videography = 1/2 * photography ?

[Buba Kastorski]

Originally Posted by Mike Brice

I am not sure what photographer you are using to base this on, but 11K is way too low for most pros.

roughly 40% of photographers I meet on the jobs, shoot with 1 camera and 2 lenses (24-70mm; 70-200mm)
I'd say only 40% of them have full frame camera,
about 20% use only on camera speedlight
so based on my experience, majority of photographers I work with, are not even close to $11K;
I use equipment in total over $30K and still get paid less than a guy with $2K camera and couple of lenses,
Travis is right, wedding photography as a service started more than 100 years before wedding video, and a stereotype is that photo is a 'must' and video is 'nice to have' on the wedding day;
but lately things are started to change, there are some studios, we're all know the names, that can offer a wedding video with the professional quality close to a good motion picture, and they sell the service accordingly;
so I guess I'm not that good yet,
but some day I'll be there:)
Best

[Cody Dulock]

Have you ever thought what it would cost to pay someone to design a dvd box cover and the disc art work? What would it cost to pay a professional sound man to capture audio at a wedding? Ever had to hire a camera op that can do tripod work AND glidecam/slider stuff and what that would cost (w/ or w/o gear)? How much would it cost per hour to hire an editor to edit a 15-40minute video plus a highlights, etc...? On top of the job duties, how much money do you have dumped into your camera/support gear, audio gear, editing station, dvd authoring and design stuff? How much would Hollywood charge for all of this?

If you think about it, a wedding videographer wears more hats than one or two people really should and you should price for it. I agree that the "old" style is what people are used to seeing and may not think that it's artistic like photography, but they still have all of these job duties. So, if the "old" style guys raise their prices, that means the "cinematic" style guys can raise their prices as well. Yay for everyone! We control the market, not the brides.

Ever broke down how much money you make per hour? I have, and I'm not too proud of it. On some projects I would be better off at McDonalds.

Everyone has made really good points, so lets keep hearing them!

[Matthew Craggs]

I too have figured out my per hour rate and I too am not proud of it.

I understand that that your average Joe doesn't realize what goes into what we do, but it kills me when people complain about price when they would not work for the same amount.

I mean, if someone makes $20/hr doing something like, for example, construction, and are then asked to work for minimum wage, they wouldn't stand for it. Yet I have had people come into my home and ask for rates that would put me at less than minimum wage.

Just to ramble a bit, I like Mike's equipment list because it accurately represents what it takes to do photography right. The killer though is that a small percentage of wedding photographers put that kind of money into their equipment. With so many amateur photographers shooting weddings, there are a lot of photographers that don't even have a second body and no more than a couple of lenses. I still go to weddings where the photographer shows up with a D70. Though to be fair those are typically the ones charging $500 and not including albums.

[Travis Cossel]

It's definitely very important to track your $/hour, but also be aware that couples don't care about that. They only care about how much THEY are paying and what THEY are getting. So the trick really, is to figure out ways to satisfy their needs in those areas while at the same time increasing your $/hour. Not an easy thing, but definitely doable.

[Rochelle Morris]

Santo,

Yes, this erks me too when the budget for photos is double than for video. I was speaking to Troy while he was staying with us and the most imprtant thing that we have come up with (& far from an original idea) is that with video, upselling after the fact is almost impossible.

What can we upsell? more DVD copies, more hours, Blu-ray, perhaps movie posters???

Something I've come to realise is that this upselling needs to often occur at the point of booking, or it doesn't happen. I rarely get people going up a scale to a higher package and still, it'll be cheaper than the photographer.

What can we do about it??? We'll chat at dinner time :)

[Michael Dontigney]

I dunno, but I can't count the number of calls I've had from couples I shot that said had they known how awesome the video was they would have spent more on video and less on photography. It's a common theme when they get the final product. They saw the demos, they saw the cover art and DVDs.. but still didn't realize how much they liked the video until they were sitting in their living room watching it.

[Rochelle Morris]

Originally Posted by Mike Dontigney

I dunno, but I can't count the number of calls I've had from couples I shot that said had they known how awesome the video was they would have spent more on video and less on photography. It's a common theme when they get the final product. They saw the demos, they saw the cover art and DVDs.. but still didn't realize how much they liked the video until they were sitting in their living room watching it.

Interesting point Mike - how would they have spent more money on video? Would they have got you to start earlier or purchased a highlight? I too have had that said to me and thought it potentially could be a double edged statement...on one hand they could have spent more on me but on another, they could have chosen someone who costs more

[Travis Cossel]

I think Mike is saying that after the wedding the couples realize how valuable the video is and realize they should have been prepared to spend more to get it.