Bloody dross!!! What would you pay for good work?

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I've done one wedding, I charged £1000. Got there about 1pm did a quick look round did some meter reading tests, started shooting at 2pm left by 6pm.
Spent most of my time doing portraits, stuff that people would want on their wall, or in a frame. Didn't really do many reportage shoots, but I was shooting on a 503 Hasselblad with a winder (Not very discreet!)
But they all loved the shots. I gave away the rights as it was a friend of a friend, and weddings aren't my thing, but I could have made loads on prints for family members etc. Ended up with about 100 shots or so.
This was 5 years ago, so perhaps things have changed, but its all about the hero shots. Its great to give them load of pictures of stuff happening during the day, which will be put onto Facebook etc, but the ones that people will see everyday will be the ones in the frames on the mantlepiece.

For me, give them something different than normal. That doesn't mean silly effects, or crazy angles, or even weird settings. Give them something that looks like they couldn't take it.
Its easy to take a picture, stick a half decent camera on auto and it'll do the rest. Nearly everybody can do it. But showing that you are great can be difficult to people who don't know photography. I always think of an Opera singer analogy, when tying to explain this. Nearly everybody can do a bit of Opera singing, some its obviously not very good but then it gets to a point where I can't tell the difference about how good it sounds. Was Pavarotti better than Russell Watson. I have no idea really. I probably couldn't tell you who was who just by listening.
Its the same with photography. Once its in focus and doesn't look silly can untrained eyes tell the difference. We probably all can, but can the general punter. You need to tell them why your work is better.

Just hope that you can get yourself into the very top end. I used to assist a huge advertising photographer who started out shooting weddings. He was charging 5K! He also managed to time it just right, that a young group of socialites in the area were all getting married, he ended up shooting all of their weddings. He hated it, but was very good with people, and focussed on the hero shots. It was all about the portraits!

Basically increase your rate. Increase your hero shot quality but don't spend ages on it! All easier said than done.
 
Jonny said:
I've done one wedding, I charged £1000. Got there about 1pm did a quick look round did some meter reading tests, started shooting at 2pm left by 6pm.
Spent most of my time doing portraits, stuff that people would want on their wall, or in a frame. Didn't really do many reportage shoots, but I was shooting on a 503 Hasselblad with a winder (Not very discreet!)
But they all loved the shots. I gave away the rights as it was a friend of a friend, and weddings aren't my thing, but I could have made loads on prints for family members etc. Ended up with about 100 shots or so.
This was 5 years ago, so perhaps things have changed, but its all about the hero shots. Its great to give them load of pictures of stuff happening during the day, which will be put onto Facebook etc, but the ones that people will see everyday will be the ones in the frames on the mantlepiece.

For me, give them something different than normal. That doesn't mean silly effects, or crazy angles, or even weird settings. Give them something that looks like they couldn't take it.
Its easy to take a picture, stick a half decent camera on auto and it'll do the rest. Nearly everybody can do it. But showing that you are great can be difficult to people who don't know photography. I always think of an Opera singer analogy, when tying to explain this. Nearly everybody can do a bit of Opera singing, some its obviously not very good but then it gets to a point where I can't tell the difference about how good it sounds. Was Pavarotti better than Russell Watson. I have no idea really. I probably couldn't tell you who was who just by listening.
Its the same with photography. Once its in focus and doesn't look silly can untrained eyes tell the difference. We probably all can, but can the general punter. You need to tell them why your work is better.

Just hope that you can get yourself into the very top end. I used to assist a huge advertising photographer who started out shooting weddings. He was charging 5K! He also managed to time it just right, that a young group of socialites in the area were all getting married, he ended up shooting all of their weddings. He hated it, but was very good with people, and focussed on the hero shots. It was all about the portraits!

Basically increase your rate. Increase your hero shot quality but don't spend ages on it! All easier said than done.
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Any links to any of your work mate? 500px / flickr etc?
 
Jonny said:
I've done one wedding, I charged £1000. Got there about 1pm did a quick look round did some meter reading tests, started shooting at 2pm left by 6pm.
Spent most of my time doing portraits, stuff that people would want on their wall, or in a frame. Didn't really do many reportage shoots, but I was shooting on a 503 Hasselblad with a winder (Not very discreet!)
But they all loved the shots. I gave away the rights as it was a friend of a friend, and weddings aren't my thing, but I could have made loads on prints for family members etc. Ended up with about 100 shots or so.
This was 5 years ago, so perhaps things have changed, but its all about the hero shots. Its great to give them load of pictures of stuff happening during the day, which will be put onto Facebook etc, but the ones that people will see everyday will be the ones in the frames on the mantlepiece.

For me, give them something different than normal. That doesn't mean silly effects, or crazy angles, or even weird settings. Give them something that looks like they couldn't take it.
Its easy to take a picture, stick a half decent camera on auto and it'll do the rest. Nearly everybody can do it. But showing that you are great can be difficult to people who don't know photography. I always think of an Opera singer analogy, when tying to explain this. Nearly everybody can do a bit of Opera singing, some its obviously not very good but then it gets to a point where I can't tell the difference about how good it sounds. Was Pavarotti better than Russell Watson. I have no idea really. I probably couldn't tell you who was who just by listening.
Its the same with photography. Once its in focus and doesn't look silly can untrained eyes tell the difference. We probably all can, but can the general punter. You need to tell them why your work is better.

