Let me take your photos!

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
You are of course all correct about pricing and not underselling yourself, but be careful not to price too high and oversell yourself....

The GF and I are looking at wedding photographers at the moment and obviously its a hard task.... (hopefully) being my one and only wedding its important to get someone that can do an A1 job with no second chances.

The range of prices is staggering though from people just starting up @ £15 an hour all in, to people who have been about for years for £500, £1000 even £2000 for the day....

The problem is paying more doesn't guarantee better results, it just probably means the photographer has a better website and spends more time editing maybe than someone who gets decent photos in the first place.... seriously, its a mine field.
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
gk141054 said:
The range of prices is staggering though from people just starting up @ £15 an hour all in, to people who have been about for years for £500, £1000 even £2000 for the day....

The problem is paying more doesn't guarantee better results, it just probably means the photographer has a better website and spends more time editing maybe than someone who gets decent photos in the first place.... seriously, its a mine field.
To be honest if your photographer doesn't offer a touching up service as part of the package then go elsewhere. I agree that spending money doesn't guarantee better results but someone who is better at touching up and spends more time on it will produce better results.

I know you're thinking it would be better to get someone who can take photographs which don't need touching up. Not going to happen I'm afraid, you have to remember that digital developing is just like chemical developing in as much as you will probably have to undertake several modifications to the development process in order to achieve that perfect print.

There are some situations that even something like a D3x won't deal with such as extreme contrast, HDR imaging etc. which you would then sort out in photoshop with highlighting, burning, bracketting, overlaying and so on, much in the same way a conventional developer would develop his film.

I'm at the point where I have taken upwards of 30,000 shots on my current DSLR and people are offering me a substantial sum of money for my services and I still kick everything through lightroom, and some stuff through photoshop.

The other thing to take into consideration is that almost all cameras these days produce the same results if used in the same way so any extra flare will be added in post production.

£2000 sounds a bit expensive to me unless you're gettin albums / DVD slideshows etc. thrown in too.

[Quick Plug: If you have a load of photos, say of an event for example a wedding anniversary and you would like a slideshow on DVD which you can watch on your telly - ideal for sending to the grandparents who don't want a DVD of jpegs - then I can do this for you, ask me for a quote]

I'd also say that £500 would be a low end service, you'll get just as good photos but I doubt you'd get an album or many prints thrown in for that.
 

My Name is URL

Well-Known Forumite
Thanks for the advice shoes. I maybe wasn't clear in my first post, but afaik all of the photographers we look at offer the touching up service, it was just a suggestion of mine that someone that charges £2000 *might* charge more because they need more time to touch up photos *because they were possibly not as good to start with*.... IYSWIM.

I can't remember what the £2k included but you can usually tell if a photographer is a) at the wedding show in the NEC, b) has loads of glossy brochures c) has a fancy website and d) is possibly "young and trendy" then they are likely to be expensive :D

If the £500 guaranteed "as good photos" then we would snap their hand off. We really don't want prints / albums, we literally just want a DVD at the end with all of the high res images on. I can do the storybook albums myself to save the cash (which is important).

Thanks for the offer on the slideshow dvd, luckily I am technically minded so thats something else I can do but I appreciate the thought.

GK
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
gk141054 said:
Thanks for the advice shoes. I maybe wasn't clear in my first post, but afaik all of the photographers we look at offer the touching up service, it was just a suggestion of mine that someone that charges £2000 *might* charge more because they need more time to touch up photos *because they were possibly not as good to start with*.... IYSWIM.

I can't remember what the £2k included but you can usually tell if a photographer is a) at the wedding show in the NEC, b) has loads of glossy brochures c) has a fancy website and d) is possibly "young and trendy" then they are likely to be expensive :D

If the £500 guaranteed "as good photos" then we would snap their hand off. We really don't want prints / albums, we literally just want a DVD at the end with all of the high res images on. I can do the storybook albums myself to save the cash (which is important).

Thanks for the offer on the slideshow dvd, luckily I am technically minded so thats something else I can do but I appreciate the thought.

GK
Have you got samples of the person offering your a £500 package? I'll be happy to have a quick look over from a technical POV and tell you what I personally think of their skills. Same with any other samples you have.

For 500 you can expect a great set of photos, although maybe not the most experienced photographer, its important to get someone confident enough to literally order people around. I shadowed a wedding photographer for a day last year and the single most important part of his job was clearly taking control of the groups of people and organising the photos.

If anyone else wants any photosets putting into a slideshow forma on a dvd then let me know, I can deal with digital and normal photos.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
you may also want to decide if u r after traditional pictures - posed/cheesy, or reportage/editorial/photojournalism candids.

most traditional photographers cannot really do true reportage, but reportage photographers can always rustle up a couple of family groups for keepsakes

after all is said and done the photos are the only thing that remain from the wedding

providing the cake was nice of course
 

Admin

You there; behave!
Staff member
MyCult said:
Hello and welcome to the forum!!

