To think I may be able to get a uni photography student to take my wedding photos for free?

[MaryBoBary]

We are getting married at the end of the year back in our Uni city where we met. It will be just the 2 of us and our 3 year old (will potentially be calling on some mumsnet witnesses nearer the time!) and the wedding will be pre 12pm.

AIBU to think that a photography student would want the chance to take some wedding photos for an hour or two for their portfolio, and not expect to be paid? Obviously we won't be expecting world class photography, just some nice pics as we won't have any family or friends there to take them. Would it be cheeky to email the uni asking or have other people done this before?

Serious photographers HATE wedding photography. Of course you should pay them. Do you work for nothing?

We had a student photographer who also happened to be a friend. But we paid! I would never have co suffered not paying. I asked her outright she would charge for what we wanted for the day. It was less than a standard wedding photographer but not ridiculously low. Was also very happy with the photos.

Please don't ask someone to do it for free for "exposure". As someone in another creative field, I hate when people say this. Exposure doesn't pat the Bill's and isn't worth what you think it is.

@CanYouHelpFindThis Ahh, thank you! Very good to know it'd be likely well received if we ask at the college 😊

This is a massive piss take

Equipment isn't free.
Training isn't free.
Travel isn't free.

Their time has a value - while they're taking your "opportunity" they're not honing their skills on more relevant work, taking paid jobs or working on their own branding/choice of portfolio work.

Unless you're royalty or offering them genuine exposure from a referral / celeb POV, asking any to work for free should result in one of two things, fairly:

1. they tell you where to stick your 'opportunity' OR
2. you get someone doing such a shit job for free that you get what you deserve. Unfortunately, this also undermines the real trainees and pros so reinforces Cfers like OP for a short time who don't realise the CFery...

You’re being quite insulting without realising it I think. A photography degree is years of hard work, thousands of pounds of expensive equipment, expensive prints for each unit, cost of Photoshop, equipment hire, buying props and outlays for photo shoots, insurance etc. Many students on these courses are actually mature students with bills to pay also. Any good lecturer would advise you not to do anything for free. To add insult to injury you say they don’t need to be world class photographs? As if they’re not any good because they’re just students? Have you seen any student exhibitions etc? Wow. People also forget that even a quick half hour of photos is still multiplied a few times over editing etc. You might get one who would do it for the experience. You’d be unbelievably cheeky to ask in the first place though. £100 might be reasonable to offer a college.

The thing is that University student photographers have plenty of friends and relations who they can give their services to for free in order to build a portfolio. Frankly, they don't need you.

Its not impossible that you might get a cheap deal but the hour of snapping photos is still a day's actual work in terms of preparation, sorting out the images afterwards, and of course they have outlay on equipment which you have no right to benefit from for free.

We did get a brilliant deal as we found a photographic journalist who wanted to start up a business offering "documentary style" wedding photography and he genuinely did need a wedding to use as a portfolio but that meant we had no input at all - there were no "poses" and no one making sure that each combo of friends and relations was snapped. That was fine by us as we would have been just as happy to have no photography at all. We still paid though (couple of hundred I think. Now the business is up and running successfully I think he charges around a grand)

I am an amateur photographer (so probably less experienced than a student!) and did photos for a friends wedding last month. I charged her £250 for four hours of photos because it is bloody hard work & the editing time is ridiculous afterwards! Please don't devalue someone's skills and hard work by not paying.

I have my own media business and if you get work for free then don’t expect it to be good, on time etc. When I have done stuff for people for free to be nice they expect a lot and get quite rude. I’ve then purposefully been slow or consequently ‘lost’ some of the images. They don’t realise that my camera equipment cost £5k, iMac £2k, Editing Software £300, as well as travel costs and the like. It took me a long time to get them and they don’t come free! I see student photographers get taken advantage of all the time and it’s really sad. If you can’t afford it then someone you know must be able to at least operate a camera. Or smartphone cameras are just as good these days!

Interesting comments about serious photographers hating weddings etc.

There seem to be a lot of wedding photographers out there though. Are they all ametuer and degreeless?

We had a student photographer and paid her £500.

Speaking someone who is a keen but competent amateur photographer, you would be very cheeky indeed to ask this. Many photographers get asked to do work for free for “the experience” or “to add images to your portfolio”.

The truth of the matter is that they will be using camera gear and lenses which cost a considerable amount (thousands), will need to prepare beforehand hand, and post process afterwards, again using computer gear which costs £££ and a lot of time. To say nothing of the expertise they will need to produce a decent product.

Be prepared to pay whoever agrees to do this. Any idiot can work for free.

What you could do is have a dropbox account, leave loads of cards out with the access detail and ask people to upload their own photos of your day as they take them/when they get home.. .. nowhere near as good quality but hopefully you'll get some nice photos from it for free.

I would offer a decent fee of £3-500 and see if you can find a student willing to do it cheaply.

You can not expect them to do that for free.

Put yourself in their position, how would you feel?

Yes, you are being cheeky. I haven't RTWT. You should at least offer a token sum for their time, trouble and materials, etc.

Would you expect a keen dressmaker to make your dress for nothing?

A cook to make you a cake for nothing?

A decorator to paint your house for nothing?

Would you do similar things for others for nothing? Weddings can be stupidly expensive but you can't expect something for nothing.

PlantPotParrot, I have a number of artists and craftworkers as friends.
They divide work into what they love and enjoy, and what pays the bills.
BIL is a successful artist, and they are rare. He told me ‘I did a lot of pet portraits when I started out, the first 20 years or so!’
Likewise, many students and those beginning a career almost always need a job to pay bills whilst they work on their art. Degree or not.
Wedding photography would come under that heading for many serious photographers, unless they actually loved the idea. Some do.

People are getting worse and worse aren’t they. Asking for free stuff all the time - using students and exploiting them. Awful. If you didn’t care that much - just ask a passerby.

I think they deserve to be paid for their skills, knowledge and time. They will have to spend time editing them also. I think it would be extremely cheeky to expect such a service for free.

I had a student do my wedding photos for a reduced rate. As they were for his portfolio they were very good.

It's a bit mean to ask them to do it for free.

I just asked my friends to send me their photos from the day. Got a lot of lovely shots that way!

OP what you could do is contact the uni and ask what amount of money you could expect to pay a student photographer for their time. Then you'll have an idea if that's something you can afford or not.

DD is a harpist and frequently gets asked to play weddings, mates rates/free/"for the experience".
"For the experience" makes her laugh, unless you are the royal family I dont think your wedding will be any different to any she has seen before.

As somone who has study art (BA & MA) and now works as an artist you're taking the piss to ask this.

As if anyone would be interested in doing this, you must be very naive.

Even if they were do you really think that someone doing something for free in their own time will give you the photos you want? They'd be perfectly within their rights spending time taking a picture of a beautiful archway, a sunset, or your younger, more attractive niece, which they might actually be able to put in their portfolio.

You'll be luckier getting MNetters to attend as witnesses than students shooting your wedding, I think.
MNetters are an odd bunch.

With any luck, if you get said MNetters to attend, they'll probably be happy to take a couple of photos too.

Problem solved.

Exploitation. Don't do it, OP. Pay them or pay the going rate for a professional photographer.