Why do wedding photographers charge so much?

Let’s uncover the mystery!

1) Expertise

In any field as you gain more experience in something and get better, everyone accepts you demanding a higher salary - that attitude doesn’t seem to have carried over to the wedding industry. So let me explain some of the skills that comes with years of experience. With experience you become a lot more efficient. We’ve shot so many couples and taken so many images it feels like second nature. Also you get a lot better at problem solving. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been surprised at a wedding, there’s not many problems we haven’t faced. Lastly the equipment. An experienced photographer will have the right gear to get any shot. After years of trial and error you eventually build the perfect camera bag.

2) Cost

Starting a wedding photography business is extremely expensive, it’s a lot more than just a camera and a kit lens. A professional invests in so much more then just a camera. Lets take us for an example, here’s all of our gear and what we take to most weddings:

4x Fujifilm Camera Bodies
12x Camera Batteries
4x Godox Flash strobes
2x Wireless Trigger
6x Lenses
8x 64 gb Memory cards
2x Tripods
4x Light Stand
& a few miscellaneous items

We’ve spent about £10,000 and that’s just on wedding day equipment! There’s a host of cost you guys probably don’t even think about. Every year we spend well over £1000 on a bunch of subscriptions, from website hosting to insurance in order to provide a professional and smooth service from the day you enquire to years after we deliver the final images. We’ve also had to buy computers and a bunch of hard drives…. Like A LOT of hard drives!

So in our first year operating as In.Twos we’ve had to make an initial investment of £15,000.

3) Time

£1200 for 8 hours work? Sign me up! If only it was actually this good, everyone would probably take a shot at being a wedding photographer. In reality you’re looking at 40 hours of work per wedding. We spend 4+ hours on emails, contracts and general contact with our clients, that’s before the wedding has even happened. The day before a wedding we spend a least 2 hours preparing our equipment - charging batteries and cleaning equipment etc. An 8 hour wedding is usually a 12 hour day for us with all the travelling and preparations, we also like to arrive early. We’re already at 16 hours and we’ve just finished shooting the wedding. Now we have to transfer all the data and make multiple backups, now that we’ve spent 2-3 hours doing that we can finally start editing the photos. We’ve developed a unique style over our years of shooting and it’s a pretty heavy editing process, so it can take a while. For an 8 hour wedding we’ll spend around 20 hours editing the images.

4) Value

Your wedding photos are one of the few things that stay with you after the wedding day, so you’re paying for more than the days coverage. If you have children in the future you’ll truly understand the value of a great photograph. Memories are priceless, so when you really think about it you’re getting a pretty good deal. Also if you’re spending thousands of pounds on a venue, dress and decor it’s the photographers job to capture all that. A good photographer will make a lower budget wedding look a lot bigger than it actually was.

5) Lastly

We didn’t make this blog for you to feel like you have to spend a million pounds on a photographer. We just want you to understand there’s actually value in what a photographer provides. As a general rule of thumb I would recommend keeping 10-15% of your budget aside for your wedding photographer.