what to charge small private school for yearbook pictures

I have been approached to take yearbook photos for a small private school of about only 50 students. I normally do youth sports team photos and have packages that I can easily modify for this purpose. I am wondering how much to charge the school for coming in setting up and taking pictures of the students for the pictures that will be used in the yearbook.

Their previous photographer used to offer a photo cd of all the students, faculty, and staff for this purpose for a set fee instead of individual prints. He has since moved out of the area.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Is there a way you can ask them what they were paying the previous photographer, or what their budget is?

Sounds like they're used to paying a day rate. I would say offer your standard day rate, you're unlikely to get a licensing fee from a school per student.

If you want to deal with the hassle, you may want to ask for the rights to offer prints for purchase to each student / family. That could become quite a logistical headache, and the school may ask for a kickback off of the revenue you earn, so be forewarned.

My contact just emailed me saying in the past they received an 8X10 of the whole group and a cd with all group and individual photos on it for $300. This would be a lot less work for me than having to take individual orders and I am tempted to go with it. Any thoughts?

Emily Hudson wrote in post #17725086
My contact just emailed me saying in the past they received an 8X10 of the whole group and a cd with all group and individual photos on it for $300. This would be a lot less work for me than having to take individual orders and I am tempted to go with it. Any thoughts?

Is this correct...50 head shots + group shots with processing done on them for $300...or am I missing something..?

So $300/50+ = $6/ea. image give or take...

How does that compare to what you charge for your other photography..?

Yikes. When you put it that way...

For family portraits I charge $225 for up to 4 people for 15 touched up images on a cd. For youth team photos I offer print packages ranging from $15-$55 plus add-ons. I have never done yearbook photos for a small school before.

It's no more than a days work capturing the shots, but the PP will be onerous though, and that's where the costs come in I'd say. Basic head shots minor retouching etc I'd say you're looking at three days in total?

$300 for all that work, especially the retouching, is highway robbery in broad daylight. I'd start at the one grand mark and go from there.

I'd say no more than two days with minor re-touching.

Alaric, I would love to charge a grand, but I know they would have a heart attack. It is a very small private school.

If you get everything right in camera there should not be any retouching needed. My daughters school pictures charged $12 for retouching. Otherwise you get exactly as your child looked. I would think you could run a batch process on the photos and have the processing done in a couple hours.

Non the less its a bit low if you ask me. Most private schools charge students to attend in turn making money.

Thanks for the input. What would you recommend as a fee?

Emily, for what it's worth, I recently did a headshot session for a local dental practice. There were 6 people in total and they wanted one headshot of each and a staff (group) photograph. The setup was a neutral grey background and a 3-light arrangement. Once the lights were all set, it was assembly line mechanics, so the shoot went quite swiftly. Retouching was minimal (just stray hair and lint on garments: my policy in terms of retouching is very conservative: no skin smoothing, no slimming with the liquefy filter, and so forth: essentially, if it's been there longer than a week it stays there). I shot about 3-4 frames of each person and they got to pick one from an online gallery: that'd be the only one I'd retouch. I threw in the group photo for free.

Final price was $490 plus tax. (They did benefit from a 10% discount for being fellow members of the local chamber of commerce, so $441 plus tax.)

Something like this is not unlike what you'd be doing. If $1K is too much, you could lower it to somewhere betwixt $500 and $999. Three hundred dollars is just laughable, unless the photography is really mediocre (no, I'm not saying yours is so, as a matter of fact I've never seen your images).

I understand that you might feel for them or don't want to burn a bridge, or what have you, but if you get people used to paying peanuts, you're not only spitting on your own work and effort, but you train them to pay low fees, and the moment you need to up your rates, bye-bye clients.

Thanks, Alveric. I really appreciate the advice!

Emily Hudson wrote in post #17725220
I'd say no more than two days with minor re-touching.

Alaric, I would love to charge a grand, but I know they would have a heart attack. It is a very small private school.

Private school as in there's tuition involved? Likely tuition in excess of $x,000 per student (and more than likely, $xx,000 per student)?

If so, passing a fee on to the parents may not be out of the question.

JacobPhoto wrote in post #17725450
Private school as in there's tuition involved? Likely tuition in excess of $x,000 per student (and more than likely, $xx,000 per student)?

If so, passing a fee on to the parents may not be out of the question.

My thoughts exactly. This brings up another question: is the school going to sell the photos to the students once they're in their possession? I'm quite relaxed with my licensing policies, but one restriction I do put on my images is 'no reselling to third parties'.