Can of Worms: instilling confidence and common sense instead of fear in the affianced

Dear Brides,

OK – let’s be honest here. Most brides? They have a budget. Even if the $5000 photographers make you hysterical over resorting to risking your eternal happiness on a newbie and promise that your bouquet will look better than a bouquet, if your budget is strict you are going to have to hire someone who fits within your budget, or have NO photographs of your wedding. While none of us as a photographer wants to get hired on price alone (honestly, brides - it hurts our little egos to be the cheapest of your preferred photographers) the bottom line is, even HIGH priced photographers get price shopped.

While some people can’t spend too much, there are those who wouldn’t dream about spending less than $5000 on their photographer. They actually seek out photographers with higher prices for whatever personal reasons they may have. In different social circles, there are unwritten rules about these sorts of things, so before you go beakin' off about how ridiculous it is to spend tens of thousands of dollars on your wedding photographer, keep in mind that you don't walk in their Louboutins. To them, how much they spent is as much of a topic as other social circles discussing how little they spent. There are no judgments here.

The rule of thumb is simply this: brides, use common sense. Regardless of your budget, do your research and ask to see the portfolios and complete package details of your potential $500 or $5000 photographer. If they won't give you a price over the phone but you're being invited to the photographer's home theatre for a private screening, it's safe to assume they are high-end, high-cost photographers. If they seem grateful (if not desperate) to sell you wedding package, don't have a link to some online images to review, and keep dropping their price and offering you extras, it's safe to assume they are relatively new and need to get some experience under their belt. Then there's everything in between - the "Let's meet at Tim Horton's" vs. the "Let me buy you a coffee at Starbuck's" vs. the "Let me buy you lunch" vs. the "Let's go out for steak dinner and toast ourselves with Cristal." How you like to be romanced by your photographer is up to you, and there's no right or wrong answer in terms of what you want.

Make sure you meet them in person at least once, and preferably have an e-session or pre-wedding shoot before deciding. This IS, after all, one of the most important and special days of your life. If you hire based on price and portfolio alone, you may or may not get what you pay for, especially if you skip that important part of meeting your photographer and reviewing their preliminary pictures of you. Can you imagine showing up on your wedding day to discover you hate your photographer? I think THAT would be even worse than hating the photos.

Brides, show some respect – while you may have a budget, so does your photographer. Your photographer isn’t a beach vendor you can haggle down on the price. How would you like it if your employer negotiated your wage every payday? "Well, your previous employer was paying you less. And my cousin said she'd take your job for half your salary. Plus, I met your family at the mall that one time, so we kind of know each other now... how about I take 25% off your salary and you throw in 2 hours for free each week?" Now, making your best offer is different than haggling. If you can only afford $2500 and want the $25,000 photographer, you may want to decide what's most important to you (the formals, the ceremony, whatever) and see if they offer an hourly rate. Lay your offer on the table (make it a reasonable offer) and see what comes back. Maybe you can't afford full-day coverage, but you can afford to have the formals shot by your preferred photographer, and leave the ceremony and the reception to the cousin with the camera. If they don't have anything to offer, you have two options: serve your guests chicken on paper plates instead of lobster on china to make room in your budget, or keep looking.

Whether they are charging $500 or $5000 or $50,000 doesn’t matter. Assume that the price you are given is firm, and if it doesn’t suit your budget – keep looking, because the GOOD NEWS is there are so many photographers out there (some would say the market is saturated) that if you look long and hard enough, you WILL find someone who a) you like, b) whose work you like, c) whose packages you like and can d) afford.

Another thing to keep in mind: if the photographer looks too good to be true, read the fine print - "Weddings Starting at $500" might mean the photographer charges an hourly rate of $500. Or, you might be hiring someone for their first ever wedding. Yes, every now and again you will luck out with a phenom-in-the-making newbie ‘tog whose skills blow everyone away for just $500. Chances are good that they won’t stay at that price (so don’t tell all your friends how cheap they were, just how great they were). In the same token, an experienced (and usually higher priced) photographer is invaluable because they know their camera like the back of their hand and also where they need to stand to get a great shot, so if you find one with a higher but reasonable price tag whose portfolio doesn't show this, keep looking...

