How Much to Charge for Wedding Photography

Wedding photography is a rewarding and profitable business to get in to, but it can be difficult to know what to charge.

If you are considering starting your own wedding photography business then you will first want to discover how much you can charge to maximize your profits while still attracting visitors.

Tools and Materials Needed

• Digital Camera
• Portfolio
• Website
• Calculator

Step 1 - Understanding Wedding Budgets

Everything involved in wedding planning also has a price tag attached, so it's important to think about how much money people can afford to spend for wedding photography. The average budget for a wedding is $15,000. This does vary quite considerably from couple to couple. Some budgets are much greater while many are much smaller. What's more, most of this money will not be spent on photography, but rather venue costs, wedding dresses, and so on.

Most couples use around 40% of their wedding budget for photography and that's why it's such a popular business for people to consider.

Step 2 - How Much Money Can I Make?

It's important to make sure that you can turn wedding photography into a profitable business. You will obviously have to spend money buying the equipment required, however it's a good idea to consider how much you will get back. You should be able to get a pretty good digital SLR camera for less than $1,000. It's possible to get around $5,000 upwards for most weddings.

The more experienced you are, the more you should be able to charge for wedding day photography. Play each job by ear and quote depending on the requirements.

Step 3 - Getting Started

First spend time building up your portfolio. Your portfolio is very important as it's a great way to show off your skills to other people. You should take some photos at every single wedding which you go to, or offer to take some photos for free so that you can build your portfolio. Don't offer to pose as the main photographer at the start because this will be too stressful. By being an assistant you will be able to get some experience without the pressure of taking the best photos.

This portfolio will make it possible to land pretty much any job. With just a few photos which people fall in love with, people will consider hiring your services. Word of mouth is the most successful way to market yourself.

A website is a very important tool that can attract visitors to your business. If you can't build a website yourself then consider hiring professionals to construct the site for you. Ensure that you list contact information on the website so that people can find you if they need to contact you.

Step 4 - Deciding How Much to Charge

Honesty is the best policy, so revealing your experience level to clientele is essential. This shouldn't matter because they have decided to hire you based on your portfolio. The lowest standard price for wedding day photography is normally around $1,000 and this should include taking the photos, a DVD of the photos, and a few prints.

Hopefully by now you have a much better understanding of how much you should charge for your wedding photography.