Shooting my first wedding for $

[40Hands]

I've shot a few weddings of my friends just for practice but now I've been questioned by a friends friend of how much I charge to do a wedding. This will be ~6 hours of my time on a boat. What's kind of cool is I actually shot an event on the exact boat their wedding is taking place on.

I'm not a professional and I made them aware of that right away. I am confident I can shoot this wedding without a problem and I think they're looking for a lower cost photographer.

Anyone have an idea of how much I should charge?

 

[syee]

I would say it depends on what your confidence level would be of your skills. If you think you can pull off commercial class photography then by all means charge. I'd probably price out competitors to see what they charge. I'd guess the going rate is about $2000. Maybe give them a 25-50% break on the price if they're your buddies.

If you're not 100% sure of your abilities, then I'd probably do it for free. The last thing you want is your friendship to be ruined because pictures didn't turn out, your camera broke, etc. Stuff you can't ensure against on the big day. I'd rather do it for free, and let it be known it's a favour and that they should also acquire the services of a professional if they want professional shots. If they're still OK with you doing it, then use it as another practice to sharpen your wedding photography skills. There's a really good thread on Fred Miranda about this topic. I suggest you take a read of that and see the points they bring up. Will make you think twice about doing wedding photography.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Comfort and confidence. If you can take good shots and have your act/gear together (on the spot backups, backup bodies/lenses, advanced preparation, etc), then by all means charge a reasonable rate like $2000. But by doing so you're accepting any liability due to your shortcomings, such as lost photos due to broken equipment, missed opportunities, etc. You could charge less and make it known that you don't accept liability.

 

[twistedlogic]

Worth a read. I hope you can read this without being a member, a lot of useful info.

A bit about pricing from that post:

"According to much market research it was determined that the average professional photographer HAS to charge $2200 in order to BREAK EVEN on wedding photography. Obviously you're LOSING money if you charge less than that."

 

[Fardringle]

It depends a lot on your location and the circumstances of the wedding. For example, where I live (in Utah) pro wedding photographers charge anything from $250 to $500 for 1 hour of shooting and post processing on a 'selection' of the photos. The most expensive package I have seen is about $1800 for a multiple hour, multiple location shoot including processing of all photos and printing of a good selection of the shots.

The same "services" in other places might be 3-5 times the price (or more).

 

[corkyg]

Statistically, a wedding shoot takes about 2 hours and hundreds of shots. Rates depend a lot on locale as well as skill/reputation. Rates of $600 to $1000 are quite common. Top pros can get up to $5K

Rates

Charging friends is another matter. A lot depends on the degree of friendship and how well you want to preserve it.

You could just enjoy the boat ride.

 

[teatime0315]

Well my boss charges between 250-300 per hour. He is really good at what he does though. So like the above posters said, if you're 100 percent confident, charging them around 2k is reasonable.

 

[40Hands]

Thanks for the help guys. I decided that it would be good for my portfolio and they don't have too much cash to spend so I settled for ~$800. They sent me example photos of ones they liked from another photographer and I believe I'm going to blow their expectations out of the water. Hopefully I can start doing events more often!

 

[twistedlogic]

Good luck, hope to see some results.

Did you draw up a contract to save your behind?

 

[virtuamike]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Rates of $600 to $1000 are quite common.

Hrm, maybe for a 2nd shooter, but I cringe when I see primary photographers charging that low.

 

[virtuamike]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny
Comfort and confidence. If you can take good shots and have your act/gear together (on the spot backups, backup bodies/lenses, advanced preparation, etc), then by all means charge a reasonable rate like $2000. But by doing so you're accepting any liability due to your shortcomings, such as lost photos due to broken equipment, missed opportunities, etc. You could charge less and make it known that you don't accept liability.

But is a wedding really something that you can shirk that easily? Personally I have a major problem equating liability with price.