.. partly because I was wondering whether some photograpghers where just sticking a whacking great premium on because they were at a wedding fair and trying to sell it back to be as 'your special day, and you want the best'... I know it's my special day - but I don't know you from Adam and all these albums you have in front of you might not even be your work for all I know!

 

Again, the intention of the thread was to shed some light on whether these prices i've been quoted are 'real'. And also, if someone has recently had a wedding but only got quoted £500 and love the outcome - then I would put it on my list of people to check out.

 

Maybe it's come across that I'm being cheap and I'll take any old shite so long as it's cheaper than the rest - that's not the point at all.

[migs]

Maybe it's come across that I'm being cheap and I'll take any old shite so long as it's cheaper than the rest - that's not the point at all.

Fair nuff.

 

I'm ready to rant about this on a regular basis, and like to look for open doors. It's nothing personal, you cheap bastard*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*purely for comedy purposes

[setreal]

I think the fact my husband prefered blokes cast more doom on my marriage than my floral choices.

 

 

:whistle:

[migs]

So' date=' a couple of hours work just to take "a few snaps"? Or a hard working profession of a never ending trail of problems to resolve, subtle diplomacy, stage managing the biggest day of two people's lives, countless images to edit and process, production of a volume of work to be proud to put your name to, all while being paid the money your capital investment and many years hard earned expertise warrants and is deserving of.

 

You decide.[/quote']

That was my point, really. The reason I stopped doing them wasn't because of the money, as I just turned down anybody who asked if I could do it any cheaper.

 

The reason I stopped is that, inevitably, when you have so many people in one place, with nowhere else to go, you will always get a handful of cunts. From guests who refuse to cooperate, to the cliched bride's mother issues, to control freak brides who think they know better.

 

In short, I realised that I don't really like people enough to have to deal with them in such situations.

[Tom R]

Good deal on Groupon today. 69% Off at Creative Factory

 

With higher ticket things like this, they tend to roll over in to day 2 or even 3, so you could still get this tomorrow.

[Tom R]

obviously looking to boost their portfolio, but give her a ring before you part with your money...

[Anubis]

[captainharris]

Good deal on Groupon today. 69% Off at Creative Factory

 

With higher ticket things like this, they tend to roll over in to day 2 or even 3, so you could still get this tomorrow.

 

Yeah mate cheers for that - seen it yesterday. Unfortunately it's only available to be used in the next 12 months.

[Remmie]

Check out the photographers with their sob stories, I've lost my worlds tiniest violin. Boohoo I'm only getting £800 for a days work, it's really hard you have to have a tripod and everything.

 

The heart bleeds.

[Beantown Red]

Is the photography profession not losing out to technology? Any idiot with a higher end camera can take a descent picture now. Past few years I have noticed some non professional pictures looking just as good as professional pictures. Not a dig at the pro's, but is it not a worry?

[ChrisM]

Is the photography profession not losing out to technology? Any idiot with a higher end camera can take a descent picture now.

 

I'm a keen amateur photographer (mainly landscape which is a completely different kettle of fish to wedding photography), I do it for the pleasure of it and to teach myself a new skill. I've got some semi-decent kit and would like to think I've got a good understanding of technique, an alright eye for composition and framing and have a decent knowledge of what makes a good shot. However, a proper pro would be light years ahead of me in all those area's I've listed above. That's before you take into account more specialist techniques that a wedding photographer would need in their locker, such as shooting in low light conditions etc.

 

There does seem to be a generally held opinion that anybody can pick up a high end digital camera and take excellent shots, but it simply isn't true. I could give you my camera, stick it onto Auto or one of the Program Modes, and you could turn out some perfectly acceptable photographs (although you may want to learn how to properly read the histogram and use exposure compensation to tweak them), but you wouldn't be able to sell them professionaly. A pro / experienced amateur would be shooting on Manual or one of the priority modes, constantly changing the aperture / shutter speed / iso to get the best photograph possible, controlling depth of field and capturing / eliminating movement. And all that is before you get to the post-processing stage, which is another skill set entirely.