Just hope that you can get yourself into the very top end. I used to assist a huge advertising photographer who started out shooting weddings. He was charging 5K! He also managed to time it just right, that a young group of socialites in the area were all getting married, he ended up shooting all of their weddings. He hated it, but was very good with people, and focussed on the hero shots. It was all about the portraits!

Basically increase your rate. Increase your hero shot quality but don't spend ages on it! All easier said than done.
Click to expand...

Yeah you're right about the hero shots, although I'd argue if you can do great reportage AND hero shots your on to the real winner. I've been working hard on improving my bride and groom portraits as I knew it was a weak area for me... At the weekend I shot a wedding and the bride was quite dumpy and the dude not great looking either, but I still got a few really good portraits of them, something I'd have struggled to do this time last year, and tbh even with decent looking couples too.

I think I have the reportage stuff pretty much nailed, and the portrait stuff is something I'm working on to get those 'hero' shots :)
 
ayesane said:
hero f***ing shot man, listen to your selves, yo. :lol:
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Is it like a money shot? Do I have to photograph the groom jizzing on the bride's face? Maybe add a bit of backlighting and some gelled strobes :lol:
 
ajax_andy said:
Is it like a money shot? Do I have to photograph the groom jizzing on the bride's face? Maybe add a bit of backlighting and some gelled strobes :lol:
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i've got visions of the bride singing Bonny Tylers 'I need a hero' covered in spunk. :lol:
 
Sorry for my long post last night, and my poor attempts at forming coherent sentences. I really don't know what I was still doing up, let alone critiquing wedding photographers!
If you do use the above camera, you would definitely be my hero.

Seriously though, your reportage stuff is very good and it gives a great overview of the day. Your portraits are good as well, but its good that you are trying to make them even better. All I'd say is concentrate on the people in the photos rather than trying to capture too much of the location. But this is from somebody who doesn't shoot weddings, I found the fact that most people want them done really quickly, and as you say sometimes aren't as photogenic as they think they are really annoying, so decided to become a fashion photographer!

UaeExile said:
Any links to any of your work mate? 500px / flickr etc?
Click to expand...

Here you go, it hasn't been updated in a little while, trying to decide upon if I want a video section or not, and also if I need to have a little rebrand.
 
Jonny said:
Sorry for my long post last night, and my poor attempts at forming coherent sentences. I really don't know what I was still doing up, let alone critiquing wedding photographers!
If you do use the above camera, you would definitely be my hero.

Seriously though, your reportage stuff is very good and it gives a great overview of the day. Your portraits are good as well, but its good that you are trying to make them even better. All I'd say is concentrate on the people in the photos rather than trying to capture too much of the location. But this is from somebody who doesn't shoot weddings, I found the fact that most people want them done really quickly, and as you say sometimes aren't as photogenic as they think they are really annoying, so decided to become a fashion photographer!



Here you go, it hasn't been updated in a little while, trying to decide upon if I want a video section or not, and also if I need to have a little rebrand.
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Haha that's funny you said that as a wedding tog on another forum told me to use more of the location in pics and not so many close ups of the people :D
 
ajax_andy said:
Haha that's funny you said that as a wedding tog on another forum told me to use more of the location in pics and not so many close ups of the people :D
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Jonny the one with the experience ;)
 
ajax_andy said:
Haha that's funny you said that as a wedding tog on another forum told me to use more of the location in pics and not so many close ups of the people :D
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Perhaps it was just the images I looked at last night. Also photography is a very subjective thing.
I just go by what I think the client really wants, sometimes they don't know until they see it. However its usually a nice pic of themselves, get bits of the location in certainly, but the image has to be of the people in a nice location and not a nice location with people in it.
On your Lumley Castle shoot for example, the shot of the bride and her bridesmaids on the steps is much nicer than the ones above it. Something like the shot you did with the castle in the background and them in the fore, shows the location perfectly but the image is still all about them. You know all of this anyway, due to the way you have laid your images out. So i'll stop now.
But as this was originally about costs, I'd increase yours. When I got married nearly 10 years ago, I would have been happy to spend 1k on your images for the amount of work that you get through. I was only a mature student at the time, so didn't have money to burn, but I felt 1k was about the rate to pay.[DOUBLEPOST=1377613873][/DOUBLEPOST]
Icarebecauseyoudo said:
Jonny the one with the experience ;)
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I've said all along that I don't do weddings. I'm really just passing on what the photographer I assisted said to me. He was always trying to get me to get into them, as he said they are great for learning to deal with people and dealing with the pressure, and having to be decisive about what shots to take.
I don't know why I get involved in these things really!
However weddings are similar to fashion location shoots!
 
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I think Lumley Castle was when I looked at my pics and thought 'man I suck at Bride and Groom portraits' so I know what you're saying. I've tried to adapt my style a bit with the way I shoot the couple now and think it's progressing more along the lines of what you mean. I'm certainly looking at my portrait skills as a 'work in progress' with more improvement to be made so I do understand what you're saying :)

I've upped my costs to £950 for a full day and £1350 for bridal prep to end of the night do + album, so I think that's as much as I can increase them for now. Hopefully if I keep getting my current booking rate it'll stop me moaning on here for a while :D
 
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