Pricing questions?

I am looking to charge and advertise for portraits in my area. I live in a pretty small place, so I don't feel that it is proper to call and ask the future competition what they charge, as there are only a handful of photographers here. So I took to online to see what they charge and only found 2 with websites. The one lady charges $75 per session (1-3 hours with the person/people on location without backdrops... such as outdoor pics). To get the CD and rights to all the photos from that session, she charges $325. The other website was a guy that charged per photo (e.g. $15 for an 8X10, $1 for wallet size, etc). He will shoot with his portable backgrounds, outdoors, etc.

This leads me to some questions. If a person charges for the session (or sitting fee), than are the prints extra? The guy that charges for the prints, didn't mention a sitting fee on his website. But the lady that charges a sitting fee didn't mention what the prints cost. My second question is what are some general prices that you have heard of, or what do you charge? And what do you charge extra for a CD or portraits? I realize that it varies by area and so this is probably too general to get an accurate answer for my area, but I still wanted to ask. As a beginner (to the professional/charging realm) should I price less for the first year or so, till I have a reputation in the field? I don't want to under price, get a clientele and than have to raise my price though, which can cause unhappy repeat customers. I am also cautious of under-selling my work. I look at what Walmart or those that have a setup with portable backgrounds and show up to the schools and offer packages for under $30.

Any helpful tips for starting out would be great. I had someone approach me today, and say that they saw some of my photographs and wanted some professional photos of their grandchildren. They asked if I would be interested. I said that of course I would, but I have to look around and see what local pricing is. I have done photographs for friends, but want to start it professionally. And now I have my first request for a client. So I need to figure out the pricing thing.

I'm currently in the same situation myself. I've been shooting for nearly 20 years but it was always natural light and now have access to a studio and am learning the ropes there, and as I've processed the images and got some good ones I've posted them on Facebook. On the strength of these I've been contacted by 3 relatives of my wife and a friend of mine to do shots of their kids. I've done two sessions already and have a third this Saturday. I've told all parties that there'll be no sitting fee (for now) but they will have to pay for the prints.

With this I get more practise with the possibility of some sales. Maybe not the ideal situation but it will do me for the next few months until I've built up more experience with the lighting and posing.

I can tell you what I did when I first started. I had and still do not have a studio and I work all natural light with fill flash only when necessary.

I began with a few basic packages that include my time on location and a low res. disc with very limited number of edited photos. Separate pricing for photo packages as well as a la carte.
session pricing will depend on your area. 30 minutes of shooting will yield a disc with 10-15 retouched, low res images.

When I started selling photo packages, I bit my lip and took the liberty of printing a few images for each of my clients at no charge. This proved to be exceptional marketing as it sold every one of them on the difference between a professional lab print and 1 hour photo at the corner convenience store. Then I began getting photo package orders with every session, so I don't mind giving out a low res disc that they know is strictly for 5x7 images and under. Now I provide samples of each at my consultations so the clients sees the difference up front.

No one can really set your price but you and it depends on a lot of factors. You can get more $ for the same work in a place like NY, LA, or Dallas, than you can in a tiny town of 1000 people, 50 miles from the nearest city.

It really sounds like you have a lot of options, so you need to figure out what is best for you. Keep in mind that if you do sell the disc, if someone goes to the 1 hour photo mart and prints off a nasty looking 8x10, that is the image that will be representing you as a business. Lab print quality is so much better and personally, I don't want my business being represented by whatever printer is running that day. That is why I only offer low-res and my clients understand why.