Cheerleaders

[Sisters_photography]

Hello everyone

My niece is a cheerleader for a cheer-gym and at every competition I take pictures of all the teams and some behind the sense of them warming up of just goofing off. Well the owner of the cheer-gym asked me if I would do a printable CD and a DVD show for the parents. She said that I could sale them at the end of the cheer year. I just don’t know how much to charge for them. If I mark the up too much then I wont sell them at all, but I want to make so money on them. What do you think about $43.99 for the two-disk package?

I did do portraits for the gym right as the session started (those where posed pictures)

Any help that you can give me is great.

Thanks

[Anke]

Sorry, can you make the font a little larger, its hard to read on my screen.

Other than that the price seems affordable, but I'm no expert.

[Sisters_photography]

Sorry, can you make the font a little larger, its hard to read on my screen.

Other than that the price seems affordable, but I'm no expert.


sorry about the font, i dont know what happen to it.

[Chet]

So you are saying because you already do portraits, that the quality of the other photos are just as good?
If your work is good, $43.99 is a respectable price. I always worry about work being copied by cheap/frugal parents. Not sure how you protect yourself against that though.

[Sisters_photography]

So you are saying because you already do portraits, that the quality of the other photos are just as good?
If your work is good, $43.99 is a respectable price. I always worry about work being copied by cheap/frugal parents. Not sure how you protect yourself against that though.


I dont know how I'm going to do that . thats why I wanted to do the 2pack so I'm hopin each parent is going to want the DVD too and buy the package.
so thats why I'm tryin to keep price low but not too low.

[Anke]

The problem I see is that several parents will probably group together to buy one DVD and share the images. I say sell prints instead.

[Chet]

The problem I see is that several parents will probably group together to buy one DVD and share the images. I say sell prints instead.

Bingo.

Somehow you have to protect your interests. A copyright or Do Not Copy or reproduce tag is not going to protect you.

[MJPhotos24]

Maybe a group price instead of individual copies.

There's a guy around here who does it for basketball games - he charges a flat fee per game and gives the CD-R to the coach who is free to make copies as they want for parents (or he can supply CD-R's at x-amount per copy, couple bux) and even supplies a letter transfering print rights so they can take it to the local lab to print but cannot give it to papers for example - no 3rd parties. That way he doesn't have to worry about parents ripping him off by copying it because he already got his group/flat fee.

[lauderdalems]

Get everyone to pre-order and pay 50%. Then have fewer pictures of those who decided not to order.

[Sisters_photography]

Get everyone to pre-order and pay 50%. Then have fewer pictures of those who decided not to order.
I like that

[and.duncan]

Get everyone to pre-order and pay 50%. Then have fewer pictures of those who decided not to order.

That's not a bad idea. Have you done that before? (Just curious if it works as planned)

[Oneslowz28]

I see 2 problems here.

1. Parent A buys 1 cd/dvd package. Then goes home calls here parent friends and they all meet at her house where they proceed to print the images off that one cd and burn copies of the dvd.

2. Is 43 bucks enough to cover your expenses? It takes time to capture the images, download them, process them, and buy cds, burn cds, make slide show, burn slide show.

I did this for a youth league soccer team last year. Instead of selling the cd/dvd combo individually I charged a flat fee of 700 bucks. That coved me shooting 3 games, batch processing the images and giving a combo to each parent.

[Chet]

I did this for a youth league soccer team last year. Instead of selling the cd/dvd combo individually I charged a flat fee of 700 bucks. That coved me shooting 3 games, batch processing the images and giving a combo to each parent.

And you sold it for $700? WOW where do you live to pull those prices for taking snaps at a soccer game.

I pulled off a seasons worth of soccer (my daughters team) and did custom soccer portraits and the team photo and printed them on my dime with just a little more then a thank you for my troubles.

[Village_Idiot]

The problem I see is that several parents will probably group together to buy one DVD and share the images. I say sell prints instead.

That's why I don't think $43.99 is too much. Of course the OP will probably get parents that believe that it's way too much money and will feel ripped off, but they don't have to buy it. Unfortunately, those are the parents that may buy it just to make copies to give away/sell for the cost of a DVD.

[MJPhotos24]

And you sold it for $700? WOW where do you live to pull those prices for taking snaps at a soccer game.

I pulled off a seasons worth of soccer (my daughters team) and did custom soccer portraits and the team photo and printed them on my dime with just a little more then a thank you for my troubles.

Soccer team - 11 players on the field, 5 subs (low estimate) and you have $70 a person if only 10/16 order. With a parent leading the charge who's a good talker that'd be pretty easy to round up. Also, my guess is it wasn't just "snaps" and quality the parents couldn't get (or maybe in my mind I just refer to "snaps" as snap shots anyone can get).

