What to Expect About Engagement Photo Prices

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Your engagement photos can be utilized for a number of things from announcements in the local newspaper to gifts for your families, and engagement photo session can be a highly beneficial experience. But, just what should you expect in terms of engagement photo prices?

What to Expect About Engagement Photo Prices

The cost of your engagement photos will vary greatly depending on your location.For metro areas or larger cities, the price can be substantially more than that in more residential suburban areas. Comparing prices for different photographer’s engagement session prices can be a bit of a challenge since many will include engagement sessions into their wedding photography packages or offer discounts when you book your wedding with them. On average, you can expect to pay anywhere between 100 to 500 dollars on the lower end and up to as much as $12,000 on the incredibly high end.

Real Coupes' Experience from Different Places

I live in New York City and we paid $1100 for our engagement session. This included two photographers for 4 hours of shooting, which resulted in 650 images and 350 postcard sized prints.

The photographer we chose typically charges $300 for engagement photo session, but our engagement photo prices were included in the wedding package. We live in the Washington D.C area and the price we found was one of the lower prices.

We paid $300 for our engagement photos. We live just outside of Houston TX and our session included two different location sites, so it seemed like an incredibly reasonable price.

I live in New Hampshire, our engagement photos only cost us $50 dollars. They were simple but exactly what we wanted.

We did a lot of comparing before we chose our photographer who charged us $150 for our engagement session. Most of the photographers in the Powhatan, VA area charged about the same price.

The Most Important Thing When Considering Engagement Photos

While the price range for engagement sessions can span from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars, it does not always mean the higher the price, the happier you will be with the end result. You will be happier with your engagement photos when you find a photographer you and your significant other connect with well and whose work you love. The first thing you should do is always to look through the photographer’s online portfolio before reaching out to them. Once you are ready to sit down and talk with your photographer, you will want to ask them some key questions. The answers you get from these question will help you understand the engagement photo prices more clearly.

The questions you may need to ask include:

  • What they like about photography. This will give you an understanding of how they work with clients and their passion for working with these clients.

  • Ask about their experience in engagement and wedding photography. While most photographers are self-taught, you will want to know about how they went about learning their skills.

  • How many engagement shoots they do in a typical year. Photographers who charge more tend to do fewer engagement shoots because they can spend more time getting to know their clients, which can result in much better photos.

  • Are there any trends we should consider with our engagement session? Each year there are different trends in the photography world that you may not be aware of, your photography can help open your eyes to some unique trends that can make your engagement images one of a kind.

  • If we want multiple locations for our engagement shots, will this be included in the rate or billed separately? This is closely related with your costs.

  • What additional charges should we be aware of with the engagement photo prices, like props or rentals? Similar to the last question.

  • Is the editing, touch ups, CD of images or printing included in the rate quoted? Of course, it is related with your final engagement photo prices. 

  • What are some ways your past clients have used their engagement photos? This helps you know more ways to use your engagement photos. 

  • Do you offer discounts if we book you for our wedding as well? Usually, they will offer the discounts.

  • How will you use our images and who will own the rights to the images? You want to know if they will be using the images on a blog or for a magazine, as well as, if you would be able to submit the images to blogs or magazines.