How much do you pay for professional event photos?

HaffiesRock

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Took baby cob to her first show yesterday. Was only there with my son who loves to take photos but isn't great at it!

The photographer there took some lovely pictures and there are 2 or 3 id like to buy, until I saw the price...

Now I completely appreciate this is their living, they have overheads, you are paying for their time, experience etc but I just cant justify the cost personally.

How much do you all pay for your pictures? Either digital downloads or printed pictures? I will buy one as its gorgeous but i'll be closing my eyes when I click buy!
 
So for physical copies, I tend to get a standard sized picture (depends on what the photographer thinks is standard size but usually it's something like 9 x 5) and I paid £10.00 per photo.

For digital copies for use on social media, I paid about £7.00 per photo x

Sometimes you might find that the photographer has an offer on which makes the price a bit cheaper/ easier to swallow - might be worth browsing their website and see if something like that is hidden somewhere? x

To be honest, I only really brought the photos I did at my last show because it was Rabbit my youngsters first show and I wanted that memory of the day x
 
Well, having just spent a small fortune on photos after completing our first ever team chase on Saturday (only a mini but still) because I was on an adrenaline high I am an advocate of just buy the pictures, think they were £15 each for prints
 
Well, having just spent a small fortune on photos after completing our first ever team chase on Saturday (only a mini but still) because I was on an adrenaline high I am an advocate of just buy the pictures, think they were £15 each for prints

Wow you're so brave - team chasing looks amazing but I'm far too wimpy to try it! x
 
Depends on the photographer.

We have one who does a lot of the fun rides who charges £12.50 for a low res jpeg with his logo on it. That's probably the most expensive especially as he doesn't do deals for volume purchases.
 
For HD downloads that I can use as I like (not commercial rights) up to £50… Usually I go medium resolution and get a few.

I tend to do downloads only unless there’s a show border from a big event available as like to use them personally and then can pick and choose which I’d like printed.
 
As a mum who is forced to pretty much always buy the official photos I feel a bit of an expert 😂 it does depend on the photographer but look out for multi buy discounts, yesterday we paid £30 for 5 digital photos which I thought was excellent value! I always buy the low
Resolution ones, they are fine for my facebook etc and I often get them printed via snapfish or some other online printer and it works out cheaper!

Usually it’s around £10-12.50 a photo unless you can get 3 for the price of 2 or whatever…x
 
I have bought 2 digital downloads for the sum of £32!! Then £2 each to have them printed 12x10in at boots. She does look gorgeous though and will take pride of place above my fireplace ❤️

Ouch that is a bit spicy!

The photographer that does most of the local shows round here does a deal for 3 photos which i think is about £25. She also does digital photos for about £7 each. She is a half decent photographer so catches the movement etc nicely.

There is another lady that does a few events and isn't as good she donates a bit to charity so when she does catch a nice photo I don't mind paying a little extra.

At the Royal Welsh Show last year I think a paid about £55 for a 9x12 photo and a slightly bigger collage.
 
There's a well-known dressage photographer who charges £20 for a basic download. I got some great photos by them at a clinic a couple of years ago (and also listened through a long monologue about how poor other dressage photographers are) but have often found their competition photos disappointing...so I'd like to say that you get what you pay for, but it's not always the case!

£8-12 seems more standard for digital downloads and £15-20 for a standard size print.
 
There's a well-known dressage photographer who charges £20 for a basic download. I got some great photos by them at a clinic a couple of years ago (and also listened through a long monologue about how poor other dressage photographers are) but have often found their competition photos disappointing...so I'd like to say that you get what you pay for, but it's not always the case!

£8-12 seems more standard for digital downloads and £15-20 for a standard size print.
Was that KS? I always find their photos disappointing, and quite dull. Have had absolutely loads of good ones from Jasmine Punter, they always seem nice and bright and the deals are reasonable.
 
Was that KS? I always find their photos disappointing, and quite dull. Have had absolutely loads of good ones from Jasmine Punter, they always seem nice and bright and the deals are reasonable.

I don’t do dressage any more but I know exactly who you mean and completely agree! I’d always inwardly groan if he was the photographer
 
We had this discussion yesterday. I used to be a show photographer and took photos at a lot of the Grand Prix’s. The venues used to sponsor those big shows so we were paid a day rate and the photos were free.
But when I charged, I found that if I charged a fee that I found reasonable and that I would myself pay, that I often got many many more photos bought from me than photographers who charged more. I often feel that they complain (yes I know it’s their trade) that no one buys photos and rather screenshots the watermarked ones, but if they charged less or had a show package (say £50 for all of your photos if you did multiple classes), then they would sell more photos and make more money.

That’s just my two cents worth.
 
I don't compete but EGB often has a good professional photographer at their pleasure rides so I always buy a a couple of lo res downloads (between £5 and £8 each), and a print (usually between £12 and £20 for a smaller one) assuming there's a nice one.

Prices do vary, there's a local photographer who does more non-horse work - magazines etc - who is a bit more pricey, but I don't actually like his photos as much as another photographer who charges less (so I buy more from him). I'm always really pleased to find it's the latter who'll be photographing an event I've booked on! He definitely earns his money, for an endurance event he typically spends the day lurking in bushes and trotting between locations to get good photos of everyone in several places.
 
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So for physical copies, I tend to get a standard sized picture (depends on what the photographer thinks is standard size but usually it's something like 9 x 5) and I paid £10.00 per photo.

For digital copies for use on social media, I paid about £7.00 per photo x

Sometimes you might find that the photographer has an offer on which makes the price a bit cheaper/ easier to swallow - might be worth browsing their website and see if something like that is hidden somewhere? x

To be honest, I only really brought the photos I did at my last show because it was Rabbit my youngsters first show and I wanted that memory of the day x
That's cheap!
 
We had this discussion yesterday. I used to be a show photographer and took photos at a lot of the Grand Prix’s. The venues used to sponsor those big shows so we were paid a day rate and the photos were free.
But when I charged, I found that if I charged a fee that I found reasonable and that I would myself pay, that I often got many many more photos bought from me than photographers who charged more. I often feel that they complain (yes I know it’s their trade) that no one buys photos and rather screenshots the watermarked ones, but if they charged less or had a show package (say £50 for all of your photos if you did multiple classes), then they would sell more photos and make more money.

That’s just my two cents worth.

I find this didn't work for the shows I did. I charged very little and still had lots of people screen shot. I ended up using a really obnoxious watermark and the shows put posts out stating not to screenshot and steal my work.
 
Last photos i bought were £7.50 and £8 for downloads. I rarely buy hard copies. When they are more expensive i overthink and dont end up buying.
 
I don’t have a horse to compete but I’ve paid between £25-30 for 10x8 size prints of racehorses who I have shares in when they have won as I like having them as mementos.
Nice to have a part of 'your' horse' at home. Racecourse photographers tend to charge more because, on the whole, only the winners buy so 6 or 7 sales a day, and with many of the winners owned by big owners they don't always buy for a small handicap winner etc etc - generalisation I know but......
Some of the costings photographers use are outrageous
 
This is one who does a lot of Endurance GB rides around here: I've randomly selected a ride and if you select a photo and click on it to get the large version you will see prices on the right hand side.
cheapest is a low res jpeg at £5 - you can also buy a montage print of two, three or 4 and they are a nice memento.
 
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