How much does wedding photographers make?

In a recent 2013 photographer survey, over 100 professional wedding photographers from all over the world gave this insight on the state of the industry for wedding photographers. How much time do you think they spend per wedding and how much money do you think they make?

I have reported similar statistics in the past and it's in line with former reports. The wedding industry hasn't changed that much during the last 2 years in this business regard.

This recent 2013 wedding photographer survey reports…

– Wedding photographers spend an average of 13.5 hours per week editing photos.

– The average time investment (including shooting, editing, meeting time, etc.) for a photographer per wedding is 65 hours.

– Wedding photographers earn an average of $37 per hour (before expenses), and probably somewhere between $15-25 per hour after expenses, insurance and taxes.

– Nearly half of wedding photographers are booking less than 50% of the couples who contact them.

– Wedding photographers are spending nearly a third of what they make on overhead.

– The majority of wedding photographers have been in the business for less than five years.

– Wedding photographers spend on average 3.5 hours communicating with clients and 13.5 hours doing “non client specific business tasks” each week (things like bookkeeping, marketing, social media, etc.)

 

Maybe this explains why it sometimes seem so "expensive" to hire a professional wedding photographer, they invest a lot of time and money in each wedding shoot and they don't take home that much after all the expenses and taxes are paid, it's not a glamorous and high paying job, but if you have passion for the job, it's still the best job in the world, according to me and a lot of wedding photographers I know.

It's worth noting that all these numbers are averages and there is a large disparity between the lowest and highest paid wedding photographers in the industry due to location, experience, demand, etc.

Please leave any questions or comments below!

Posted on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013 at 2:30 pm. Filed under: Photography News, Wedding Photography Tips, Weddings Tags: professional photographer pay, professional photographer survey, wedding photographer salary, wedding photographer survey, wedding photographers, wedding photographers pay, wedding photography report, wedding photography survey RSS 2.0 feed.