Portrait session: is my approach for charging reasonable? (Part 2)

[canoflan]

Refer to this thread for the first part:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=354079

Well I talked to my client last night. It is a couple days before the shoot and I think that as far as money goes, I should speak to them about my fee. I told them that I would provide an invoice indicating the services I will provide and that the initial fee on the bill will be $250 because that is what I would charge nonfamily/friends, but told them that I would be discounting the amount by $150 for my family/friend relationship for a net $100. This was not sticker shock to them and they really appreciated me getting that out of the way before the event. I told them that if after all is delivered and if they want me to provide some prints at a later point in a package, etc..., I would charge separately for that and we would work that cost out at that point. They are happy to pay for all that I provide.

Additionally, the Lord blessed me with another lead on a possible job for the same client above referred me to their hairdresser whose grandmother as well is having a 90th birthday and they are looking for a photographer as well. I am so very thankful. We'll see!

Thanks so all of you for the encouragement and straightforward talk on pricing and tactics on approaching this often sensitive matter.

I wish you all well,
Pat

[Jennifer Mazy]

Deliverables are: 1-8x10 of entire family, and 4x6's for each of the 18 poses, therefore 19 prints in all to begin with and about 6 cds with a slideshow (they aren't expecting fancy so I can easily impress them) and the processed high-quality jpegs (in color and B&W) copyrighted sent to various family members (they will do the sending, not me so no postage). FYI - I anticipate taking 2 poses for each grouping, therefore about 20 pictures in all.


Hi, I dont post here alot, but I have to say this is a little out there. For such a large family they only get one 4x6 of each family? For such a family event they would all want a copy of each families picture. You say they are "copyrighted" but if you are giving them a disk of jpegs than this is for printing??? You are not expecting anymore money from print sales then right? I understand that it is only X amount of images, but why not more? You mentioned something about photojournalism in your other post. Why not take candids? Why not sell those?
You say your overhead of not alot because they dont want alot of prints. That is not the case. Think about it. You purchased your equipment. You purchased the software that enables you to create these images. You purchased the computer that all of this happens on. You purchased the software that lets you create beautiful slideshows. You are entitled to more then your "costs" of the prints. You have spent alot more.