 

As I said, that 'any idiot with a higher end camera can take a decent picture now' is quite a widely held opinion, and for me quite a problem, as there are tons of shit photographers out there who set themselves up as 'pros' in order to make money off the back of the wedding market. When I was shopping around for my wedding I was staggered at the amount of shit out there, I mean really terrible examples of photography, absolute fucking garbage. The market is saturated with average photographers who I simply wouldn't trust to record my wedding day, which is why shopping around and having a firm understanding of what you want your photographs to look like is so important.

[Strontium]

Check out the photographers with their sob stories, I've lost my worlds tiniest violin. Boohoo I'm only getting £800 for a days work, it's really hard you have to have a tripod and everything.

 

The heart bleeds.

 

 

It's fucking unbelievable, but that goes for the whole wedding industry really, photographers are probably making less than most everyone else who's involved. For instance, even the bog standard M&S 4 tier cake costs 220 quid, fucking what? 200 quid for eggs, flour and sugar? Profit on these things must be pushing 1000% easy. It makes 800 quid for pointing a camera and pushing a button seem reasonable. You could buy a small country for what some of these weddings cost. You might as well just flush money down the toilet. Absolutely pointless.

[Remmie]

I'm a keen amateur photographer (mainly landscape which is a completely different kettle of fish to wedding photography), I do it for the pleasure of it and to teach myself a new skill. I've got some semi-decent kit and would like to think I've got a good understanding of technique, an alright eye for composition and framing and have a decent knowledge of what makes a good shot. However, a proper pro would be light years ahead of me in all those area's I've listed above. That's before you take into account more specialist techniques that a wedding photographer would need in their locker, such as shooting in low light conditions etc.

 

There does seem to be a generally held opinion that anybody can pick up a high end digital camera and take excellent shots, but it simply isn't true. I could give you my camera, stick it onto Auto or one of the Program Modes, and you could turn out some perfectly acceptable photographs (although you may want to learn how to properly read the histogram and use exposure compensation to tweak them), but you wouldn't be able to sell them professionaly. A pro / experienced amateur would be shooting on Manual or one of the priority modes, constantly changing the aperture / shutter speed / iso to get the best photograph possible, controlling depth of field and capturing / eliminating movement. And all that is before you get to the post-processing stage, which is another skill set entirely.

 

As I said, that 'any idiot with a higher end camera can take a decent picture now' is quite a widely held opinion, and for me quite a problem, as there are tons of shit photographers out there who set themselves up as 'pros' in order to make money off the back of the wedding market. When I was shopping around for my wedding I was staggered at the amount of shit out there, I mean really terrible examples of photography, absolute fucking garbage. The market is saturated with average photographers who I simply wouldn't trust to record my wedding day, which is why shopping around and having a firm understanding of what you want your photographs to look like is so important.

As you can probably tell I was on the wind up above and I am sure photographers work hard and all that jazz. But these high quality pictures that they produce, would anyone who is not into photography actually be able to tell the difference between a brilliantly put together picture or a the work of a fuckwit with a 18 mega pixel on automatic mode?

 

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to give me 2 wedding pictures done by pros. One is shit and one is excellent. Don't tell people which is which and see if we can guess. Then tell us the prices they charge.

[Liverpool lad]

£1000 can pay for a lot, plane tickets, sports events, ale, concerts. Why anyone would spend it on somebody to take pictures of them is beyond me.

[melons]

£1000 can pay for a lot, plane tickets, sports events, ale, concerts. Why anyone would spend it on somebody to take pictures of them is beyond me.

 

I reckon Liverpool lad's just putting all these 'i don't get i or i wouldn't' lines out to insinuate he's not arsed that he's a 40 year old virgin. Or will be in about ten years.

[Rico1304]

We've just had our photos back and I'm pleased with them. I hate having my photo taken because I'm an ugly ol bastard but she's managed to photoshop out my hump, uncross my eyes and reduce my conk. the group photos are the best, the ones showing other people having a good time.

[tobycatz]

Wedding photography Cumbria | Photographer Lake District | video service Cumbria - Bayvista Studios would have to charge travel expences mind.Not my business but worked for him 19 years..