Breaking down the costs of professional photography

As a Charleston wedding photographer, I would like to discuss one of the inherent challenges a couple has when planning their wedding—hiring a photographer. Many are surprised to learn that the “experts” suggest allocating 10 percent of your budget to your photography. For those with smaller budgets, it may be a challenge to get the photographer you want.

But regardless of what you spend … this is one of the most important decisions you will make because it’s one of the only tangible items of your wedding that will last a lifetime.

Remember you are hiring a company to do a job for you. You can pay a lot less, sure, by calling on a friend, family member or someone just starting out to capture your big day. But brides need to remember that their wedding day cannot be redone. Is it worth the risk?

A professional photographer not only offers state-of-the-art camera, lighting and computer equipment, but also talent and years of experience. 

To get a better understanding, here’s an example of some of the things that brides forget are part of the overall cost of hiring a professional photographer:

• Marketing costs: How did you find your photographer—a  print ad in a magazine or perhaps online? If you searched the internet, chances are your photographer had to pay a significant amount of money so that he/she could be found on Bing, Google or Yahoo!

• Business insurance, equipment insurance, liability insurance.

• Staff salaries.

• Speaking to the client via phone, responding to email and then in-person meetings during the selection process.

• Preparation of proposals specific to a potential client as well as preparations of agreements for the new client.

• Travel costs.

• Setup time at the location.

• The actual shooting of the images.

•  Loading the images onto a computer and backing up the files on an external drive.

•  Editing and choosing the final images from a selection of roughly 1,500-1,800 photos.

•  Editing photographs.

• More phones calls and emails with the client, receiving order and payment, ordering prints, packaging and shipping prints.

• Meeting client to review photos and wedding albums.

This list is far from complete, but I think you can see that when a professional photographer charges $4,000 for an eight-hour wedding event, the client is not paying $500 an hour. Typically, a wedding can take upward of 75-125 hours in total to sell, capture and process and print. 

And let’s not forget the amount of money photographers spend on computer, photographer and lighting equipment. Professional cameras can average anywhere from $2,500-10,000, with lenses ranging from $1,250 to an excess of $3,000. At any given wedding, professionals are equipped with at least a pair of cameras and up to as many as six lenses—and that’s not taking into account laptops, backdrops, etc.

So when planning your Charleston destination wedding, consider that when paying for a professional photographer, you’re paying for much more—indelible, cherished memories that will last a lifetime.