Why are professional photographers expensive?

This short article is really part II to a earlier article I did some time back;

“Why your friend or relative should not shoot your wedding.”

I receive numerous calls and emails from people who wonder about this question.

We as a people are a interesting lot. We buy things every day. But do we always buy the most inexpensive things? We all know the resounding answer is a definitive no.

Price and Value have similarity, yet are quite different.

Price is simply the cost of something.

Value on the other hand is somewhat arbitrary, where each of us make a judgment call.

To me, the high cost of my camera equipment is justified by it’s use. I use my camera equipment every day in professional pursuits. It has to be robust enough to withstand the day in day out grind I put it through. It must be fast enough to keep up with me...it must have a feature set that is customizable by me.

 Do I NEED this expensive equipment? Yes; I do.

Does someone who takes a few pics around the holiday season need the same equipment I use? Of course not; there would be no value in that.

You may drive a Audi and I may drive a Camry. The reason we made our purchase was based on value. Would you pay $20,000 for a beat up car?

Would you buy a cubic zirconium ring rather than a real diamond? They both look good; right?

So what REAL value does a professional photographer offer?

I should probably re-phrase that as

“What does a high quality experienced photographer bring to the table that the amateur can not?

While there are a few good quality amateur photogs out there, they are few and far between when it comes to the difference between,

“What awesome photos” vs. “What the heck happened?”

If snap shots are all you seek, the rest of this article will be of no interest to you.
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**A Day in the Life of a Professional Photographer**

Covering a wedding properly takes a great deal of time for the photographer.
We do not simply show up on your special day and start shooting, no more than a pro ball player shows up at game time and starts playing. There is a lot of drilling, practicing and rehearsing going on long before you see your images in their final form.

Here is a good idea of what a professional photographer does when he/she accepts a wedding shoot.

1) We take the phone call or email. During this short interview or getting to know one another process, the photographer has decisions to make.
Are we available? That’s an easy one.

After we cull the curiosity seekers from the sincere client, we set up a time to meet the client. This can range anywhere from a day to a few weeks. In the meantime, we might get a call where the client wants to book now based on our reputation alone or because they liked our samples on a web site. This has happened to me more than once. What to do?

Now, I shoot for a get together with my client as soon as possible.

To ask a professional photographer to wait weeks before a meeting takes place is not happening with the better photographers. We are simply in too much demand to put off more serious clients who are ready to reserve their date with a deposit.

Amateurs do not earn their living with photography, so they have far more time to either take or not take on a job.

Would you allow someone to come to your work place and just talk for hours when you have work to do? I doubt you’d have a job very long.

This is one reason the better photographers cost more; supply and demand; and that demand is for many good reasons.

Reason 1)

Training. Professional photographers have spent many years perfecting their craft.

The pro shooters I associate with all agree; when we are not shooting a wedding or a commercial shoot or preparing something for a publisher, we are in a constant state of education. The digital age has brought about lightning fast changes. Unless we stay on top of the latest technologic trends, we are lost and our clients (if we still have any) are short changed.

What the professional does that the amateur probably won’t or can’t do.

1)
We go to the location of your event and do test shots long before the actual day.
We examine all the possible lighting challenges.
We look for creative places to shoot certain images.
We process the digital test files and look for problems.

2)
We use and understand the necessity of a color managed workflow so you the client receive perfect color balanced prints.

3)
We use several image editing programs to prepare the images.

4)
Our computer systems have backup after backup in case you lose your files or ours become corrupt. This practice insures the odds of losing your images are close to zero.

5) 
We use cameras that allow us to create backup images while we shoot in case one of our memory cards goes bad. “OOOPS”, just doesn’t cut it when it’s your big day we’re covering.

6)
We understand how certain colors we capture will look when used with a multitude of different printing papers.

7)
We guarantee your satisfaction. We guarantee your images are safe and have longevity over the years.

8)
We maintain a working relationship with professional labs that will print your memories. Our labs know we are not amateurs. Our labs maintain certain “looks” just for us. They are called ICC profiles if you want to do a little study. :)

9) 
We maintain indoor studios for formal portraiture.

The list is hardly exhaustive, but hopefully gives you a better idea of what we do as well as the time invested.

Prior to a wedding, a photographer will spend many hours in preparation.

The wedding itself may only be a few hours including the reception.

Following the wedding, a professional photographer will spend anywhere from 30-50 hours producing your images. If a slideshow is to be produced; include another 20 hrs.

The better professional photographers aren’t really expensive at all.

Spending 500 bucks and wondering why your images aren’t breath taking?..Now that’s expensive!