question for wedding photographers

S

suprateam

Member
Well, I know that you're all videographers but I think some of you may moonlight as a photographer or vice-versa, so here goes:

I'm getting married in July here in Japan, and the photographer is charging an arm & a leg for the photo albums. It's $2500 us for the good album or $3000 us for the 'best' album. It's done with a digital camera.
What software do you think they use? Just photoshop?
What are the costs involved in making an album (think top quality)?

I want to know all about the process so that I can see the justification in paying so much. I want to try and talk my way into a price reduction if possible.
note: in Japan, anything connected to a wedding is marked up (not including video work :( )

Thanks!
 
look at his previous work. if he has none, tell him where to put his photo album. if he does have sample and you like them then pay for it (they better be real good!). look around, if someone has better sample for a better price go with them,
 
you would think he uses a camera set up of $10.000+ (cam and lenses) maybe thats a place to start.
Photoshop is $800.00 odd. But anyone can use it... its how well and talented the user is. try looking into that (sample works).
I have seen photo paper costing $100.00s of dollars for a sheet or two. Find out if he uses that?
One last thing - how long is it going to take him?/her? to edit a photo, and how many photos will they take.

Also the printer might cost a lot.
He might send photos to a photolab of some sort costing $400.00 + dollars.
 
You really are not providing much information. Is that the total cost for the wedding day photography with the album included? Is that album cost on top of the photography fees?
If the photog is charging more for the photography services, and if so, how much, how much time are they shooting, and how many images are they providing?? Also, an album can be 10 pages of 5x7 prints, or 100 pages of 8x10 prints, etc. There are mass produced "cheap" albums, and there are custom produced leather albums that are bound and very expensive. The paper costs can vary widely, but I'd say insisting on paper that is "$100" per sheet (which I've never heard of) in a $2500 album would be a bit extreme also. Personally, I don't think $2500 to $3000 is too extreme, especially if that is the total cost for all of the photography expenses. Although I have not done wedding photography for 5 or 6 years, and never will again, (I'd rather live under the overpass to be honest), it never seized to amaze me how much people would spend on all the other wedding costs and try to be as cheap as possible when it came to photography, which in the end, is all you have left to show for the day. The food gets eaten and is gone, the limo is good for 2 hours and its over, the cake gets cut and eaten, and the dress gets worn once. Don't forget, like anything else in life, you get what you pay for. Wedding photographers deserve to make a living too. Don't forget, there are only 52 weekends in a year. I used to put a good 40 hours into each wedding, even though the actual shooting time may have only been 8-10 hours. Printing, planning, assembling albums, meeting with the client countless times, takes time, and time is money. Of course you can always have a friend with no experience shoot the wedding, then when you see the horrible results, you won't even want to bother with an album. Thats one way to save money. Provide more info, and maybe someone could give you an answer that had some merit. Also, the statement "just photoshop" is a bit misleading. PhotoShop is the only real image editing software, there is no better, and it can take years to master. A good PhotoShop editor can make your wedding images look incredible. Don't underestimate it. Good luck...
 
Your price isn't out of line with a solid photographer in a good-sized market. You're paying for the skill and creativity of the photographer. I mean, how much did van Gogh spend on paints? The equipment is a non-issue, so the question is--is this a photog whose work excites you? Ask around and you may be able to find someone whose work you like and is more affordable. No wedding photographer will negotiate based on the cost of materials. The material costs are the same for a $1000 novice and the top photogs that makes $15,000/wedding. I used to shoot weddings and they're a lot of work. A digital workflow means *additional* labor costs for a photographer. Instead of handing your film off to a trusted pro lab, either the photog or assistant must spend hours working with digital files.
 
Good points Barry. Good analogy on VanGogh. Like, how long did it take you to paint that, and could I get a discount if you used cheaper canvas, and acrylics instead of oils? Weddings are VERY hard work, with alot of behind the scenes work that most people never know about, and its the only lasting "record" of an event thats supposedly a once in a lifetime event. It never seized to amaze me that people would spend over $10000 to feed a bunch of people a $10 chicken dinner without blinking, and ***** about paying the photographer a decent fee. By the way Barry. any particular reason you stopped shooting weddings?? :)
 
Thanks for the helpful replies. Being a videographer, believe me I do understand the reasoning pptphoto said (pictures last longer than one day, etc ). I have no problem with that.
Here's where I was coming from: I'm in Japan and like I said in my first post, everything connected to weddings is marked up. They quoted me (with a straight face) $1500 us for a tux rental (for 4 hours). You go to the wedding place, put the tux on, get married, do the reception and then give it back. Pretty pricy eh? Now, if you bring your own tux, you're hit with a $100 fee ($300 for your own wedding dress). Anyways, I've been negotiating these insane prices for the last few months and when they mentioned the albums were $3000 and they were digital I thought it was marked up too. I thought that if it was digital it would be way easier to do, so why did it cost so much. Barry S your post cleared that up.
As for the option of getting a different photographer? Non-existant. You have to use their photographer. If I got someone else, they would not be allowed inside the church. They could only do the reception.
 
Well, that does kind of suck, being forced into services and having no choices. Everything in the US is mostly marked up too if its for weddings, but maybe not as much as Japan. I'm sure after awhile you feel like you are being raked over the coals. But still, in the long run, if you are being charged $1500 for a rental tux, $2500 for an album you keep for life still doesn't doesn't seem like the worst deal. I'd try to renegotiate the entire situation, but I'm sure thats not really an option either. Good luck, I'd take the album, tell them where to put the rental tux, and wear a suit. :)
 
suprateam said:
You have to use their photographer. If I got someone else, they would not be allowed inside the church. They could only do the reception.
Click to expand...

You just answered the question why the photographer charges so much.:(
There's a wedding place here in Vegas (not a church) that tells it's customers they HAVE to use the house video/photo services. She called them on it and was able to get me to do her wedding. But it was a major pain because I got no cooperation from the facility people....:(
 
Pptphoto, you're so right! With $1500 for a tux, what's $2500 for an album? LOL. I feel much better now.

actually, regarding the tux, I got my brother to buy me one in the states, he shipped it and it came out to $300. I'm alot bigger than the average Japanese so the wedding place is letting me wear it for free (wear my own clothes for free - what a new concept!) after I pointed out that they didn't have my size anyways.
 
Well, the deal for video is that they have 3 cc cameras in the church (1 on each side of the altar 10ft up on the wall, and another at the back). They do a live mix and will give me the dv tape. There's a special on right now and that's free. I've hired a friend who works at a tv station to film the reception with his xl1 (or better) for $200. I'm going to give my dvx to another friend who is a camera assistant at another tv station to be second cam (for favours....umm, let me clarify! I made a wedding vid for her for free, so it's payback time). I will do all the editing.
 
hmnnm, I wonder what it would be like to edit your OWN wedding vid. Let us know how it goes. Looks like you have the important part, the VIDEO, covered :):)

have a great wedding!!
 
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