What we charge might look a lot for “just a picture”. but thats not all your paying for. In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home “photo printers,” we hear this all the time: How do photographers charge £££ for an 8×10 when they cost just £1 at the supermarket? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they’re paying for time and expertise.

The average one-hour portrait session

First, let’s look at the actual work involved:

Travel to the session
Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
Shoot the photos
Travel from the session
Load images onto a computer
Back up the files on an external drive
2 – 4 hours of processing time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs.
Create clients webpage on your site and upload images to it.
Contact the client to let them know their images are available to view, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, post or hand deliver prints.

You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a photographer charging a £100 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them £100 per hour.

The eight-hour wedding

A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 – 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges £2,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them £250 an hour!

The expertise and cost of doing business

Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though some DSLR cameras can be bought for under £1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props and insurance.

In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.

Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.

Maybe it helps to look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs £1.50 at the supermarket. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.

The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.

All this makes sense. There really is a TON of work that goes in to a great photography session. So, if a photographer is offering a full one hour session with a disc of all the images for £40, how much money do you think they are actually making (or even how much time are they spending making sure all your images look flippin’ awesome?)? The answer, of course, is none. They are actually paying to take take your pictures! That might seem nice to you, but really, lets face it. Photography is a business, and if we don’t make a profit, we can’t stay in business!

But then I see this other side of it. If we have all these photographers raising their prices and catering to high-end clients, what about those left in the middle? I know of lots of great people who are not particularly wealthy, but they still want great photos (hey, I am one of them!). These are people who recognize and enjoy great quality work, but simply cannot afford to go to a high-end studio. So what’s the options if your in the middle ground? You can either save up the money and go to the high-end studio and get a few exceptionally nice prints, or they can pay a small fee for an entire CD of so-so images. What if you want great photos and great service, and you want more than a couple of nice wall portraits? Where do you go?

I would LOVE to be one of those “high-end” photographers that makes a 6 figure income. But I am a LONG way off from that! But at the same time I feel I have some great clients who I thoroughly enjoy working with. I know that if I started charging much higher rates, I would probably lose all of them, and I don’t want that to happen!

I enjoy what I do and get a great buzz from a session with a good client. I don’t have to cater to the client who lives in a huge home, but I want a client who understands how much work and care I put into what I do for them. If they are only willing to pay £40 for it, then they don’t value it enough to come to me… and I am okay with that. Every business, photography or otherwise needs to do their homework on what to charge before they even think of opening to the public. Not by what the other photographers in their area charge, or by what someone at a seminar tells you to charge, but the actual numbers. The “I have” to make this much money per week/month/session to stay in business and be profitable” numbers. Those who are charging £40 for everything are essentially paying their clients to photograph them. The photographer will soon burn out and realize they either have to raise prices or they have to close the business. There is no way to legally stay afloat in a business if you are charging pennies. You must make a profit.. otherwise you might as well be sitting around watching Jeremy Kyle all day.

Firstly consider the photographic style you want. These can be grouped into three main areas – traditional, contemporary and reportage/photo-journalistic.

All good photographers should be able to do any and all of these so don’t be afraid to ask about them. It’s your wedding after all and we photographers should be able to give you what you want.

Secondly, pick a sensible budget and try to stick to it. A wedding for example takes a long time from the initial meeting, to looking at the venue, the day itself then processing, and finally building an album you are happy with. Definitely more than a days work. Many photographers will throw in a few extras if they can, so you could get a better deal, but that’s just between us ok?

A new addition to the family means that new parents wish to snap away at every given chance in order to remember their child’s every stage. A practised photographer is able to offer a wonderful keepsake no matter what the age.

At Earnock Images we offer a service where we will photograph in your own home and around babies feeds and sleeps. This allows the child to remain in their comfort zone and parents do not get stressed and worried when lunch time is fast approaching. This idea is flawless, offering a relaxed familiar environment.

Checking around for forums where people talk freely about experiences is also a good idea and will offer a background into past experiences.  A good place to start is the popular netmums.

All photographers offer packages for various services.  These might not quite suit what you are looking for.  A good photographer should tailor these packages and make the service work for you.

Most photographers fall into the category of being ‘a people person’. We generally want to help you with your plans not hinder them.  A good photographer blends with your wedding or event.  The lasting memory you want guests having  is how awful and bossy your photographer was. Although you also don’t want a wall flower who can’t get the job done.  It is our job to find the fine line between in your face and non-existent.

Once you have picked your photographer, sit down and map out the whole day with them. They will more than likely take notes of your approximate timings and plans. It will give you a chance to get to know them and vice versa.

A good idea is to collect any photos from the internet or magazines of shots that you like, so you can discuss them and give a copy to your photographer. We won’t be creating exact copies, but we are visual creatures and as they say, a photo tells a thousand words and will help us to realise your vision fully. They don’t even have to be wedding photos, but can be anything, fashion, film etc.

If you want formal group shots, and let’s face it most people do, make a short list of their names in the groups you want. It is usually better to get the big group shot done as soon as possible, so people can go off and relax if they want to rather than hanging around and waiting.

At the end of the day your photographs are important to you and your photographer, but he or she does not want to spoil your day. Use us to make sure you get the most out of your day. It’s all about balance, so make sure you like and feel relaxed with your photographer, show and tell them what you want, ask questions and get the right deal for you.

Some important questions you can ask are:

* Have you shot a wedding at my location before?

* Do you have an assistant?

* Do you have backup equipment?

* What time will you begin and how long will you stay until?

* When will the proofs be ready?

* Do you mark your proofs?

* Where and how are your proofs marked?

* Do you work well with other services? i.e.: coordinators, caterers, videographers.

* Can you work from a photo checklist that we create?

* How will you be dressed?

Finally, make sure this is their living, if you get a weekend photographer their basically learning on your time. Also if you don’t look at the pricing and only the images you’ll get a good idea what you like and then from the top 5 ask for the pricing. You may be surprised at the over pricing some photographers charge.

This is the new blog from Earnock Images Photographers.  We are a new company and very new to blogging (first one your reading just now).

Hopefully we will be using this blog to post idea’s, helpful hints, promotions and just general photography nonsense.  We would love feedback on what we blog and welcome your thoughts on what you expect from a photography session.

We aim to be your photographer and mold ourselves to your needs.  Too many photographers out there are set in their ways and expect the client to do as they are told.  At the end of the day you are the one’s going home with the images and will be looking at them on your walls for years to come.

Yeah, photographers might know what works best and looks good and should guide you, but never force you into pose’s and situations your not happy with.  At the end of the day, it’s your session, so your call.

Please feel free to drop us a line and let us know how we can make photography fun for you or even rant about bad sessions you have had so we all know what to avoid and not put up with.

If you want to come and find out about us, please feel free to pop over to the website.

Take care,

Earnock Images Team