I advise you to keep your expectations realistic – that way you set yourself up to be wowed instead of disappointed. What about your photographers abilities? What about their style? You've reviewed portfolios. You've contacted them. You've given your potential photographer the impression that you like their work and are hiring them based on the style of photographs they take. Right? Because if you've seen their work, then you know what you're signing up for, and would never dream of asking them to take pictures like ~>insert name of some other photographer here<~ then complaining afterwards because your $500 steal of a deal photographer couldn't deliver, right? Because that would just be silly.

This isn’t directed just at $500 wedding coverage – it’s for ANY wedding, because after it's all said and done, regardless of whether your pictures come on a CD with handwriting on it, or laid out in a glossy-paged platinum-coated book, you're still just buying photographs, period. You may want to assume you’re automatically going to have an amazing experience with your wedding photographer because you paid more, but price does not dictate and certainly doesn’t guarantee pictures that you’ll cherish for a lifetime. The pictures will evoke a memory, and if your memory of the photographer is amazing, the picture will bring back a positive memory instead of reminding you of your lackluster day with a cranky photographer.

Price also doesn't denote professionalism. While some of us may not personally know a time when $500 was a huge investment, for many people it’s difficult to afford what is considered a modest wedding photographer. EVERYONE is worthy of respect, and professionalism is a behaviour, not something you demand with a fancy lens. If a photographer doesn't even reply to your, "What can we get for $2500?" email inquiry, you didn't want them anyways - they could at least refer you out. If your photographer sends you an email that looks like texting or shows up at Tim Horton's complaining of a hangover and dropping the f-bomb, there's a problem, no matter what the price tag is. If your photographer is complaining about stupid brides on their blog or in their Facebook status updates, it's all bad. Walking into any photographer interview with an open mind will allow you to see the subtle nuances that are clues to how professional your photographer is, and I assure you that from $500 and $50,000, photographers run the full spectrum.

I suppose it would make sense to explain how photographers price themselves. Essentially, they start off at whatever price they wish, which may be free, may be $500, or may be $5000. There are two schools of thought – start low and build rapidly, and start high and wait for them to come to you slowly, both of which work, both with their own set of pros and cons, and both are completely valid. Then there’s an adjustment period, where their price is adjusted to strike a balance between a) how much they need (or want) to make and b) what people are willing to pay for them. They often don’t stop increasing their price until people stop calling - this is called 'what the market will bear.' And before you start thinking we are all money-grubbing greedy-meisters, the truth is that any commodity available for purchase is handled the same way. It’s called maximizing profits, and it’s what businesses do. Your photographer isn’t your best friend – they are their company, which was set up to make money. It just so happens our job includes, you know, the best gigs ever...

There are both a hard and soft costs associated with investing in equipment and editing software and having the skills required to use them. Most photographers, over time, accumulate and use multiple lenses, cameras, and high-end editing software. To give you an idea of hard costs, if you want your photographer to have access to a fisheye lens for your wedding because you love the look, they cost upwards of ~$600. If you booked your wedding in a church where no flash photography is allowed, your photographer is likely going to whip out their f2.8 with a focal length anywhere from 70mm to 300mm. "Cheap" versions of these lenses start at over $1000. The most inexpensive entry-level DSLR camera body w/ kit lens out there is about $600. We also like to insure our equipment - which isn't cheap... So, if you expect your photographer to have multiple camera bodies, several specialized lenses, and is crazy-talented in Photoshop, then you will need to look at spending more than $500. Also, a legal license for Adobe Photoshop CS4 retails for about $250, with the CS4 suite topping out over $1500. Photoshop training at most educational institutions runs from $250 to $500 for each of three levels. So. If all you need are a few pictures to scrapbook and you already know how to use Photoshop yourself, that $500 photographer may be perfect for you, but if you need an expert to remove the black eye your groom got at his stag party...

