Senior Portrait Pricing...

I just got off the phone with a young lady; the daughter of an old friend, asking me to shoot her Senior portrait.

I've shot plenty of portraits, although never Senior portraits, specifically. I was just wondering what kind of pricing structure I should look at. Her Dad said "NO DISCOUNTS!", which I like, but I'll probably cut them a bit of a break, anyway. Her Dad and I go waaaaay back together.

Is pricing for Senior portraits necessarily any different than for any other kind of portrait?

Muchos grassyass...

Pretty much the same except some girls will expect you to spend lots of time and go thru lots of outfits.

mobei wrote in post #14290253
Pretty much the same except some girls will expect you to spend lots of time and go thru lots of outfits.

LOL!

Actually, I think Charlotte is more of the "Just take the picture and let's get done with this" type of person than someone who would be "high maintenance"...

I use a different pricing scheme because it's a substantially different service with a different range of products (for me) compared to either my formal portraiture or my business portraits.

For one, my senior work is normally done in two sessions, either at two different locations or one in studio and the other on location. I provide a greater variety of products than any other service because there will be more images sold in a greater variety of forms.

This all amounts to a different range of packages, a different way of pricing the sessions, et cetera, to provide both high perceived value to the client and a worthwhile profit to me.

Hourly rate for the shoot, plus prices for prints.

Offer a few different packages for prints, plus a la carte prices for any add-ons, or if they want to build their own package.

Are you designing and printing graduation announcement cards as well? If not, consider it. Once you have a couple of templates in hand, they don't add a lot of extra effort to your workflow.

nathancarter wrote in post #14292494
Hourly rate for the shoot, plus prices for prints.

Offer a few different packages for prints, plus a la carte prices for any add-ons, or if they want to build their own package.

Are you designing and printing graduation announcement cards as well? If not, consider it. Once you have a couple of templates in hand, they don't add a lot of extra effort to your workflow.

I'm not.

Shooting senior portraits just ain't my gig. The only reason I'm doing it in this instance is because it's the daughter of an old friend.

Thanks for the input, gang!

Ah, if it's a one-time thing then you might not go through all the trouble of setting up several different print packages - just ask what sort of final prints they're looking for, and make some recommendations. Wallets, big prints, collages, whatever.

I made a Christmas tree of prints then doubled it for divorced parents. It's popular as heck and hugely appreciated by squabbling parents since there's two of everything they don't have to fight over. Just throw some stuff together, heavily weighted towards wallets for the girl to pass out to friends, slap a price tag on it and they'll be happy.

People don't like to overthink their senior package. They just want stuff for friends, mom, dad, and grandparents.

I use to offer different packages for senior, family, etc, but it was to complicated, now I just have one set of packages.

My main tip is offer everything, let them know about it, and youll be surprised how many go for the upgrades. I just sold a $1200 package because I offered stuff, and had examples to show. I never really thought I would sell that package but it had everything they wanted, after a couple substitutions.

I dont force them to get x number of 8x10's or wallets, I just offer them sheets, one pose per sheet, then they pick what they want, 8x10's, 5x7's, etc.

Also all my packages include an hour of photography, for those that do a reorder or order multiple packages, they save $50 after the first one, I dont want to double charge them.

My first package is simple, 4 sheets of prints for $150.
My second package is almost as simple, 9 sheets of prints and 40 rep cards for $300.

and so on. Then in my a la carte list I have everything, $35 for a sheet, $100 for a set of 40 rep cards, $100 for 40 grad cards, $400 for a press printed album with 20 pages/20 pictures, $125 for a 11x14, $150 for a storyboard design *plus the cost of the wall print*, etc.

The more you offer, the more they may buy.

I sometimes toss in a freebie or so for good paying customers and hardship cases. Usually something that promotes my business as well, like the rep cards. All depends on my profit margin and how im doing that month.

What's a sheet?

GerryDavid wrote in post #14304526
I dont force them to get x number of 8x10's or wallets, I just offer them sheets, one pose per sheet, then they pick what they want, 8x10's, 5x7's, etc.

A sheet can be a single 8x10, two 5x7's, four 3.5's or eight wallets. I think some here dont like the idea of sheets, just prints, but this works for me.

Thanks for the clarification.
Do you do the printing or do you send it out?
If you do the printing how do you cut the smaller sizes?
Rototrim?

I use WHCC, and I just leave them on the sheet and let the customer cut them out.

mdelrossi wrote in post #14305308
Thanks for the clarification.
Do you do the printing or do you send it out?
If you do the printing how do you cut the smaller sizes?
Rototrim?

I have wallets delivered to me cut and I package them in branded boxes for delivery to the client.

I put 4x5 to 5x7 prints individually into branded folders.

Everything larger is framed.

I can get dyecut wallets but they cost more by something like x2 and it means a seperate order to meet the min requirement of. I do offer dye cut but there is an additional fee for it.