| p>Finding a Wedding Photographer can be a hard | | | | Nowadays wedding photographers (with the advent |
| task. Many people only look for cheap wedding | | | | of digital photography) shoot a very large number of |
| photographers; off course they end up saving some | | | | images, often touching the 2000 mark and these |
| money, but this more often than not comes at a | | | | images require some substantial work. They |
| high price. Of course nobody will know what this high | | | | eventually need to be digitally edited, fixed, chosen, |
| price was until at least a month after the wedding. | | | | printed, sorted, mounted... it's an awful lot of work! |
| Beware of minimal wedding quotations... more often | | | | Getting the picture? If you divide the total cost of |
| than not they are at the base of a photography | | | | the photographer by 70 hours, you will see what the |
| disaster. If a wedding photographer offers his | | | | Photography Company (NOT the Photographer) is |
| services for say 250 or 300 Dollars, giving you three | | | | actually getting. To that amount you have to take |
| hours of photographic coverage, he or she is very | | | | away all of the expenses (including the office rent, |
| likely to have to turn down a bigger booking for the | | | | personnel expenses and bills) and you will easily see |
| same day later on. An amateur will probably not have | | | | that there will be not much left. At this point there |
| another bigger booking ahead, so there is nothing to | | | | could be THREE possibilities: |
| lose. A professional wedding photographer will take | | | | Someone that offers you very low wedding |
| much more than 250 or 300 pounds for a day's work | | | | quotations is very unlikely to be a professional |
| (I'll tell you why later), so if he or she will really take | | | | photographer because he or she: |
| so little for a day's work (and a lot more work after | | | | 1) Will NOT mind to work nearly for free (hobbyist) |
| your wedding, as you will read later), chances are | | | | 2) Will NOT work for 70 hours on your wedding |
| that he or she is not a professional photographer but | | | | (probably has another job) |
| just an amateur. Good luck to you! | | | | 3) IS in desperate need of building a portfolio to gain |
| Most people looking for cheap wedding | | | | work (zero experience) |
| photographers have never hired a wedding | | | | All three cases are screaming an eventual |
| photographer before, so they don't really know how | | | | DISASTER... |
| to look for one. It's a zoo out there and it's really | | | | So, as you can see, there are a lot of things to |
| hard to find good and true information. The internet | | | | consider when choosing a wedding photographer and |
| doesn't really help either, because virtually all wedding | | | | by now, you should understand why wedding |
| websites offer paid information that can't obviously | | | | photographers are expensive and why a cheap one |
| be negative, as everyone tends to safeguard their | | | | cannot possibly be a pro. If you do want to save |
| advertisers. It is not easy, but you should try to find | | | | money and are willing to take a few risks, then I |
| a website that has no advertising interests and that | | | | would advice you to hire a student photographer. |
| will tell you how a photographer really is. The best | | | | Always make sure to get some sort of references; |
| place for this purpose is a customer reviews website, | | | | a teacher reference is considered to be the best |
| but again, it's very hard to find them. By reading a | | | | one. |
| wedding photographer review you can see what | | | | In the early days photographers heavily relied on |
| other people had to say about their experiences. | | | | photo labs. Nowadays everything is done digitally, so |
| Someone who is not very confident in his/her | | | | the lab is history. The downside of this is that the |
| performance (for example a weekend photographer, | | | | photographer has a workload that is much bigger |
| a student or a freshly graduate), will still advertise all | | | | than before. The reason why so many hours are |
| over the place, this is what makes the choice really | | | | needed is because digitally editing images takes a |
| hard: internet is reachable by virtually anyone, | | | | very long time. An image must first be opened in |
| anywhere on the planet. It's not like years ago, when | | | | Photoshop (or similar photo editing program), it must |
| you could only purchase expensive adverts on real | | | | be color calibrated, brightness, contrast, hue, white |
| magazines. Internet is free! So you don't really know | | | | balance... there are so many adjustments to do and |
| who is a pro and who is a student out there. | | | | these are incredibly time consuming. Without creating |
| Talking about Canada, Vancouver is statistically the | | | | any special effect, a single photographs will keep a |
| most expensive city in Canada, but a Vancouver | | | | photographer busy for approximately 6 minutes. Now |
| Wedding Photographer is not necessarily more | | | | when you multiply the average 6-7 minutes by the |
| expensive than other wedding photographers in | | | | images you are getting, you can easily imagine what |
| Canada. Inexpensive wedding Photographers can be | | | | the photographer has been though. Then if you are |
| found in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto Ontario, as well | | | | getting some images with special effect, that can |
| as in Vancouver. The real question is: do you want a | | | | take hours for each photograph... 30 minutes is a |
| cheap wedding photographer? A wedding involves a | | | | short time for these modifications. |
| lot of "invisible" work that, like it or not, it has to be | | | | I have heard many times people complaining about |
| paid for. In my experience with weddings, the | | | | how much a wedding photographer makes: "1000 |
| average photography job will keep a person busy for | | | | Dollars for just one day of work!" But it's not... it's |
| about 70 hours all included. Yes, that's right. Beginning | | | | 1000 dollars for about 70 hours of work... that is two |
| from meeting the bride and groom, to the delivery of | | | | weeks and it's not much at all when you think of all |
| the wedding album, wedding box or any other kind | | | | the bills and tax they have to pay to keep their |
| of finished work, a wedding is very time consuming | | | | business running. |
| for a photographer. | | | | I hope this article helped you understand why |
| The days in which wedding photographers only shot | | | | photographers charge so much money for "one day's |
| 100 images during the whole day are long gone. | | | | work". |