The more bells and whistles that are included with your photographer, the higher the price is going to be. If all you want is access to a disc so you can scrapbook your own wedding, don’t be dazzled by the organic leather bound flush mount album that will bathe your cat, conserve energy, and make waffles on Sundays all while impressing the neighbours with its stylish good looks and ensuring a happy marriage by showcasing the day that kicked off your wedded bliss. If you EXPECT and WANT to be taken out for filet mignon while viewing a private screening of your custom wedding package which includes the aforementioned organic leather bound flush mount album instead of having a disc of watermarked low-res files, it’s safe to assume that you will be paying more because it requires skill and involves hard costs - even at 'photographer's pricing' a good quality leather bound album is $500 without shipping and without factoring in the soft cost of the amount of time it takes to design, proof, modify, upload, and deliver the album.

Anytime you see a photographer include a product or service, their overhead goes up, so your price goes up, with a mark-up. This includes everything right down to the fancy packaging that your photos come in. Photographer uploads the images and you can order them online? Price increase – someone has to sit and upload all those files. Photographer has a booth at the wedding fair? Price goes up – those booths are thousands of dollars to run. Fancy custom-made website with nice branding instead of a template? You’re going to pay for that. And, I suppose this is the right place to mention that having an award-winning member of ~>insert acronym for some hoity toity photography organization or other<~ is costly. Attendance at conferences, memberships and competition printing, mounting, and entry fees add up to thousands per annum – the more award winning/networked/famous/renowned/well-known your photographer is, the higher your price is going to be. If this is a deciding factor for you, be prepared to pay.

At the opposite end of that spectrum, there are lots of photographers who really don't care about competitions and conferences. They just want to shoot, and often aren't considered "professionals." Sometimes they are called Momtographers, GWC (Guy or Girl With Camera), or Weekend Warriors. While there are hacks out there, to be certain, if you aren't sure about hiring someone who isn't a card-carrying member of either a national or international organization, use due diligence when investigating them - does their portfolio shine? Do they have great references? Can they produce a valid business license? Then chances are they are totally legit, just not into the photographer social scene. *Note - Federal Tax Laws (Canadian) state that GST must be collected and remitted once you reach an annual income of $30,000 from your business. If you can see that your photographer is clearly doing more business than that but isn't charging GST, be cautious, but if it looks like they only take on a few clients a year, don't worry about it - they are still operating legally.

While some established photographers may try and scare the bejeebers out of you, the truth is they are preying on your emotions and hoping to scare you into spending more money. Chances are good they are sincere in their belief that you don't want to risk losing memories on your special day, but they don't even realize that they are essentially using emotional blackmail on potential clients. Brides - have a little faith in yourself – you aren’t stupid, you know what your budget is, and you know what you like. If you can afford $2500, go and find the BEST $2500 photographer you can. If you want to spend $5000 or even $25,000, somewhere out there is a photographer who will make it worth your investment. If you are only able to spend $500, don’t lose faith – there are always new photographers in the ranks looking to get a couple of weddings under their belt to build a portfolio. As long as you go in with reasonable expectations you’ll be just fine.

To sum up, I'm not telling you to go out and find the cheapest photographer you can. I'm telling you to find someone whose portfolio and personality fits YOUR budget, whether that's $500, $5000, or $50,000. Keep your expectations realistic so you don't set yourself up for disappointment. Hire (and later refer your photographer to others) because they did a good job, not because they were the cheapest. Despite what you may have heard, there is no wrong photographer out there. Because it’s such a broad and diverse industry ranging from self-taught to university educated, film to digital, modern to formal style, and because everyone has different artistic tastes, pretty much anyone can find a photographer that fits. Regardless of what your budget and lifestyle are like, with a little legwork you will find the right photographer for YOU.

Whether that means you choose to give a new photographer the opportunity to get their business rolling or have a world-renowned photographer document your day, the only thing that matters is that you love your photographer.