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i'm not sure about bridal portraits and e pics specifically, but i almost let this slip past me with wedding photography too! for ours, we didn't get ANY retouches...just your general red eye correction, etc, and it was also several hundred to get the images on cd (perhaps 500 as well)...we opted not to do that and are getting our images via download instead.
Disks were included with our photographer for our engagement session.
It really depends on the individual photographer. If you are paying a lower rate upfront for the session, you will most likely have to pay additional for the rights to your digital images, prints, etc. If the upfront rate is higher you will most likely have more things included with the additional rate. What are you paying for the session? Also, keep in mind that it takes a lot of time for full retouching, this is why you get fewer for your money, you are paying for the retouching as well as the rights to the image. Also, if your photographer is a pro, all the images should have standard corrections (color, lighting, etc). Skin retouching and photoshopping out elements is what costs more and is more extensive work.
So, our photographer includes an engagement session with our wedding package. He provides a disc of at least 10 (usually more) of the best photos - high res files which can be printed - and 1 11x14 print of the photo of our choice. As I said, this is all part of our wedding package, so we paid no additional fees. We just did our session last weekend so we don't have the pics back yet, but our photog assured us we would easily get more than 10 photos.
@atomic: Her engagement photo prices range from 250-650 depending on the number of hours she shoots. If you pay more you get more retouched photos-- IF you buy the prints. Buying the prints are an additional fee on top of the 250-650. Buying the digital photos is the fees listed above. So even if you pay 650 to do the photo shoot you still have to pay 250-500 to get ANY digital files. O.O and if you go witht he first option and the highest payment of shooting.. you could pay 650+250 = 900 for ten digital photos. I didn't really check to see if the prints were more reasonable or not. I just know most brides get the engagment photos to share ONLINE so I thought that was crazy.
@Jane. That does seem a bit on the steep side but each photographer does things differently. Have you already hired this photographer? Or are you still looking around?
Would you mind PM'ing me the link to their site? Im curious to see the work that goes with this pricing.
Depends on the initial price of photography. If the shoot is "cheap" I would expect the "extras and add-ons" to be pricey. If the package is expensive I'd expect to have extras like disc's thrown in.
That said all files are included on a disc. However they are un touched up. Some pics will be touched up and enhanced but we will NOT get prinitng rights to those but we will be able to have soft copies included on the disc.
Our e-session was thrown into our package and was free, so we got no digital images of that shoot. He did save me a handful in bigger resolution so I could blog them here at the Bee, and I found that they printed quite well.
My engagement photos were included in the price of all my photography. I got a high res disc with standard edited photos and 7 retouched photos.
The price for a high res disc with standard edited photos is VERY high in my opinion.
Our e shoot was included in our photo package, as were all our pics on CD with the rights as well.
We paid $100 for our engagement session, there was about 30 photos, all retouched and it came with a disc. The only downside was we didn;t get the disc until after the wedding
that seems very high. Did you already hire her, or just window shopping?
every photographer is different and you def. have to read the fine print in contracts and ask questions. i realize that in this day and age, it seems like a "no brainer" that a photographer should and would just hand over the digital files for no additional cost.
i am not sure where you are location wise, but here in KC most photographers offer the digital files sized up to at least 8x10/11x14 in the initial investment.
to give you a basic run down of what i currently charge, a 12 hour wedding would run you $3795. that includes an engagement session, a image box wtih all the proofs (about 500 depending) and a CD sized up to 4x6 for you to print for yourself and your guest. oh and a second photographer.
for 2012 i am going to change my prices for $4500 for the whole day, no time constraints.
crazy! high! ridiculous! all you do is take pics! :) i've heard it all.
think about it though. a photographer is 1. a small business. most of use run with one or two (at the most!!) employees. 2. being a small business, uncle sam takes about 30% of that initial $3795 (or whatever your photographer is charging) 3. what other vendor (less the wedding coordinator, but not every bride has one) works with you before the wedding, the WHOLE day of the wedding, and about 30+ hours after the wedding? 4. these are the only things you will have to remember your day by. thats it. once it is over it is over.
besides the whole logistics on what it cost for a photographer to run a business, you really have to go with a person you love, and no a person by the price.
while i DO 100% understand budgeting, if you look hard and long enough there are many photographers at many different talent levels and price levels.
i would caution any one that is looking at a photographer that charges 1. less than $500 2. uses the word "retouches" and makes you pic which ones that are retouched 3. doesn't shoot with a second photographer (VERY risky) 4. is not in legit business 5. only hands over a digital disk and does not offer any other products to go along with it.
