Photography costs???

Ladies,

 

I would like to get an idea of what most couples pay for wedding photography, considering we are all doing DWs...prices can be different from those who chose to go the traditional route for their special day.

 

Our wedding is going to be at Beaches Negril Resort & Spa...I have heard different things about the photography services they provide at this resort. They don't show examples of their work...I've heard the "pro photographers" are actually just the resort employees...some have even said (in their own opinions) the quality of the photos isn't that great. Photos are important to me, so I was trying to think of possible alternatives..since Beaches does not allow 3rd party vendors on their property for services THEY provide.

 

I know a girl who is just starting out as a photographer & since she is still building her "wedding portfolio" she is willing to give us a good deal on a photo package. Here is what she said she could do for us...

-"getting ready" photos

-full coverage of ceremony & reception

-family/guest photos

-our wedding day session photos (just FI & I)

-TTD session the day after our wedding

-She will give us 3 CDs w/ all the fully edited images (one CD w/ ALL images...in case we want any photos she doesn't chose to edit)

-She promised to fully edit 400 images

-We own full rights to ALL images she includes on all 3 CDs (so, 400+ images)...so we can reproduce as many images as we want

-We may choose to order prints through her or order prints from wherever we so chose.

 

I offered to pay her round-trip airfare & hotel stay for 3 nights ($1500) & she said she'd give me all of the above for a price of $800...so, $2300 total.

 

What do you ladies think? Should I do it? Is this a reasonable price for what we'd be getting out of it? Or are we just better of going through the resort for our photo package? A *similar* package offered by Beaches is $2000 & includes "200 digital images of ceremony, reception, & walk on the beach and/or garden"...from this girl, we'd be getting over double the amount of images plus we'd KNOW what kind of work to expect (she takes AMAZING, artistic photos). Please help me out...I want to be done stressing over this aspect!

If you like her work, then I say go for it. My only 2 question that I would ask her if she shoots in RAW format. The reason I ask is because I don't see how she can give you one CD with all the RAW photos (even unedited ones) RAW files are huge. The other question is "does she have a back up camera in case something happens to hers during the trip?"

 

But overall, if you feel comfortable, and you like the work you have seen from her, I say go for it.

I agree with Tammy B - as long as you have looked carefully at her work and you like what she does then thats a great deal.

 

Just make sure her photos are not just fabulous in one lighting condition. You need to see natural light inside, artifical light inside and night inside shots, outside shots full sun, cloudy condiitons, sunsets and nighttime. Better to be safe than sorry...

 

If you are hapopy with all that then fantastic!!

So, first, I'd say heck yeah do it, if like Tammy said, you've seen multiple samples of her work and like it all. We paid about $1500 for 96 RAW images (and all of the same edited .jpg images) on a DVD, prints of the edited images and a fully edited DVD movie with music and animation of our photos (which was awesome for our AHR). We used the resort photographer, but they are actually a photography company that shoots weddings at several resorts in the area and our pics are fabulous.

Now I have a question for Tammy if you don't mind answering it. As I mentioned we got the RAW images of our photos. I am certainly not a photographer by any means or even a professional graphic designer, but I have been in marketing for 10 years and have been working in Photoshop for longer than that and have a solid skill set using the software. What I can't understand is when I open the RAW image (had a strap showing that I'm trying to get rid of), edit and save the image, it looks fine and relatively the same as the unedited jpg files the photographer gave us. However, when I print edited RAW files (now saved as jpg files so I could upload them to the photo printing site) the color is horribly washed out and sad looking. What am I doing wrong? Should I just edit the jpg images or am I missing something when I work with these files. I've obviously never worked with RAW files before, but I don't change any color settings, just do a little band-aid work on the strap and save. I'd really appreciate any suggestions you could offer so I can get prints sans the underarm strap showing!

Thanks!!!

Hmm, have you had your monitor calibrated? That would be the first think I would check. I know if a color is off on your computer, you might not notice it until the photo is actually printed. There are companies that do color correction on ordered prints, such as MPIX. If your going to CVS or another local place, they won't color correct so what they see is what you get.

sounds like a good deal price wise but just make sure you do your research!!!

My wedding is in Cabo. Initially, I was looking for a local photographer thinking the costs would be reasonable or within my budget. However, the photographer that I wanted wasn't available on my date plus he was about $7000 without the album. I started looking in town and I came across a photographer that was willing to give me a deal so she could build her portfolio.

 

The photographer I hired is charging me $1500. That includes

 

-2 photographers (all day)

-TTD session

-$800 credit towards my album

 

I paid an additional $1400 for travel expenses for the photographers at the Dreams Resort.

 

At the end, I was pretty happy but I still have to wait and see how my pictures turn out.

 

Jess

Thanks for the suggestions Tammy! I'll give it a shot.

Look at entire weddings she has done, especially one in bright sun. If you like her work, go for it. Also, with your wedding being in 2010, she'll time to improve.

 

It's pretty common to find someone who will do their first DW for little more than the cost of travel. I paid $300 plus flight & hotel for two photographers.