STICKY: How Much do I charge? For your consideration

I am on the cusp of all this at the moment, have done three weddings for free for close friends and family, which I got a steep learning curve and portfolio images from, at the last wedding I let them know to "word of mouth" my co-worker and I, but any referel wedding would be charged for.

I'm part of my daughters kindy commitee and my role is publicity officer, so I cover any events that the kindy holds and submit them to the commnunity paper. As it is a community kindy and we raise all the teachers wages running costs ourselfs through these events, this is my contribution for the year my daughter attends.

One mum and I have arranged a photo shoot of her young sons, for me to put in portfolio and she gets a CD. I have let her know that any referels she passes on or any other mums from the kindy will have to pay from now on. Hopefully in this small commumnity word of mouth will work for me, and as I have three young children, I can only do limeted work anyway.

My nieghboor who is my childrens babsitter, has asked me to cover her debutaunte ball, and asked for a price, I was thrilled that she thought enough of my work to be willing to pay me. I am thinking of telling her $40 per hour that I am there, and pp is on me If she wants any prints I will get them for her at a small profit, however I am aiming to make this my first "no cd of images" job!

What do you guys think, is this a fair price? Bethany is 15 years old, gets $80 a fortnight from me, and earns mony from being a vollyball referee at her school.

Lou

Ekir wrote in post #12844797
My nieghboor who is my childrens babsitter, has asked me to cover her debutaunte ball, and asked for a price, I was thrilled that she thought enough of my work to be willing to pay me. I am thinking of telling her $40 per hour that I am there, and pp is on me

If you're going to do "per hour", then the PP is part of the work.

Another option would be a fixed price for time on site and a set # of pictures - that way you limit the amount of PP work you have to do to picking that # of pics and the polishing just those.

Hi there everyone.. I'm new here and I just had a few questions. I hope I'm posting this in the right spot.

I was just wondering..What are my rates..? I have a samll event comming for a friend, and his mother wants me there. she wasnts to know my rates and I'm really not sure. ( i live in staten island Ny)
Also..For single prints or packages..

Im not a profesional yet, but i want to be. I have experience, Ive helped at my Aunts wedding. and I have an Anniversary coming up in October, and they want to use me. Plus a small BBQ Family party, and to take pictures of My friends Mom's sistes kids.
Ive been recently getting exposed and I would apreciate any help. Thank you.

Thank you Tim! Ok, pp part of price, wasn't sure how that worked. We have a lot of 'stingers' here who have a price for the sitting portrait, then a HUGE price per print, which is in fine print!

I sure don't want to do that practice, I want all my prices upfront and package deals the clients could choose from as well.


I think I will find out how long I am required, and do a package with the hours needed, 2x8x10 prints and a proof sheet with the final 5 prints ( I plan to take a lot more then five of course!!

There are 2 options - make most of your money on the sitting, or on the prints. If you're a well known and established photographer you can charge top dollar for the sitting and people will come. If you're just another photographer it's low risk for clients if you charge a low sitting fee and aim to make your money off the prints / digital downloads. That's what I do and my print prices are not in fine print, and I'm definitely not a stinger. What do you call huge print prices anyway for say an 8x10?

DylanDisaster wrote in post #12853561
Hi there everyone.. I'm new here and I just had a few questions. I hope I'm posting this in the right spot.

I was just wondering..What are my rates..? I have a samll event comming for a friend, and his mother wants me there. she wasnts to know my rates and I'm really not sure. ( i live in staten island Ny)
Also..For single prints or packages..

Im not a profesional yet, but i want to be. I have experience, Ive helped at my Aunts wedding. and I have an Anniversary coming up in October, and they want to use me. Plus a small BBQ Family party, and to take pictures of My friends Mom's sistes kids.
Ive been recently getting exposed and I would apreciate any help. Thank you.

Please help, I'd really appreciate it D:

DylanDisaster wrote in post #12853561
Hi there everyone.. I'm new here and I just had a few questions. I hope I'm posting this in the right spot.

I was just wondering..What are my rates..? I have a samll event comming for a friend, and his mother wants me there. she wasnts to know my rates and I'm really not sure. ( i live in staten island Ny)
Also..For single prints or packages..

Im not a profesional yet, but i want to be. I have experience, Ive helped at my Aunts wedding. and I have an Anniversary coming up in October, and they want to use me. Plus a small BBQ Family party, and to take pictures of My friends Mom's sistes kids.
Ive been recently getting exposed and I would apreciate any help. Thank you.

What is your time worth to you? What will your out-of-pocket expenses be? What is your cost of doing business? Figure those out and you will know your rates.

Sorry, I dodn't mean to cause any offence!

What I ment was the ones who do put it in fine print, and charge $600 for one 5x7

My friends went to a place and it cost them about $2000+ just for a few photos, thats ok, but put it out there so there are no nasty suprises, ie all upfrount, if you decide on prints, theese are my prices, before the sitting!

Indy I didnt have time to read all the posts but i was wondering if it was a mistake for me to tell my friends and family that because im new to photography that i would be willing to take pictures for free of any events until i finish a class im going to take in the spring.

if this a good idea? offering free service for a limited time and informing them that come next june sessions will no longer be free.

Don't jump down my throat please

I have a nephew. He plays Little League. I took pictures and made a movie/collage for each of his teammates.

The team parents chose to not pay for the official 'action' shots because they liked mine more. I figured they liked them because they were free (even though I don't think they could copy the pictures from the cd unless they tried hard).

However a few of them went to the League Board and showed them the dvd and said they couldn't pay for pictures that weren't as good as a team aunts.

So the Board hit me up. They want to know prices and see a portfolio. Besides not taking a job from a real professional, and not getting into something I'm not ready for, do you have any advice in terms of pricing?

Thx!

If the team had a contract with the prior photographer, then they should pay him for the work he did even if it's "not as good." A contract is a contract - if they agreed to something and he did the work in good faith, then they should pay him even if they found a "Better bargain" in the meantime. If they stiff him, they could do the same thing to you - or anyone else - for similar reasons.

As for what to charge - first figure out if you even want to do the job. If you do, then find out what the previous Photographer was charging, and use that as a starting point.

The league didn't back out of their contract. The action shots are optional

When I was playing paintball there was a pro photographer that would go to events and charge $3 for digital copies, now I don't know how much money she made but I never bought pictures. It seamed over priced to me. Im currently trying to start doing the same but at a price of more along the $1 range. There are other guys that build there portfolio by shooting practice pictures then offer to follow a team threw an event for a set price ie.. $80 per team per event.

Forgot to mention that the ladies husband would download pictures during the event so teams could see them prior to leaving and even buy cds.

What you could do is setup a tent and do the same, after each game dl the photos for parents to see and if they want any pictures they can buy or order from u

dougy_8505 wrote in post #13014569
There are other guys that build there portfolio by shooting practice pictures then offer to follow a team threw an event for a set price ie.. $80 per team per event.

I wonder how one could make any money doing that....