You’re paying for post-production time, not time at the wedding.
A common misconception among couples getting married is that wedding photographer pricing is based on how long they will stay on the wedding day.
Many times, you’ll see posts like these:
Truth be told, this is a problem among wedding photographers and videographers alike, especially when they undervalue themselves, think the words ‘cheap’ or ‘affordable’ for example (usually a budget vendor).
Cost’s are Based on Four Parts
When you’re seeking wedding vendors, the costs most times are broken into 4 different parts:
Experience
Gear/Equipment costs
The local/regional marketplace and what it can hold
Post-Production Time
Experience
Experience comes down to how many weddings the professional has done.
The more weddings under their belt, the better they typically are at what they do. Plus, when something comes up, they can usually tackle issues with ease, like having someone walk in front of them for example.
Someone with 2 years of experience will not have the same knowledge as someone that has 20 years of weddings under their belts.
Gear/Equipment
Here’s the truth, the more expensive gear costs, that’s usually somewhat passed on to you in some form or fashion.
A $500 wedding photographer will most likely not have a pro-grade camera or pro-grade lenses costing tens of thousands of dollars and a $4,000 professional will not have a $500 kit from Best Buy.
Check out a recent blog where I showed you what we have invested in wedding gear, it may surprise you!
Local Market
The local marketplace will also have to do with costs.
For example, in Roanoke, where we live, the cost of living is roughly 23% less than it is about 3 hours up the road in DC.
That means two things, it’s cheaper to hire us for the same quality as someone charging 25%+ more, and booking vendors from a neighboring marketplace, even with travel fees are usually cheaper than paying for a full price closer to home.
Post-Production Time
What couples see is the time that a videographer or photographer is hanging around the wedding day and they based the price on that alone most times.
The truth is that in our industry, wedding photos and videos, you only see the tip of the iceberg.
For every hour at the wedding, generally, most good professionals will spend roughly 3 hours in post-production.
While workflows may vary slightly from professional to professional, most will be taking time to do the following:
making backups of their work before editing
manually going through and removing bad images
out of focus
eyes were closed
duplicates that are not needed
editing each of them in software like Photoshop or Lightroom, videographers use Final Cut, Premiere, or Davinci Resolve
processing all the images to jpg format so the couple can see/print them (most use a *.raw format)
publishing to a gallery, USB or both
Some make copies of the finished work for safekeeping
Videographers have a few additional steps like syncing audio or multiple cameras, finding licensed music, and constructing a story, but most are similar in what they do.
1:3 Rule
Couples usually have little knowledge when it comes to weddings and the work that goes into them behind the scenes, but here is a useful tool we make that can help you get an idea of what a wedding photographer/videographer costs, how many hours they’ll work on your wedding and what the hourly rate is.
Go ahead, give it a try.
