Pricing advice needed - repost....

[E3_Photo_Studio]

Sorry, I posted this in another area, but thought I'd repost here to see if more people have advice.....Thanks! :D (Sorry if I seem impatient...:o )


I keep going round and round and round about how to price my pictures, and what to offer my customers. :sad: My husband and I are in the process of switching to all digital with a Canon 30D system. We will (hopefully) have a long zoom lens (also Canon) and the standard lens.

I shoot: Senior pics, families and kids portraits, engagements and weddings, both photojournalistic and traditional poses.And I'm more than an amature, but I don't consider myself in the same "professional" league as others.

But here is my biggest prob....I don't want to get into the hassle of sizes for pictures. I'd just like to take the pics, give them a proof sheet and make them pay for the negative release. KWIM? But what to charge for that?? And do you consider that like giving up my "rights" as the photographer?

Do any of you do that, or is that kinda frowned upon in professional photo society?

I read another thread on here about pricing for a wedding, and most of you said that $500.00 was way to cheap:oops: That's about what I've been charging. :oops: I'm just totally at a loss, and would really like some advice from professionals. Thanks!!

[ssim]

You give your customer the original negative (which the CR2 or JPG is) and you are giving up your rights to it. I only give up the original if the customer is willing to pay dearly for it. For a wedding I will relinquish my originals for 2000.00. It is clearly stated that the originals stay with me in the wedding agreement. Relinquishing your originals makes it so that you will make no further sales off of these.

Do I understand this correctly, you take the shots and provide them with a contact sheet and then turn over the originals upon a signature. What were you charging in film. I see no reason to change other than your direct operating costs will be less resulting in a greater operating profit.

I can say that studios in my area do not give up their originals. Seems to be the only people that do this are the ones trying to break into the business and this is a good practise to "buy" the job. I would say that it is frowned upon by true professionals.

[E3_Photo_Studio]

The customers do pay for the negative release, but in the release contract it only states that they have the right to reprint the photographs and that I still carry the rights to said photograph(s) for advertising purposes. It also states that I can reneg on the release if I found out they're using it "inappropriately". Does that make sense?? So, it's more of a contractual release of the negatives, and yes they do pay well for said release.

I really don't care if I make more "sales" off of the pictures. I've already done my bit of taking them and making the customers happy. That's my main goal. If that means that I'm "buying" a job, then so be it I guess. :rolleyes: But I do still want to make a profit. KWIM? :lol:

It's just hard differentiating the prices of portraits, Senior pictures, Engagements, Weddings, etc. They all seem to need their own set of pricing. :( And I hate the idea of having to take an order for 5000 pictures all different sizes, colors, shape, etc. I did that already at a previous job, and it was a pain in the butt. :rolleyes:

I've been researching Shutterfly.com, and I'm thinking that might be the way to go with a lot of this. But still I'm having problems deciding on what the prices should be I guess.
Thanks!