Charging for a 4 hours wedding session.

[Pennies2Cents]

All,

Hello, I have a few questions:

When is a reasonable price to charge for a small wedding that will last 4 hours. I have been doing photography a little less than a year. I have captured, babies, people , Sweet 15's, graduates, animals, flowers etc. All this time I have done these pics for Free and my clients have been very satisfied. (thanks to god) lol..

I feel I am now confident to be able to charge a fair price. But in this industry we all know it can be pretty pricey.

What would a reasonable price be for someone with my kind of experience.

Please help..

Thanks

[texkam]

Hop on over to the wedding or even better the business sections and spend a little time perusing. You'll learn quite a bit about pricing and other considerations.

[Pennies2Cents]

Thanks Mark, :)

[CaptainTom]

?

[bondarnes]

Please post some of your wedding images so we can give you a more informed answer.

[zmaniscalco]

Eve,
What do you want to make a hour, and remember all the post work in a wedding. are you selling prints? are you shooting and handing the dvd over?

[ldelacruz]

Read the wedding and business section. Weddings are not easy! There are no do overs or timeouts. What is your equipment list?

[Pennies2Cents]

Hi Everyone, Sorry I am late in responding to this thread.

Originally Posted by bondarnes

Please post some of your wedding images so we can give you a more informed answer.

Weddings are what I have yet to capture. Thus my reason for asking.. :) I am kind of nervous about the whole ordeal but I know eventually if I want to succeed I got to start somewhere. :) Scary but the truth.

Originally Posted by zmaniscalco

Eve,
What do you want to make a hour, and remember all the post work in a wedding. are you selling prints? are you shooting and handing the dvd over?

I am unsure about the amount I want to charge.. I was thinking maybe $15-$20 an hour? For 4 hours. They are my friends and they told me to come up with a fee and tell them. (0) zero as in no charge is not acceptable. :( Which is how I would prefer since they are close friends of mine.

I will not be selling prints although a great idea, but seems like lots more work than walking around capturing those precious moments. :) What I will be doing is handing all pics over to them on CD/DVD and with their permission to use a few in my portfolio. :)

Originally Posted by ldelacruz

Read the wedding and business section. Weddings are not easy! There are no do overs or timeouts. What is your equipment list?

Yes, I totally understand, thus my reason for not doing any up to date. But my friends have asked me personally knowing all that I have done in the past.

My equipment to date is:

A Nikon D40 with Standard Lens
and an extra: Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED
and of course my tri-pod.
I also have a Quantaray 70-300mm zoom with Nikon mount/UV cap, with lens hood that I dont use. Its currently up for sale. :(

I may not have what a lot of you may already have, but please remember I'm still a beginner!

I am currently looking for a few more lenses to add to my collection. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Pennies2Cents]

I can post a few other pics that I have taken of kids, flowers etc, if you all are interested in viewing. :)

[bondarnes]

Twenty dollars an hour is probably reasonable for this situation.

It would be extremely helpful if you could tag along with a more experienced wedding photographer before this event. You may realize that you are not ready to handle a wedding by yourself.

I would also suggest that you have some sort of written agreement with this couple spelling out what their expectations are and what you can and cannot do. The fact that they are close friends makes this even more important.

[zmaniscalco]

Eve,
You have 2 slow lens and no ext flash, make sure you know the place and can shoot with the light they are going to use. Set your white balance before shooting and shoot RAW(can save a lot of pictures that way). Just my 2 cents........Have fun
Peace