Question about what to charge for school year book pictures.

[Pyromaniac]

I may have an opportunity to be able to shoot the yearbook pictures of the students for the yearbook. Pricing the packages that the students will buy isn't that hard to figure out. I'm not talking about the senior portraits that are done at various locations that they choose, just the standard one color background headshot that appears in almost every yearbook you see.

What I am having trouble figuring out is how much to or if I should charge the school for coming in setting up and taking pictures of the students for the pictures that will be used in the yearbook. The school has approximately 1200 students so I know it will take several days to get everyone done. .

I have already searched the forum for threads on pricing and found some useful information but none that addressed this specific question. I also did a Google search on pricing this kind of work and none of the results give any pricing info other than what the student packages cost.

So should I just count on making my money off of the packages that the students buy only and give the school copies to use in the yearbook or should I charge the school for shooting the yearbook pictures in addition to what I charge the students? I doubt that any of the companies that do onsite yearbook photography are doing it for free, so how should I charge the school, by an hourly fee, by a day rate, by the student or a flat fee for the whole job, and what would be in the ball park of a reasonable price for any of those options?

[chtgrubbs]

Not only are they probably not charging the school, but they may even be kicking back some of their earnings on sales to the students. This was my experience when I approached a couple of schools about doing this.

[tbfoto]

Kickbacks are indeed how this is done. Sometimes as much as (get this) 25%. So this is a tough area to get into. However if you feel its worth kicking back 25% of your take...back to the school, then you may still be able to get your foot in the door.

Tom

[ACDCROCKS]

Kickbacks are indeed how this is done. Sometimes as much as (get this) 25%. So this is a tough area to get into. However if you feel its worth kicking back 25% of your take...back to the school, then you may still be able to get your foot in the door.

Tom

Don't be afraid to charge, Yearsbooks sell for $54.00 at my school, only 119 pages max. The photographer in my area has a flat rate charge, takes all the pics for yearbook.