I was talking with a parent a few years ago about financial problems, she wanted me to come to her sons game and shoot because a lot of parents would be interested. Problem was she lived in TX and I live in NY. I told her I can't afford the "maybe" of making back my trip expenses and she told me all about how her and her family are struggling with money as well. She then ordered $750+ worth of prints. I think we had different ideas of "struggling"...I wish I struggled like that!!

[Fotoscapes]

I'd make sure each parent is okay with having pictures of their daughter taken no matter whom else says it's okay.

[Village_Idiot]

I'd make sure each parent is okay with having pictures of their daughter taken no matter whom else says it's okay.

Well if it's like I've read on here, when they sign up for competition/etc there can be something in the forms that says photography is OK. Plus it's a public place, so there would be no reasonable expectation of privacy.

[Sisters_photography]

Get everyone to pre-order and pay 50%. Then have fewer pictures of those who decided not to order.

Thank you everyone I think I am going to go this way. I know most of these parents and they have asked me if I am going to make a CD of the girls so that they can buy it at the end of the cheer year. But I just wanted to make sure the price was not too high.

again i want to thank everyone for your help on this

thanks

[Bucster]

This may or not be an option for you. I had a similar situation with 4th grade soccer pictures. I wasn't trying to make a huge profit off of the parents but I did want to recover some of my costs. I opened a pro-account with Smugmug and started to put the pictures on my pro-account site. You can set the pricing of each of the photos and even sell the files. If you do it this way you don't have to mess with all the burning of the cds and the parents can have access to the pictures just as soon as you upload them to the site. Most parents want to buy the images contemporaneous to the actual event. I ended up selling photos after each event and then continued sales throughout the rest of the year. It doesn't cost me anymore to leave the images on the site and every now and again someone buys another picture. This is a good method of reducing your work flow. This is also an easy way for everyone to immediately look at the pictures.

Just my $.02. :)

[Sisters_photography]

This may or not be an option for you. I had a similar situation with 4th grade soccer pictures. I wasn't trying to make a huge profit off of the parents but I did want to recover some of my costs. I opened a pro-account with Smugmug and started to put the pictures on my pro-account site. You can set the pricing of each of the photos and even sell the files. If you do it this way you don't have to mess with all the burning of the cds and the parents can have access to the pictures just as soon as you upload them to the site. Most parents want to buy the images contemporaneous to the actual event. I ended up selling photos after each event and then continued sales throughout the rest of the year. It doesn't cost me anymore to leave the images on the site and every now and again someone buys another picture. This is a good method of reducing your work flow. This is also an easy way for everyone to immediately look at the pictures.

Just my $.02. :)
Thats sounds like something I need to look into but do you get to pick the lab that you use with Smugmug or do you have to use their lab. I have a lab that I use and I love them they help me out way to much to change.

[Bucster]

Unfortunately you have to use their lab. I'm not sure but I think they farm out the pictures to another lab. This being said, I have never had a complaint about the quality or the delivery time.

The other thing they provide is absolutely awesome customer support. If I send and e-mail question they will get back to me within a couple of hours if its a business day; and if its overnight I can always count on an e-mail from them as soon as they get into the office.

[IVY]

Web site idea works great, I got the website for myself more then 3 years ago, there I can upload, manage, delete photos, as well as take/process orders, and create packages, change prices, create discount codes/coupons etc . Printing can be send off or you can print it yourself in your favorite lab.
The parents can review photos and place an order right away, even CDs/DVDs. All photos have a copyright mark across so it would be hard to print even if low res image riped form website, besides right click and IE save pic scripts are disabled on my website
Hosting of the website is about 100$ a year, and that is not the cheapest one.

[JMHPhotography]

I wouldn't do a CD/DVD at all. As a parent myself, I wouldn't buy one because I'm not going to pay for a CD full of pictures of other kids. And to set up a unique CD for everyone is a logistical impossibility.

You're better off setting up a website with the galleries set up there and you either do cards with web addresses to each of the parents or use a sign up sheet with email and you can email out the invites where they can go and buy the prints they want... of THEIR kids.

[352McCoy]

Another option; I shot HS football this past fall and made up 145 different 4 x 6 prints. They were all quality shots and there was at least two different photos of each player.
My wife numbered each photo, then she used some nice signboards with backing. We also used a thumb drive to showcase our work on a very nice overhead projector system while the ceremonies proceeded. We had order forms near each of the five signboards for our parent and player customers. Our customers placed orders with us throughout the evening and we ended up selling many photos at various sizes. It was a lot of work, but we do not have a web site yet so this was the best we could do. And besides, this gave the banquet a nice personal touch and we have been invited to do this once again!