What a minefield this is! I reckon most people establishing his or her own business find this a problematic issue, especially early on. Photography is no different. I'll explain to you below my experiences as well as some of the tips I discovered in the process. First though, make sure to make everything ultra obvious in your wedding photography agreement in order to stay away from any unpleasant misunderstandings down the road.
Okay, if you're starting off trying to determine what to charge for photographing a wedding, you not surprisingly want to try and extract the maximum amount from every single client you'll be able to. But ideally, you want them to go away completely satisfied rather than feeling cheated and forced in to purchasing or conned in to buying, even worse. And of course, you'd like lots of work as well. Two wedding events a year, even at $5000 each, is not going to pay the bills.
Specifically early on in my career, and if you are in that situation right now, it's also important merely to get work to gain experience and build up your portfolio and referral system. I personally started off simply following three different photographers around at three different weddings. This wasn't assistant work, I merely asked friends or friends of friends who were planning a wedding if I might shoot their wedding day, and observe their professional photographer during the day. In exchange, they got all of the photographs I took on disk. Following that, I charged $150 for my initial paid wedding. You may do a few more for free if you feel more comfortable this way, but don't wait too long before charging. You should already have some knowledge and people should pay for them, and they'll take you more seriously also.
After that job, I worked my way up to about $800 during the period of the next handful of wedding events, as I got better. With this experience behind me, I had produced a good enough portfolio to put together a good web site, and also to put together some good sample albums. At this point, I started charging $2500 or more for a full days coverage. The total amount has gone up year after year as my portfolio, skills and products have got better.
Needless to say you don't need to ask for that amount of money. You'll be able to run a successful business focusing on low-cost wedding events, in which you could even do more than one each day, and perhaps supply only a dvd to the customer. You could also offer more affordable albums for this reduced price point, and perhaps not provide quite as much before and after wedding support. Whichever path you are taking, the best of luck with it.
Okay, if you're starting off trying to determine what to charge for photographing a wedding, you not surprisingly want to try and extract the maximum amount from every single client you'll be able to. But ideally, you want them to go away completely satisfied rather than feeling cheated and forced in to purchasing or conned in to buying, even worse. And of course, you'd like lots of work as well. Two wedding events a year, even at $5000 each, is not going to pay the bills.
Specifically early on in my career, and if you are in that situation right now, it's also important merely to get work to gain experience and build up your portfolio and referral system. I personally started off simply following three different photographers around at three different weddings. This wasn't assistant work, I merely asked friends or friends of friends who were planning a wedding if I might shoot their wedding day, and observe their professional photographer during the day. In exchange, they got all of the photographs I took on disk. Following that, I charged $150 for my initial paid wedding. You may do a few more for free if you feel more comfortable this way, but don't wait too long before charging. You should already have some knowledge and people should pay for them, and they'll take you more seriously also.
After that job, I worked my way up to about $800 during the period of the next handful of wedding events, as I got better. With this experience behind me, I had produced a good enough portfolio to put together a good web site, and also to put together some good sample albums. At this point, I started charging $2500 or more for a full days coverage. The total amount has gone up year after year as my portfolio, skills and products have got better.
Needless to say you don't need to ask for that amount of money. You'll be able to run a successful business focusing on low-cost wedding events, in which you could even do more than one each day, and perhaps supply only a dvd to the customer. You could also offer more affordable albums for this reduced price point, and perhaps not provide quite as much before and after wedding support. Whichever path you are taking, the best of luck with it.
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If you would like some more information about what's the best way to charge for your wedding photography services, and for lots of other wedding ideas, check this out, and also visit http://photographygems.com/wedding-photography-contract/ for more info concerning how to set up a wedding photography agreement.
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