Insights into Wedding Photography: When It’s More a Charity Than a Business

If you’re a photographer, you’ve probably been asked by friends to work a freebie (or a near freebie) in exchange for a byline or a review. You’ll find that the request is not just a frequent occurrence but almost standard practice. Everyone wants free photography!

More often than not, some clients pay little or nothing for their wedding photography, leaving the photographer to decide how much charity they are willing to donate to the couple’s cause.

Yes. That’s called charity.

While the happy couple celebrate the high life on their special day in their finery, photographers follow them in their clapped-out cars and dated clothes, making magic happen through their lenses but not for their bank account.

The differences are downright unfair.

Couples are quick to point out to photographers that the cost of taking pictures is minimal; photographers’ charges should reflect this. After all, it’s just a bit of data on a USB stick, right? They’ll even suggest giving the photographer a stick of their own (for free) to save on that (how nice).

Unfortunately, some photographers use this crude costing advice when pricing themselves in the market.

The irony is that today’s wedding photography services offer more than ever (gone are the days when my parents spent a two-month’s wage to receive half a dozen black-and-white prints). Photographers are now expected to take thousands of photos at a plethora of locations, edit them, and present them in multiple ways — but provide them at a fraction of what they cost to make.

Photographers shouldn’t have to put up with this arrangement, but they do. They let it happen.

So why do photographers yield? Why can a photographer offer more today but earn less?

The first and most obvious answer is the number of professional photographers available for wedding work compared to the number of weddings. Competition is high. Anyone with a decent camera can do it. It drives the price down. More freebies are offered to attract sign-ups. The freebies cut into the photographer’s costs.

The second answer is centred around self-belief.

Photographers could significantly raise their prices, but many don’t. They don’t believe in themselves enough to lift their value to a level that pays well. Without the right confidence to support it, they stay stuck in the low end, price-locked down there, unable to improve their income despite enhancing their skills and knowledge from one year to the next.

Almost all wedding photographers reach a point of sudden realisation. Frustration recognises the inordinate discrepancy between what photography pays and the amount of work required to get it. They see themselves falling further behind year after year. Decisions are made — whether to continue the service or stop it.

The latter isn’t ideal, but it is the easiest to achieve. Leaving the profession and finding a wage-earning job looks more appealing than chasing a pittance through wedding clients.

The former, well, that’s a whole lot harder to tackle.

If the goal is to escape the low end of the market and make some proper money in photography, it’ll mean lifting the business’s profits tenfold. This will give the photographer the same priority as the wedding couple. The photographer earns a good living (not a decent one), and the couple gets the best possible photos of their day.

But it’ll require a dramatic change in the photographer’s mindset to make it happen. It’ll need a strong belief system with a hard-nosed sales approach to get the business moving forward and to turn a profit.

Prices won’t be worked around a cost-plus formula anymore.

It becomes about the art, the magical imagery of a once-in-a-lifetime event that is absolutely priceless. It’s the type of business where: If you have to ask how much it costs, you probably can’t afford the service.

High-end marketing is employed to attract the proper clientele that best works with this model. Sign-ups are hit hard with aggressive upselling and cross-selling after the wedding event. If a freebie is offered, it’s because there is a much bigger prize to be won for doing it. Nothing comes without something better. The mantra: “Make ’em pay ’til it hurts” becomes a well-used behind-the-scenes phrase.

Of course, this changes the nature of photography for a photographer. No longer is it about composition, lenses, shutters and depth of field. It shifts to sales forecasts and profit lines. These photographers spend more time drafting new marketing strategies for their staff to use than standing behind a camera and developing photos.

Some wedding photographers will understand this, see the light and push on to the upper echelon, but many won’t. They will give up and call it a day. Yes, it’s hard to ask the client for more money. It requires a kind of work that photographers don’t want to know about.

That’s why option two is revisited for consideration.

So if you’re a couple looking for wedding photography, beware of the budget-priced service. A photographer’s past, present and future freebies may catch up with them, forcing them to reassess their photography career by the time your wedding comes along.

Sudden cancellations do happen.

More often than you think.

–Michael (Dark Fiction. Author of SEETHINGS (the first book), free for a limited time)