Ridiculous Engagement Photo Price (Vent & Help)

Meeger013

So we have picked our photographer for the wedding and he is the best in the area.  He's a little out of budget but his photos are so amazing we had to go with him.  He is also very nice and easy to work with.  This morning, however, I woke up to an email that pissed me off during this whole process.  We got our engagement photos taken last week down at a local beach and we LOVE all the pictures.  The photographer took about 200 and narrowed it down to the 100 best already.  From those there are about 25 we LOVE.  So the price for prints is fairly normal.  About 20 for 8 wallets and 20 for a 5x7 and the other sizes are priced accordingly as well.  There's also an option that says $200 for the low res file (300 dpi up to 5x7 and maintain quality) and $500 for the high res file.  So we're thinking okay we can get the low res, have all the pictures, $200 is a little steep since we already spent $150 on the session but it's worth it to have them.  Come to find out this morning, it is $200 for the low res file PER PICTURE you want.  What?!?!?  Is this normal?  It seems insane since we are dropping over $3000 for the wedding that you have to pay this much money for just a file of ONE picture.  Sorry for the long post.  I just woke up to this email earlier this morning and it put me in a funk.  I am in love with these pictures and this just messed with my whole day.  Especially since this photographer has been so great so far.  But this, this seems like robbery.  Any thoughts, ideas, info would be great.  Thanks!

fallbride1109

$5k for a CD of 25 low res pictures?  That is insane.  For less than that I got 3 photographers for 9 hours, a wedding album and a DVD of over 800 high resolution images.

I think you may have misunderstood.

Meeger013

I'm not so sure.  I'll ask him again but that was the second email on the subject.  It seems crazy.  I'll probably just have to pick out like 5-10 I really like.  Have the hard copy of them and scan them in.  It makes no sense because for the wedding we get like 8 hours, an awesome flush bound album, and parent album for like $3000 or so and that includes a disc with the low res files on it from the whole wedding.  That's part of the reason I'm so confused.  I mean, his work is AMAZING.  Some of the best pictures I've ever seen but geez.  I'll try to clarify one more time but it sounds like what I said before.  Which really makes no sense when we get the whole wedding on disc, plus his services, and gorgeous albums for like $3000.  It doesn't add up.  Especially since I need at least one photo digital for our save the dates.  Crazy.  Hopefully I read this wrong but it is the second email on the subject.

fallbride1109

You might want to clarify that you get your images from the wedding included in that price.  At this point, you want to be sure about everything!

The only thing I can think of is that you are buying your copyright to the image.  But it's still the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.  Maybe if you explain you just need one file for your STD's, you can work something out.

Meeger013

I'm positive the files are included in the wedding package.  We met with him for almost two hours about the wedding and I email him back and forth often and that info has been reiterated many times.  He's been so good on everything else.  I'm just confused.  The first thing I told him when we wanted him for the engagement photos is that we love his pictures but not sure if he's in our budget for the wedding and we're saving like $1000 from his regular price.  He's really worked with us.  I will try emailing him tonight after I talk more to the fiance and clarify this.

SugarBrideOct10

In my area, wedding pictures come with a disk of all the hi res pics (as did our engagement pics, inc in our wedding package).  BUT, I have recently booked family pics and cannot find a family photog who will do the same - either i buy per pic hard copy from her or $500 per high res image.  

I think you understood him ($200 per pic).  I do not however think that is fair, if he is giiving you a hi res disc of you wedding photos inc in your package, to charge you per pic for the engagement pics.  

For my family pics we are only paying $250 for the sitting fee/2 hours of photos, so I sort of understand the whole $500 per pic thing (though I would never spend that!!).  But I imagine you are spending $3000 or so for your wedding pics.  He should include the engagement pics on a disc as part of your deal.  Not cool!!

jackandjill2011

It all depends on your photographer. This seems accurate to me.

A session is not very expensive ($150), so the money needs to be made on the back end through prints.

If you instead buy a digital image, they can't make any money off the prints. So they need to off-set that cost with a higher file cost.

Scanning in the images is not allowed and most photographers will texture their prints to make sure you can't do this.

So bottom line, it is common for weddings to include the high-res disc, but NOT portrait sessions.  That's the way it has been with every photographer I looked at. Some even did a free engagement session with a wedding package. Great, but I knew I wasn't getting a free set of images from that free session-anything I wanted was more money.

fallbride1109

I got a DVD of all my E-pic high res images.  The E-session was included in my package but I still spent less than $5k for everything.  I don't know how they expect anyone to pay those prices.  I have only seen 1 Dallas photographer price like this and they are on the very high end.  I guess it does happen though.

I guess the lesson here is to make sure you have everything in writing before you go forward so that there are no surprises.

Meeger013

Well we actually haven't signed any contracts yet or anything.  He's very big on packaging things and giving custom quotes.  I called him today and he says that in general they list those prices because when they shoot for corporations that only pick one picture for their logo, media, advertising purposes and therefore charge them more.  He wants me to finalize our "wish list" as he calls it and include all the digitals we want in the list and he can quote us for the whole thing.  So hopefully doing this will help out a lot.  I'm going to send him it tonight and hopefully it's within reason.

photogbride12

Jackandjill is right on - portrait sessions are usually heavily weighted on the back end (prints rather than a high session fee). If your photographer only charges say $150 for say a 1.5 hour session with maybe 10-15 hours of work involved in that session when you consider editing, shooting, consulting time. That comes to $10-$15/hr before close to 40% in income/self employment tax . . . you get the picture in terms of how it would be impossible to run a business/pay expenses/make a living on that kind of wage.

cheyennem2012

Not to meniton that stephiehall got married three years ago...

annandted86

Just for some perspective; a $3k wedding package in the NY/NJ/CT area is average if not on the low end for a truly professional wedding photographer.  $150 is cheap for an e-session.  Our photographer charges $249 for a one-hour session but it includes all the hi-res digital images.  Prints are available and an 8x10 is <$10. 

Just so you have some benchmark.

LauraChristin

Please don't take his photos and scan them in to make reprints. Not only will the quality degrade but it's actually Illegal. We're talking criminal prosecution. You should budget to order prints from the engagement session through the photographer. Looks like you're taken care of for wedding photography. And I'm glad he's open to negotiating with you on the price. That's very kind of him. Though, I'm surprised he didn't properly explain the fees up front.