How Much Does it Cost to Hire a UK Wedding Photographer in 2024?
An insight into wedding photography costs by a professional photographer. Learn why wedding photographers charge what they do and how to save money on UK wedding photography with these tips.
Introduction
Lets start off by mentioning that this blog is specific to the UK photography market, so everything we discuss will be in Great British pounds sterling (GBP£). Prices may vary across the rest of the world but hopefully this blog is still applicable to other countries to give you an insight into how much you should be paying for a photography, and why the prices are what they are! I’m also going to be using Canon as a reference for gear prices, as I personally shoot with Canon and know their equipment well.
Direct Costs for a Wedding Photographer
The next step is to identify what costs a photographer faces in their worklife, as this will put into context why professional photographers have to charge what they do, in order to make any profit. The most obvious of these costs is the direct costs. This includes things such as cameras, lenses, lighting, stands, modifiers, filters, and travel.
Camera technology is rapidly improving and second hand cameras or previous generation cameras are available for good prices, but professional photographers will want the best gear for reliability when tasked with the responsibility of photographing as important as a wedding day. Cameras are also not timeless, they need servicing, repairing, and do have an end of life shutter count before they need to be replaced. Lets take Canon’s latest flagship mirrorless camera, the Canon R5, as an example for costs here. At the time of writing this, the Canon R5 is priced at a whopping £4,300… Now, any reputable wedding photographer will carry at least two camera bodies to make sure that they can be capturing two different focal lengths (more on this later) but more importantly to have a backup option in case one camera fails. Two Canon R5 bodies will set a wedding photographer back £8,600 at current prices, and that is without taking into consideration any lenses.
Next up is lenses. Lenses come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and vary hugely on their capabilities. You can pickup a cheap lens for next to nothing at charity shops, but they will lack the factors that a professional needs in their worklife. Professional lenses need to be fast focusing, high quality glass, and be useful focal lengths. At a wedding, a photographer might opt to carry a long-range lens, a medium range lens, and a short range lens for versatility. Canon’s professional L series lenses for the R range of cameras does not come cheap. Lets take my personal favourite lenses as examples for prices. I carry an RF 24-70mm f./2.8L series zoom lens as my versatile short-mid range zoom, an RF 70-200mm f./2.8 zoom lens as my long range for candids, and an RF 50mm f./1.2 prime for details and shots that need a soft bokeh. These are currently priced as follows:
RF 24-70mm f./2.8L - £2,540
RF 70-200mm f./2.8 - £3,000
RF 50mm f./1.2 - £2,450
These three lenses plus two bodies totals our basic photograhy gear at £16,590 before we add any lighting or indirect costs. I use fairly cheap but good lights that are around £600 each. For me, if someone smashes one at a wedding it’s not too expensive to replace and can be covered under insurance relatively cheaply. If however, you are a studio photographer that relies on the best lighting possible, profoto lights can easily cost £3,000+ each including a modifier (softbox, grid, etc.). You then have pro SD cards to add to this list which start at £130 per card, two cards in each camera, minimum four cards total. That’s another £520 just on SD cards.
Indirect Costs for a Professional Photographer
Gear listed above is the biggest outlay for a professional photographer, but there are other ongoing indirect costs that need to be considered for a photographer’s prices. This will include things such as website hosting, software licenses for photo editing, travel costs (car, insurance, etc.), insurances, servicing, plus their actual cost of living (which we all know is going up for everyone). I can only go by my personal costs here as this will vary from person to person but I would say it’s at least in the same ballpark for most professionals:
Website hosting - £16-28 per month
Adobe Creative Cloud (editing software) - £50 per month
Image hosting (for delivering digital client albums) - £20-50 per month
Insurances - £50-400 per year depending on gear and liability.
Service and repair - £100-500 per item.
How Much Do Wedding Photographers Charge in the UK?
The average cost for a wedding photographer in the UK was £1,820 in 2022. There are so many factors that go into pricing for wedding photography. Firstly, on average, a recent survey suggested photographers spend just 48% of their time actually photographing the wedding event itself; the other 52% is a combination of photo editing (the most time consuming part), communication with the couple before and after the wedding, communication with other staff members and venues, general admininstration tasks, and more. Different photographers will have different operating costs, and the location of the photographer also makes a difference to price. Most people will aim to spend at least 5% of your total wedding budget on a photographer for your big day, but some people push this to 10% or even 15%, if having that memorable photo album is high on your priority list.
