Why do photographers charge what they do?
Wedding photography pricing often reflects far more than the hours spent shooting on the day. A professional photographer typically invests significant time before the wedding even begins, including consultations, timeline planning, location scouting, and understanding the couple’s vision. What many couples don’t see is the extensive post-production process that follows, where hundreds of images are carefully culled, processed then edited, and refined to ensure a consistent, high-quality final gallery. If an album is included the photographer needs to lay out and design that as well.
In addition to this time-intensive work, photographers carry significant costs, including equipment, backups, insurance, and software licensing. More importantly, weddings are unrepeatable events. You’re not just paying for photos, you’re investing in experience, reliability, and the ability to capture moments that can’t be recreated.
Processing VS Editing
Processing
A helpful way to understand this is to compare it to how a mobile phone handles photos. When you take a picture on your phone, it instantly applies processing adjusting brightness, contrast, colour, and sharpness using built-in algorithms. Professional photographers do something similar, but with far greater control and intention. Processing ensures every image is technically consistent and polished.
Editing
Editing goes further than processing this is the refining process. Pimples, razor cuts and pesky flies are removed. Background distractions are eliminated, wrinkles are softened, eyes are enhanced and individual images are tweaked enhancing mood, and creating a distinct, artistic style. This is done image to image and can take up to 30 minutes per image. Now multiply that by 700 images.
Aussie Budget Weddings Process Images we don’t edit images, well mostly!
In order to keep the cost down and pay our photographers a fair market related fee, we process images and do not edit them. HOWEVER we will Edit photos for an extra fee.
The Booking Process
- 1 Click on on the “Get in Touch” button or menu item, fill in the form and submit.
- 2 You will receive an email with a questionnaire. Fill in as much detail as you have on the questionnaire including your preferred style of image processing and submit it.
- 3 You will receive an email with a pick and choose quote and a contract, select the options you require on the quote and submit it along with the contract which you can sign digitially.
- 4 From the questionnaire and the accepted quote, we wil, compile a brief for the photographer. You will be advised who your photographer is and be given the oppurtunity to make arrangments with them for your wedding day.
- 5 A deposit is required at time of the booking with the final amount due one week before your wedding.
- 6 After your wedding we will process all the images taken and upload them to our secure online gallery.