What’s in a wedding photographer? (Part 1)

I decided to write this post because in some of the surveys that I have seen floating around on the internet about the cost of wedding photography, one of the consistent questions is, “why is it so expensive? I mean, $1000 should be more than enough for 8 hrs works, right?” Well…. not exactly.

In the following few days I’ll be posting some of the most basic but necessary expenses that a wedding photographer will have to make to be able to create fantastic images of the most important day in a couple’s life. Also consider that the information I’ll be presenting is for a photographer that charges at least $2000 for a wedding or more and that does it as a business. The following information doesn’t apply to photographers that are only doing wedding photography as a hobby and may charge less than $800-$1000.

Equipment cost

At the bare minimum a good wedding photographer will need a camara, a few lenses, several memory cards, some lighting equipment like flashes, a camera bag in which to carry his equipment, and several accessories as well. Let’s take a look at a basic minimum kit to photograph a wedding well. I will also be frugal by using some off-brand equipment where possible, and I will stay 1 level below top of the line equipment where possible as well. I am going to include a basic training class in photography or lighting, since this is essential for great images and a quality product.

1. Camera – Nikon D300 – $1800
2. Extra Camera Battery -Nikon EN-EL3e – $50
3. Memory Cards (qty. 5 mininum) – Lexar 2Gb 133X – $55 each X 5 – $275
4. Flash 1 – Nikon SB800 – $315
5. Flash 2 – Sunpak 120j with battery pack (discontinued) – $200 (used for off camera lighting during reception)
6. Flash Battery Pack – Nikon SD-8A – $150 (for fast flash recycle time)
7. Lens 1 – Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 – $450 (lens for group shots and reception)
8. Lens 2 – Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR – $1625 (lens for shots from back of church and some outside portraits)
9. Lens 3 – Nikon 85mm f1.8 – $400 (lens for portraits of bride and groom and for very low light)
10. Light Stand – $70 (used to setup remote flash in reception or with umbrella/softbox for portraits)
11. 60″ Convertible Umbrella – $30 (used for portraits or as shoot-through umbrella during reception)
12. Bag to carry everything – $215
13. Training class – $550

Total – $6133 (not counting taxes and shipping and handling) And just when you thought we were done…your photographer will need to carry backup equipment in case of malfunction or theft.

1. Camera – Nikon D200 (camera from 2005) – $1000
2. Extra Camera battery – Nikon EN-EL3e – $50
3. Lens 1 – Nikon 50mm f1.8 – $105
4. Lens 2 – Nikon 35mm f2 – $320
5. Flash – Nikon SB-80DX – $190

Total of a very minimal backup equipment – $1665. So are we done? Not even if the photographer was only going to get the images off the camera and burn them onto a CD. So we now need to look at a basic computer system and software.

1. Dell XPS 210 with 20″ LCD screen – $1258 (I only upgraded the memory from 2Gb to 3Gb and added a 9-in-1 card reader so the images from the card can be downloaded, everything else is the same)
2. Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 – $100 (Most photographers will use Photoshop CS3, which is $650)
3. External Hard Drive – Western Digital My Book 500Gb – $120 (used for backup of images)
4. ProShow Gold – $70 (used to make slideshows)
5. Color Printer – HP Deskjet 6988 – $120 (used for printing contracts, brochures, CD lables, etc)

Total – $1668. So are we done? I’d say that for a photographer that is doing weddings as a business and wants to both, capture amazing images, and provide a quality product and service, this is a very basic and minimal equipment that he will need. And if this is a photographer that is starting out, he will need to make an expense that is fairly close to what I have outlined here before he shoots any weddings. Some may get a way with a $1000 kit shooting weddings for friends and family but the image quality and the products and services will never be of the same caliber than a photographer that has made the extra expense on better equipment and training, to provide the bride and groom with memorable images.

So far our equipment grand total is: $9466

But we are far from done, the photographer has not yet photographed the wedding. Next, we are going to look at how much time the photographer invests in a wedding. Is it only 8 hrs? Stay tuned and in the next couple of days I will continue this discussion, in the mean time, please feel free to ask questions and/or comments, they are most welcome.