There are photographers available for any budget and every location but there are usually reasons that people are more/less expensive. Someone who prices very cheap may be an attractive option to save money, but it’s at the risk of cheaper equipment, no backup equipment, and the inability to work at wedding paces. I witnessed a photographer recently who charges very low for full wedding days begging on a forum to borrow someone elses camera because his wasn’t working an hour before a wedding and he did not carry any backup gear. This is a prime example of why it’s a risk to opt for a very low value photographer.
Someone charging on the higher end of the scale should have plenty of experience behind them and be using the best gear possible; and of course there is the middle ground which hosts a variety of prices and styles. It’s important that you find someone whos style you like and that you can trust, but it’s also important this falls within your budget. Lets see some estimates below on what to expect for certain budgets in 2024:
£0-500 - At this price bracket we usually find entry-level wedding photographer who are likely shooting on non-professional gear and may not have backup equipment. You may also find mid-level photographers offering micro packages in this price range to just cover your ceremony for a few hours.
£500-£1,000 - A common price bracket for half-day photography packages from mid level photographers for a single shooter.
£1,000 - £1,500 - Expect a mid-upper level single photographer to offer good full day photography packages at this price point. At the higher end of this you might also get a second shooter for larger weddings/different perspectives, an included professionally printed album, or an engagement shoot.
£2,000 - £3,000 - Only pay this rate for some of most popular photographers in the market. Expect packages at this level to include some prints or an album, a second photographer, and for the photographers’ gear to be top quality. An engagement shoot is likely to be included at this price range.
£3,000+ - This price bracket does not apply to most people but it is offered by the best photographers in the industry with almost no top end. In fact, some of the UK’s top photographers will charge £15k+ for a single wedding day!
One thing you should be asking any photographer before you book them for your wedding is what equipment they use. You don’t necessarily need to know whether they shoot with Canon or Nikon, but it’s important to know if they have backup cameras, multiple lenses, a camera that writes to two SD cards simultaneously (which backs up your photos) various lighting rigs for tackling difficult lighting/evening receptions etc.: Just make sure that the person you are booking isn’t going to fail you simply because they cheap out on their gear!
How to Save Money on Wedding Photography
We are in a difficult situation right now where the cost of photography equipment is going up, the ongoing indirect costs are going up, the photographer’s cost of living is going up, so we need to charge enough to cover our costs plus make some profit. However, we also understand that everyone’s costs are going up and a lot of people don’t have the spare cash to spend on wedding photography like they used to. One of my tips for saving money on wedding photography is to find someone who has the right equipment, but perhaps only has a handful of weddings under their belt. These photographers will be keen for you to book them and will offer good prices because they aren’t in as high demand as the “renowned” wedding photographers. Not having lots of wedding experience doesn’t mean they won’t take good photos! Just make sure you see some examples of their work and ask the right questions before booking. Oh, and always always always sign a wedding photography contract!
If you are looking to save further on costs for your wedding day but still want that all-important photo quality, why not opt for a photography package that just covers part of the day. A lot of photographers are now starting to offer half-day packages or “micro” packages which cover just a few hours of your day. This is perfect for capturing the most important parts of your big life event without having to spend thousands on somone being there for 12 hours.
Another thing to consider is to have an off-peak wedding. This is not necessarily specific to photography but in the wedding industry in general. Having your wedding outside of the peak season, or even just moving to an off-peak day (mid-week) can save you a lot of money from the venue hire through to hiring a photographer. Most popular wedding photographers are booked up for the peak season a year in advance and those high-in-demand photographers will charge a premium rate for weekends, mid-summer. Save money by booking your photographer way in advance, and perhaps look at a wedding date outside of the summer times.
If you like my work, I would appreciate if you could follow me on Instagram and check out my wedding photography.
Please use the below button to get in touch for pricing and bookings, for feedback, or anything else: