Editing wedding photos requires a lot of time, concentration, and effort. So, whether you are a professional wedding photographer or an editor, it’s best to charge what you think your time is worth.
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How Much Should You Charge As A Wedding Photographer?
The cost of editing wedding photos typically ranges from as low as $1 to as high as $10 per image. Thus, as a professional wedding photo editor, you might want to charge $5 or $7 per wedding picture. You might also want to charge your clients an hourly rate between $40 to $90 an hour, depending on your experience and the job’s difficulty level. But there are some factors which you must consider.
Factors To Help You Determine How Much To Charge To Edit Wedding Pictures
If you are not sure about how much you should charge to edit wedding photographs, below are some factors to help you discover the best rate:
Your Level Of Experience
Your skill or experience level greatly determines how much you should charge and the amount clients will agree to pay you to edit their wedding photos.
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Professional wedding photo editors charge $50 to $90 per hour, intermediate-level ones charge $20 to $50 per hour, and beginners charge from $5 to $20 per hour.
Per image, the professionals usually charge $5 to $10, while beginners and intermediate wedding photo editors typically charge $0.5 and $3, respectively.
Thus, we recommend charging your clients based on your level of experience in the niche. If you are a beginner seeking to build a good portfolio, we recommend starting with a low rate, such as $0.5 per picture, and avoiding hourly contracts.
Project Type
Furthermore, you can also determine how much to charge to edit wedding photos based on the type of project. Different project types, such as hourly-based contracts and per-picture editing contracts, have distinct prices.
For instance, wedding photographers usually start pricing at $50 per hour to edit photos using advanced software or editing tools. In contrast, some charge nothing less than $10 to edit a wedding click.
A professional wedding picture editor can retouch between 3 to 4 photographs within an hour, while it might take more than an hour to edit an image, depending on the magnitude of editing required.
Therefore, apart from charging based on your experience level in the industry, you can also use the project type to determine the rates. However, we highly recommend setting friendly prices.
Difficulty Level Of The Pictures
The rate of retouching wedding photographs also varies based on the kind of editing needed by the clients. Some clients and even pictures will require basic editing, such as adjusting exposure, color, and removing blemishes, while others might need mid-level, complex, or advanced-level editing.
You can charge between $1 to $2 per picture for basic photo editing, $3 to $4 per image for mid-level retouching, and $4 to $10 per photograph for advanced editing, such as changing backgrounds and creating composite wedding prints.
Quantity Of The Wedding Pictures And Time Duration
The number of wedding pictures to be edited and the required turnover time are also other key determinants of how much you should charge.
You can charge your clients between $1 to $10 per image editing, depending on the difficulty level, and your experience if the photos are less than a hundred copies. But, if the photographs are more than one hundred, we recommend giving discounts to your clients. You might want to take between 5% to 30% off.
However, if the client requires a quick turnaround of the project, you can charge a bit higher than the regular amount. You might want to include additional time costs and other fees. It is better to charge per project if you do not know how long it might take you to edit a single wedding picture.
Therefore, depending on your knowledge and the general requirements of the clients, you can charge between $70 to $150 to edit 50 or 120 copies of the pictures and more if the photographers are higher. However, do not forget to give discounts. In fact, learn to work within your customers’ budgets. This will help you to grow your customer base and increase your income.
Note: Hourly-based and per-picture editing contracts are the best options for editing a large number of wedding photos. But you stay away from quoting hourly or per-picture editing rates because the clients usually prefer you charge them on a per-gig basis.
Your Location And Clients
Your location and clients also determine how much you will charge to edit wedding photos. If you are living in an urban region, you should charge more than those in rural areas. Ensure to consult how much other wedding photographers and editors within your vicinity charge to edit wedding photos.
Furthermore, different couples have different budgets for editing their wedding photos. Some are ready to pay any amount, while others are financially restricted. So, as a wedding photo editor, your location, the quality of work you produce, and the kinds of clients you attract will greatly determine your rates.
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In conclusion, you should charge based on your level of experience, the job difficulty level, and the software you will use. If you are using pro editing tools with premium editing presets or plugins, ensure to set your rate higher than those using free software and plugins.
However, if the pictures are higher (probably more than 500 copies), you should give a reasonable discount to your clients regardless of how much you paid for the tools.
Finally, the cost of editing wedding photos can be expensive. So, we recommend you include the fees in your wedding package instead of charging separately to edit photos clicked by you. If you are not the one that captured the pictures, you can take 40% off what you normally bill your customers to capture and edit an image.