To answer questions, no I haven't hired her. We are still in the interviewing process for photographers.
@swankyphotog I have budgeted pretty high for photos. I think they are important. I still think NOT giving digital files with the engagment pix is from a time long past. Photography business is not the same as it was before internet and photoshop. And i feel that anyone hanging on to files and refusing to let you use facebook, share photos with friends etc is really just hurting there own business. But to each there own. It cost her a job, it will cost her more jobs. If she still gets enough to stay in business kudos to her. I'm just curious if it was standard to hold the engagment photos hositage so to speak. I didn't even think about it since most people give the wedding photos on disks.
I have to pay a few hundred more for the engagement photos on a disk, but we are only paying $350 for the session, so I thought that was reasonable.
This is typical for portrait photography. Photographer's charge for the files because it takes away from print sales. The intitial price is a session fee and covers the time and talent of the photographer only.
I agree with Atomic though, it depends on the business model of the photographer. Some may include more than others, but it's all accounted for somewhere in their pricing structure. Some photographers don't want to deal with prints, so are happy to give away digital files. Other ones make a living off selling pieces of art (prints, wraps, albums,etc), so charge accordingly.
If you only want websize images (not for prints) try to negotiate a lower price for the CD. Then just order the few prints you would of made through your photographer. This could be a good balance.
My photographer had a package with the wedding and engagement sessions included. I dont get wedding albums but I get a framed wedding photo, framed engagement photos, ALL the digitals and there will be 30 retouches on engagement session photos and 30 on the wedding photos.
Also because I booked way early, she threw in an extra photographer on wedding day, a personalized guest book and a few other things I cant remember right now but it was an awesome deal.
The engagement session was part of the wedding package and we get full rights and all photos on disc....
But I paid over $4K for 12 hours on the wedding day/e-shoot/online gallery (for the out of town guests, there are a lot). I am paying what I am getting but I originally budgeted for that.
I looked at a photographer who was much cheaper though and she gave all access to all photos for both wedding and e-shoot as well.
This almost slipped by me, too, and we very nearly dropped our photographers just as we were about to sign the contract because of it. It turned out that what they would have charged us for were the medium or high resolution files, like what they use to make their prints. I told them that we really wanted to be able to share the pictures online, just on our website and Facebook and such, and they said they were happy to throw in for free all the low res files, which would be just fine for online. Maybe you could mention this idea to yours?
Traditonally, you would come into the studio, pick the one's you liked out of not many, and those would be printed. Something like $xx to walk in the door and $yy per printed and framed photo.
The way the kids are doing it nowadays is zip through 500 photos, edit every single one even through 300 are blurry. Then hand over the whole shabange. There is no need to have 250 or even 500 photos. There will be maybe 3% that will ever see the light of day.
I agree that digital files can be nice to put on the internet or send through e-mail to distant familiares. You can ask for the proofed shots (the one's you picked) on a digital disc. But no one needs all 500. Photography is a prossece. You do make 15 shots to get one, but the one is the goal, not the other one's where your eyes are closed, you looked away, made a goffy face, looked fat from a bad angle, expsosure tests, flash was too close, realigned the lights, ... it goes on.
You would not beleive how many times i hear from people with storefront studios say "I took 500 shots, one of them has got to turn out!"
Agree, I hear people saying they got 100-200-300+ engagement pictures. There is not way to edit these in a quality manner unless the cost was close to 1,000. A shoot and burn fine, but real pro's focus on quality instead of quantity and only put the best in front of their clients.
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So I've read a fair amount of what to ask a photographer and honestly this almost slipped past me...
With engagement and bridal sessions, the disks are NOT included. There are two options for purchasing disks.
1. Your top 10 retouches ONLY: $250 on the disk
2. ALL of the images from the session: $500
OR spend $500 in prints and receive your print choices on a disk.
This is additional cost on TOP of paying to have the pictures taken. I think thats a high additional cost for digital photos. I mean you get engagement photos for your wedding website and your facebook profile. I was just curious if this is pretty standard with photographers or not? I also thought the low number of retouched photos was surprising.
How many photos did you have retouched with your engagement photos? Did you run across similar conditions?