Choose the look from one complete wedding gallery, then ask what the quote includes. Documentary, traditional, editorial and fine art are not separate prices in the October 2026 survey. The crawl stored one headline per photographer website and did not store a style label. Album packages, second-photographer packages and video packages were kept out of that headline.
Where the prices in this guide come from
The figures on this page come from public photographer pricing pages, crawled on 4 October 2026. One headline was kept per website: the lowest full-day digital price not already flagged as an album, a second photographer or video. The crawl stored no style, so a documentary gallery and an editorial gallery are not separate price rows. The rules for that headline are on How these prices were counted.
What you are actually looking at
Documentary coverage, also called reportage or photojournalism, stays with the day as it happens. People are not lined up for long. The documentary page describes candid, unposed photographs. Documentary and traditional, set side by side, uses traditional for directed portraits and arranged groups, with people looking at the camera. There is no separate style page for traditional work.
Editorial borrows from fashion pages: clean lines, dramatic light, portraits built as set pieces. You will be asked to stand and wait while the frame is made, and that waiting comes out of the hours on the quote. Fine art, on its own page, is the lighter, softer end, often film or a digital file finished to resemble film, leaning on natural light, with a slower pace and a smaller set. If the ceremony room is dark, ask for a wedding photographed in light like that room.
Asian and Indian celebrations are described on that page as vivid, often running over more than one day, with Mehndi, Vidai and Baraat among the events named, and with Hindu, Sikh, Muslim and fusion days all in view. The survey has no price for those names. Two ceremonies in two places change the hours, and they may change whether a second photographer is in the figure. Where a second photographer is priced as an extra, the figure is about £370, from 776 published prices, and the middle half of those prices sits between £300 and £450.
The rows the survey does publish
The survey recorded hours, and a few add-ons, rather than a style. Across 2,057 full-day digital packages the middle of the list is £1,500, and half of the prices lie between £1,195 and £1,900. A package was treated as a full day if the page stated 7 hours or more, or if the hours could not be checked and the page still called it a full day.
| What you can line up | Typical price | How it was counted |
|---|---|---|
| Full day, digital headline | £1,500 | 2,057 packages. Middle half £1,195 to £1,900. |
| Pages that state 4 or 5 hours | £850 | 836 packages. Middle half £650 to £1,100. |
| Pages that state 1 or 2 hours | £450 | 511 packages. Middle half £350 to £597. A further 274 descriptions of an elopement or register office gave no hours and stayed out of this row. |
| Printed album, where a price is listed | £350 | 734 prices. Middle half £250 to £450. |
| Second photographer, where a price is listed | £370 | 776 prices. Middle half £300 to £450. |
| One extra hour, where a price is listed | £175 | 681 prices. Middle half £125 to £250. |
On 1,438 of those 2,057 headline packages the page never says whether a printed album is included. That share is 69.9%. A second photographer is left unstated on 1,444 packages, which is 70.2%. A gallery can look editorial while the price is still the digital headline with the album unmentioned.
Worked from those figures, as a guide rather than a package anyone is selling: £850 for a 4-or-5-hour booking plus £175 for one extra hour comes to £1,025. The gap from £1,025 up to the £1,500 full-day figure is £475. When a photographer says the portraits need another hour, that £475 is the difference between paying for the hour and paying the full-day figure. Shorter bookings are set out in the guide to four and five hours.
One full wedding, in order
Open a complete wedding, shot through from preparations to the last picture they delivered. A strip of ten favourites is a shop window. Ask for the long gallery before you pay a deposit.
On a printout, or in a note, mark one frame of a guest who is not posing, one group that has been arranged, and one portrait of the couple where you can see how the light was built: a window, a corridor, or a flash. If the unposed frames carry the gallery, you are looking at documentary work, whatever the biography says. If the arranged groups are most of the day, you are looking at traditional coverage. If the couple's portraits are lit and composed and the guests barely appear, you are looking at editorial or fine art, and the useful question is how long those portraits take out of the booking.
Who owns the photographs
The Intellectual Property Office explains ownership in Ownership of copyright works, published on 19 August 2014. Photographs are artistic works. For an artistic work, the creator is usually the first owner.
There is an employee exception. Where the work is made by an employee in the course of employment, the employer is the first owner, unless an agreement says otherwise. The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 does not define "in the course of employment". The Office says the courts look at whether the person was under a contract of service, meaning an employee, or a contract for services, meaning a freelancer. Someone working under a contract for services usually keeps the copyright unless the contract says otherwise.
Commissioning does not, by itself, make you the owner. When you ask a person or a business to create the work, the first owner is the creator, not the couple who asked, unless you agree a transfer in writing. If the contract never mentions copyright, a court may find an implied licence for the purpose you commissioned. The Office is plain that this is not a transfer of ownership. The commissioner may only receive a limited, non-exclusive licence.
Older family albums sit under a different rule. Before 1 August 1989, copyright in commissioned photographs, portraits and engravings belonged to the person who commissioned them. The Office uses photographs of a wedding party as its example. A booking made now follows the later rule. You own the files only when the contract says so.
Two photographers raise a second question on the same page. Where two people create one work and each contribution cannot be separated from the other, they may be joint owners, and copying needs every owner's agreement. Where each person's contribution is distinct, each owns the part they made, unless a contract moves that ownership. Ask for one written licence that names everyone who will photograph, and that says whether you may print the pictures and whether you may post them.
The same guidance covers students. Nothing in the 1988 Act hands a student's copyright to a college. Sections 9 to 11, which the Office points to, are the ordinary ownership rules. A college may still ask for an assignment, or for a royalty-free licence, as a condition of enrolment. With no such contract, the copyright stays with the creator. Ask what the college requires, and get your own permission in writing as well.
Wording you can paste into an email
Swap in your own date, town and hours.
Subject: Wedding on 12 June 2027, documentary with a short group list
Hello,
We are marrying on Saturday 12 June 2027 at [venue, town]. The ceremony is at 1pm. We would like you there from 12.30pm until 7.30pm.
The look we want is documentary: guests as the day happens, and one arranged group of parents and the wedding party after the ceremony. We do not want a long portrait session.
Please send a link to one full wedding, in order, photographed in the last two years. Please also send the price for those hours, whether a printed album is included and the price if it is not, whether a second photographer is included, who owns the copyright, and whether we can print the pictures and post them.
Thank you,
[Names]
Write this down before you ask
- The words you will both use for the look, taken from a gallery you have already seen together.
- The link to that full wedding, so the quote is measured against it.
- The ceremony time, and the time you want the photographer to arrive and to leave.
- Whether arranged groups are in the booking, and the names of who stands in them.
- Album included, or a separate price.
- Second photographer included, or a separate price.
- The copyright owner, permission to print, and permission to post.
- Both addresses, if the day moves from one place to another.
Questions
Does one style cost more in this survey?
No style was recorded. A full day sits around £1,500 across 2,057 full-day digital packages. The crawl ran on 4 October 2026. Compare a quote with that figure, and with the hours written on the quote, after you have seen a full gallery.
Who owns our wedding photographs?
The Intellectual Property Office says the creator of an artistic work is usually the first owner. A freelancer usually keeps that copyright unless the contract says otherwise. You become the owner only if the transfer is agreed in writing. An implied licence, where a court finds one, lets you use the pictures for the purpose you booked and is not the same as owning them.
What do we send if the celebration has two ceremonies?
Send both addresses and both start times. The priced differences in this survey are the hours and, where a page lists it, a second photographer at about £370 from 776 prices. Mehndi, Vidai, Baraat and any other named ritual are not separate rows.