There is a forum image host. Perhaps putting some of the shots your pleased with in this thread might encourage business? It may however be a bad idea admin might not like it.
No, I'd have absolutely no problem with this, so go right ahead photo-em :)

That picture host is generously provided by Forum user Toble, and I believe he has imposed a 100k file size limit, so please bear this in mind when uploading photos. If your pictures are bigger than this, feel free to use TinyPic or one of the other public image hosts :)
 

photo-em

A few posts under my belt
I've taken lots of your points into consideration and set up a temporary site with a few of my photos on. Hopefully this will give people a sample of my work (even though it is very small) and seem more professional than not having anything yet!

http://www.wix.com/Photosbyemma/Photos-by-Emma
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
Looking good :D

One suggestion would be to make the photos clickabe so that you can see a higher resolution version, maybe longest side 800px?

Otherwise looks very sharp!

What do you generally shoot with?
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Nice. The samples all seem wildlife-orientated, and so maybe a more varied selection with, say, a portrait, a band shot, a catalogue style illustration, etc., might be worth looking into. Just a thought. Keep it up.
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
good to see a site up and running

you will get more proficient with wix the longer you use it

just needs a bit of trial and error
 

photo-em

A few posts under my belt
I use a canon eos 30d shoes.
I have taken your advice and made the images clickable. I've also added a couple of portraits, the reason i haven't added examples of each type is that i don't have them yet, thats why i'm trying to build up my portfolio.

thank you all for all of your help, you have all been a great help.
i must add that i think this forum is great, i had no idea it existed before this and i'll definately keep visiting!
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
That is much better - in my unqualified opinion. But you don't have to justify yourself to us, you know.
 

db

#chaplife
photo-em said:
I've taken lots of your points into consideration and set up a temporary site with a few of my photos on. Hopefully this will give people a sample of my work (even though it is very small) and seem more professional than not having anything yet!

http://www.wix.com/Photosbyemma/Photos-by-Emma
that looks well impressive.. are you a bit of a web design geek as well, or does this wix site allow you to make professional looking sites like that with minimal knowledge?

also, i love that picture of the water vole or ferret or whatever it is.. i want to photoshop a monocle and cigar on him, for some reason lol
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Looks like a weasel to me, or possibly a young stoat. I would suggest that Photoshopping is probably a much safer bet than trying to apply the props directly. They look cute, but they don't mess about!

And thanks to photo-em for introducing wix to me - I may have to have a play myself.
 

cookie_monster

Well-Known Forumite
dirtybobby said:
that looks well impressive.. are you a bit of a web design geek as well, or does this wix site allow you to make professional looking sites like that with minimal knowledge?
ive got to agree...looking good. :)

i might have to have a play with this too- the quotes im getting back for my website are just proving how much i need to invest into my business...and how much i havent got! lol


x
 

John Marwood

I ♥ cryptic crosswords
wix is a flash based template site builder - free if u dont mind the adds at the bottom

one of the better free ones on the market for creatives - if u pay a fee you lose the adds and ,I think, you can then have unique web address

only downsides are being flash you are less likely to be found on Google and it can be slow to load if you have a poor broadband connection

but fun to play with and great for instant impact at a low cost

2

if u want a unique website built that is easy to read by Google then you will pay a cost because of the man hours involved. this can be a good investment if it brings in business and points people to your site.If you make one yourself try adding up the manhours and multiply it by your hourly rate...

Footnote

I know nowt about techi stuff ( obviously )being a log book man and slide rule schoolboy but recommended Wix as a quick Fix for photo-em . Other website hosts are available. Terminals and Conditioners apply. Lifts can go up as well down . Always consult your tealeaves before making an investment
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
dirtybobby said:
also, i love that picture of the water vole or ferret or whatever it is.. i want to photoshop a monocle and cigar on him, for some reason lol
Maybe alongside one of those posh ants?
 

Monquey

Dressed like Cadfael
john marwood said:
if u want a unique website built that is easy to read by Google then you will pay a cost because of the man hours involved. this can be a good investment if it brings in business and points people to your site.If you make one yourself try adding up the manhours and multiply it by your hourly rate...
Man-hours? I made this the other day for the missus and it literally took about 20 mins, plus about 15 to make the logo.

Sadly, it looks like it only took half an hour.:soz: photo-em thanks for the Wix link, your site looks much better!
 

shoes

Well-Known Forumite
photo-em said:
I use a canon eos 30d shoes.
Well you're not messing around, are you?! :D

photo-em said:
I have taken your advice and made the images clickable. I've also added a couple of portraits, the reason i haven't added examples of each type is that i don't have them yet, thats why i'm trying to build up my portfolio.
Much better Em, that site should generate some attention! Once again, best of luck with this venture!
 
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