Pricing for Engagement Pictures

[cmitche2]

I am an amateur photographer who is trying to give a price quote on engagement photo's to a grad school classmate. I think they may be others in the program who will be coming to me for these services in the coming year. I have no idea what to charge for a full CD with all the images. I need to set a price that I can quote others in the future. I would like to make some money doing this but don't want to rip off my friends and classmates. what is a fair price? Thanks for the help! I seem to be the only one in the Duluth area that gives the proof's to the client. Which makes it hard to gage what I should charge.

[ofdphoto]

Engagement sessions are usually included in a wedding package (from what I've seen and offer myself, anyway).

Figure out what you would charge for any 1-2 hour photo session (start by adding up the time involved in shooting and PP and deciding on an appropriate hourly rate) and go from there.

[cmitche2]

Do most people charge per hour for post perduction? I am familiar with basics of photo shop but would feel bad charging per hour for editing. I was thinking about charging per picture, allowing the couple to pic which ones they would like edited, and then charging $20 for each edited pic.

[nursek]

i charge $200 for 1.5 to 2 hours for my engagement / portrait sessions. $175 for friends and family discount. I post process all of the pictures (roughly 40-80 on CD) with adobe lightroom and that usually takes me another 2 hours. I usually adjust contrast and color, or convert pictures to BW and it's quite fast. i don't like to give un-edited photos because when my client's friends and family see them, i don't want them to think my work is unfinished. maybe if you plan to do heavy post processing on specific pictures, then you can charge for each one they choose. hope this helps!

cathy

[hart]

I include engagements in 2 out of the 3 wedding packages I offer. If someone hired me to just shoot their engagement and not wedding, I'd charge same as a one hour portrait shoot which would be around $250.