how many photos?

pkaren

We're having a destination wedding (leaving in two days!) and we have to pay PER photo. FI and I are arguing over how much $ to bring. The conversion is about $4 per photo. How many photos should be expect to pay for? FI refuses to spend $400 on photos! We also get a CD, which I'm not sure how many photos will be included on that and if we can just print them when we get home.

What's a reasonable number of photos?

raspberrytart

This whole thing seems kinda fishy to me.  

Are you paying for the shots in advance?  Any good photographer knows that 1/3 to 1/2 of the photos taken will be garbage (bad exposure, blurry, someone talking or blinking or moving, goofy expression, etc.).   If you tell the photographer that you only want to pay for 100 shots, you risk ending up with only 50 that are any good, and they won't necessarily cover all of the moments that are really important to you.  Plus, he may only take 20 of the ceremony, 3 of the cake cutting, 2 of the flower girls, etc., in order to spread out the shots.   The whole thing is like a way for him to walk away and say, "Well, I took what you paid for," regardless of the quality.

On the other hand, if you are not paying in advance and are only paying for what you want, then the photographer is taking on a lot of risk.  If he takes 100 photos and you only select 5, then he basically took all that time for $20.

This is why photographers charge by the hour--so that they can make their money and the client gets plenty of shots of everything that goes on.  If getting good photos of your wedding day is important to you, then this sounds like a very risky deal.

pkaren

I think we only pay for what we decide to take. I'm not sure why they don't do it by the hour! Others at this resort said that the photographer did a great job though, so I'm crossing my fingers! I'm also hoping that we get a disc with all of the raw pictures on them so I can get them re-edited by a photographer friend. I know I'm taking a risk, but I can't afford to pay for a photographer to come to the wedding!

raspberrytart

Well, I feel a little better knowing you will only pay for what you take.  

I wouldn't worry about how many photos to pick if that's the case.  Just look them all over and pick out the ones you want, continuing to narrow them down as necessary.  This is a day you'll never re-live, so if you have to spend $100 more to get all the images that you want, then I think that is worth it!

shoreshotz1

tell them you only want 5 or 10...but will give them $500 for the dvd with all unedited...