Dear fellow Ozbargainers,
My sister is getting married this December, and I'm helping her look for a wedding photographer and videographer who will charge a reasonable price. Hope you guys can help. Thanks in advance!
Wedding Photograher and Videographer - Melbourne Recommendations
jade on 11/11/2015 - 12:59
Comments
Thanks sKiZZiT, will check out the link. Cheers!
You are seriously going to have a hard time finding one with a months notice. At least all the good/reasonable priced ones will already be snapped up. If you do find one available you could use it as a bargaining chip due to the likelihood of the finding a gig in such short time, but that could provoke a poor performance. Good luck though….
Thanks cypher67. Definitely will need all the luck. It is going to be quite a mission to pull off the wedding preparations in less than a month. The couple got engaged 2 weeks ago, and now they want a December wedding. Luckily the day they chose is a weekday, so that helps with availability of suppliers.
Some tips to find a wedding photographer:
When you get married and think about a wedding photographer don't look at the pricing tables first. Look at their photos!
Consider the style of your wedding and find photographers which match that style. Go to Pinterest or other wedding blog websites such as http://www.stylemepretty.com , http://www.ruffledblog.com or http://www.100layercake.com and see what photographers do and what style you like. You usually can't change the style of a photographer … so don't ask them to create this style (even when the price is great!) … when you don't see it as his work it's not the right photographer for you.Try to find photographers which you like (google, review pages, directories, friends, pictures on the web, or as you do here on "ozbargain") and are within your budget. For any recommendation - just look at the photos and see if you like them. Pricing in photography is very complicated and super hard to compare (as it is personal style and artistic value - you can't compare number of images or hours). Take Jose Villa ( http://josevilla.com - one of the best wedding photographers in the world) for example … he will charge a bit just for one hour.
Shortlist the photographers you like and contact them. Send some information about your wedding (date, location, venue) and ask for availability and more infos and pricing about their service.
Then make sure you meet your photographer. (Bigger studios tend to send you any photographer available on the day. Wedding photography is something personal so make sure you get along with your photographer - the more relaxed you are the better the pictures will turn out. Talk to at least 3.
You can always try to negotiate a better deal (t's usually easier to get extras than a price reduction).
Some other options:
- think outside the box and hire somebody from a foreign country - you might get a great photographer on holidays in Australia which would love to have an Australian wedding in his portfolio (it's a bit of luck to find that!) - Work permits and business visas might be an issue.
- Go to the universities - photography students have access to pro equipment and might be a great choice when you love taking the risk.
- Some start up photographers are really great and charge less than established ones (but again … bit of a risk). You find this sometimes on wedding forums such as www.easyweddings.com.au or search in google - not only for the top results … you might find someone right on page 28.
- big studios are usually a bit cheaper than freelance photographers (but you might not be able to select the photographer)
- consider a winter or weekday wedding to save costs (ok not possible when the wedding is locked in already)
Some more tips for choosing a wedding photographer:
- when a wedding album is included try to figure out the price without album to get a better comparison base
- don't look only on the best of shots … check out full weddings from getting ready to the end of the wedding function
- make sure there are no watermarks and you get the high res images in digital format - this gives you the option to print your own pictures and albums (saves money). Should they not be included make sure you know the costs of prints and albums (and it will be hard to share the images on Facebook or via email).
- make sure your photographer is named in the contract (not another person who can photograph your wedding - the style you get will depend on the photographer)
- make sure you understand the contract
But most important: Like the photos your photographer produces.
Disclaimer: I am photographing weddings myself.
UPDATE: Oops … got a bit carried away with the writing … could go on forever. Looks like I missed that the wedding was last December in 2015 not 2016 and it happened already. Congratulations and hope the pics worked out fine :-).
Thanks mini_wombat, for taking the time to reply to my post. It is very informative. I would've considered your services if not for the timing :)
I hope other fellow ozbargainers who are looking for a wedding photographer will benefit from your post. Take care and happy new year 2016!Thanks jade. I hope it helps some other people here. A wedding photographer is always a personal choice.
I am sure your sister had a wonderful wedding … :-)
Why don't you hunt for a local photographer at http://clickie.in?