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Question: How much for student wedding photography?

(Posted by: Snugglebug on 2012-02-01 17:01:16)

To save on cost we have toyed with the idea of hiring a local student photographer or graduate photographer from the local University or local photography school. We are only interested in the digitals, no prints, and no albums. We don't need them to be edited as I am very good with photo editing myself and I have taken into account the time it will take to do this too which I am prepared to do. Coverage would be from 2:30pm - 9:30pm which will cover from just before the ceremony (3pm) through to after all for reception formalities. We will be interviewing perspective clients and we will require them to show a portfolio of their work. Considering this, how much do you think is a reasonable price to pay a student photographer? We were thinking that $500 would be enough but we really have no clue. Is this too much or too little? Should we also offer to pay for dinner at our reception for them? Are people expected to do that for professional photographers? We haven't finalised our decision yet whether to go ahead with this idea or not. We are weighing up our options between this and between a professional photographer which would be $1800 for all day coverage (500- 1000 photos), limited digitals on CD only, no prints, no album, and only a few edited. Hi peanut - I understand your point about the editing. How much extra should I include for editing or should the $500 cover that cost too? I was told by someone that I should just do it myself and save myself the money so I thought it would be ok. I rather not do the editing - only if I had to because of my budget.

Posted by: peanut 2 on 2012-02-01, 17:35:11

I dont think you will find many photographers student or not who will be happy to provide a customer with raw photographs. I wouldnt be happy with someone else editing my work really and I did an A Level in photography....but it depends on the individual, some may not mind. As they will be there throughout the dinner, you could offer a paid dinner. Or you can schedule a time in which they can have a break to eat (but you wont get any photographs during their break) but they must at some point be allowed to eat lol For 7 hours of work $500 is fine. Honestly, dont bother with a professional. Student photographers can be just as good, just make sure you get their portfolio. Things to look for: - A range of photograph settings (in studio, inside general lighting, most importantly outside in sunny conditions and during low lighting at night) Anyone can take good shots in a studio. The hard part is adjusting the ISO to suit outside harsh light conditions and inside low light conditions in the evening. Make sure you specify that you would like to see pictures where they have shown their skill level with these. If there are any bits that are under/ over exposed, dont use them. - That they are shooting in RAW and not jpeg. These take up more space, but provide a much better quality picture. - That they have the confidence to do it. Some people may have good studio and other kind of private work. But with a wedding, they need to be comfortable to get up during your first dance to take shots whilst everyone else but you two are seated. They need to be comfortable to be moving around wherever you are having your ceremony to take pictures while everyone else is seated. If they dont have that confidence, you will not get good pictures from them. They also need to be able to be in charge. Arranging large group family photos can be difficult if you have many people there. They need a big loud voice.

Posted by: Paul on 2012-02-01, 18:21:33

For a student, $500 is pretty good for that kind of gig. Keep in mind, you get what you pay for. You are gambling when you hire someone that doesn't have a substantial amount of experience and a track record of successful weddings. Here's an interesting article on how / why wedding photography is priced: weddingandfamilyphoto.com/ 2012/ 01/ why-wedding-photographers%E2%80%99-prices-are-%E2%80%9Cwack%E2%80%9D/

Posted by: Tim on 2012-02-05, 16:13:39

A student will probably be charging somewhere between $500 and $1,500, but keep in mind students often don't have back up equipment. You could hire them to shoot the wedding and then never actually get the photos back. I think $1,800 is extremely low for a professional. Most will charge between $2,500 and $10,000. I guess it just comes down to how important the images are to you.