pricing on images & a commission

[wayne_eddy]

hi all,

Friends of mine have noticed my photography over the last year or so (some have images hanging on their lounge room wall), I recently did a friends wedding, I've just won a National Comp and image of mine is going to be put on a Commonwealth Government Calender! Whippee!

I've just been having enquiries from some people that would like to commission me to do photopgraphs of our local beaches to decorate their home.

This is all happening too fast! SHould I charge, how much should I charge or should I just provide permission to use the photographs? For the peoples home what should I charge?

Please advise,

[ssim]

You should do what makes you happy and feels right.

Working for friends is always tough on where do you draw the line. I've personally learned some valuable lessons overs the last few years in that.

I have a question for you, is this something that is going to be a one of, or do you want to make this a going concern. If the latter is yes, then you need to treat it like a business. A business is there to turn a profit, period.

There are lots of threads on what a person should charge and you should take the time to browse through some of them. If you are approaching this from a business sense you have to include your time, depreciation on gear, your direct operating costs which are the easiest to capture and your fixed costs that are there whether you sell anything or not.

Some of the figures that I have seen here for the markup on prints is anywhere from doubling your print cost to 500% of the print cost. I come in at around 300% and that includes just the print and then I will normally round up somewhat. Anything extra like mounting, shipping charges,etc. are added on and I then tack on a little extra for my handling of it as well.

When approached by friends I will normally show them my price list and then say "this is what I am prepared to do for you". I will knock off anywhere from 10-30%.

If these are not friends you need to develop a price that covers your costs and takes into account the things I mentioned earlier. The amount you markup your work is partially dependant on how bad you want to make the sales and how much you value your own work. You can cover your direct costs plus a small amount and you will probably make lots of sales but not make much. It really is up to you. I would certainly never let anyone I didn't know just use my image. Every now and then I will try and put humanity to a little test. I will tell them that I will make the print and you pay me what you feel it is worth. It is amazing in that I been offered less than my printing costs to more than twice of my already marked up price. People are a funny lot.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do. It is nice to always be appreciated for your work.

[sando]

Well done Wayne, any chance of showing us the image that is going to be on the Calendar? :)

For friends and family, I would always give away the image for free and leave it up to them to pay for the printing, or if need be print it for them (if they are unsure of how to get it printed properly) and charge them cost price of the printing. That's just me though.

For anyone else, I would try and factor in how many useable images they would like, be it 1 or 50 (maybe 1 in these people's cases, for a 'hanger' in their living room) and then charge for my time (factor in getting out there, time spent on location, processing, etc...). That's the clincher though, how much do you value your time?

[wayne_eddy]

As I understand it they are after a series of images for their house on the coast.

[floydianslip6]

Congrats on gettin on a calander! That's great!

I think as was said above you need to decide how far you want to take this. If you want this to become a business you need to treat it as such. I'm just starting out as a fine art photographer and the general rule is to never give your work away free. As my prices have gone up I feel more comfortable discounting the cost 20% or so for a really good friend, but its generally a bad habbit to get into.

Set your prices based on market value plus how you value your own work and stick to them. Giving away things for free is always a slippery slope, because what if you really like one person so they get it free and then another friend you charge, what if the dicounts are different... etc etc. Genereally my friends expect to pay the asking price and don't mind that I don't give it away free, after all it is a job at the end of the day.