How much should i change to photograph a wedding?

I have been shooting for about 6 or 7 years. I currently use a d200 nikon digital slr. The person that has asked me to shoot for her only wanted the wedding shot. I am used to shooting on a per hour basis.





Should I charge on a per hour or a total fee? or a per hour and per photo? help!

How much should i change to photograph a wedding?
i am a professional photographer, and primarily shoot weddings. the first year or two, i charged a minimum of $100 an hour, however i learned that sometimes i would get all my shots within an hour or two, and it ended up not being worth the driving, arranging schedule, etc for $200. Charging by job allows you to take care of everything for a certain price, which is simpler for you and your client.
Reply:I'm a wedding photographer for more than 14 years. I charge in different ways. In my experience it's difficult to charge hourly basis on a wedding function.Some times it will take 2 hours to 8 hours or more for a function depending on the family,caste or religion.


If they want the full function album, you can design and print them and make a beautiful album for them.You can charge per photographs or per pages of the album.


The other way is take the shoot and give the CD of the snaps,they will make album or what ever it may be.You can charge per snaps you shot.


Or you may shoot,make prints in particular size and give it to them and charge per prints.


What ever it may be, you just calculate your expense and work load.Calculate and compair if it was a hourly basis.Then you give a minimum charge/minimum snaps for your work and the charge per snaps you desided to take.


Make sure that you should have an experience in shoot wedding.You must know the sequences which is going to be happen next moment, you should have an over all idea of a wedding function what will go on next...You should have an awareness it is not a photo session, it is wedding function.Photography is secondary thing here.


If you are confident,nothing matters; go on with that
Reply:Usually it's a flat fee for the session that varies based on what they want. If you cover the total wedding you usually get fed, BUT remember if it's FORMAL you have to wear a TUX.





Then you charge them for the prints separately after you give them the proofs.





Make sure they know they have to get the prints from you and not Kodak scan them off the proofs OR charge a higher fee and let them make their own prints from a disk you provide.





As for waht photographers charge it varies widely. Why not call a few and ask them so you don't under price or over price.
Reply:Only you can figure out what your time is worth and what the market will stand ($100 an hour is not unreasonable for something like this) but make sure you also take into account the time spent post processing. I spend much longer after the wedding than I do at the wedding, and often times, people can't comprehend the amount of work that goes on once the event is over. I think it is for this reason, I would quote a fixed fee for the entire event that takes into account how much time you will spend shooting the wedding and doing the post-processing. Also keep in mind that doing formals is much different than shooting the reception. Different skills, different equipment and different challenges. Please make sure you know what you are doing. Shooting a wedding is a big deal and there are no second chances if you mess something up.
Reply:I think I agree with Laura on this one!
Reply:I agree with Laura, price it by the event. I don't shoot weddings but I listen to a lot of podcasts put on by pro wedding shooters and they all price it by event. Check out www.simplephotolife.com. This is a website that features a lot of top wedding shooters.