Grip and Grin pricing?

Standard "smile with the celeb" type portraits.
2-3 hours on-site work, 100-200 images, with 8x10 prints delivered to the company. A copy of each image with the celeb sent to the company for the celeb to sign and get delivered.

Printing, shipping, time, organization with a proof cd.......

I also want to make sure to GET the job.......

$500?

Are you printing all those 8x10's for that price?

You should certainly get the job at 500.00. I find it abnormally low for what you have to deliver. Assuming a volume discount for the 8X10's I would somewhere near 2000.00.

If you are intent on getting the work for the sake of just getting it be warned that you are setting a standard for working with at least this customer. If they happen to tell anyone else that you are a budget shooter it is sometimes hard to get your prices to a reasonable level. There is always an inherent danger in trying to buy work. On the other hand if this is what you want to do to get your foot in the door then by all means go for it.

Printing 8x10's: I would only be delivering them. I'll be having them printed thru mpix. Doing the math, 150 8x10 prints is $300.

I'm thinking I'll need an assistant too.

This is a one-off. The celeb will be in town for a "awareness campaign." It's sponsored by a nationwide pharmaceutical company.

My thing with pricing, I recently lost 2 jobs due to over-pricing my service. I want to be careful, make $$ but also GET the job to even make $$.

Now I'm thinking $800-1k....

Edit, local price for a 8x10 is $4.50...

Do the math - $4.50 x 200 = $900. Your time for three hours (not just taking the pictures, but organizing the picture taking event, which can be stressful), should be at LEAST $75 per hour.

Miscellaneous Expenses - Gas, food, lodging(?) those add up to.

Sharpen your pencil, and re-cost it. It should be about $1300-$1500.

I have to agree with the rest. In my opinion you need to look at $1500 to $2K--especially if you are paying for all of the print work. If they are hiring a celeb for pictures they will want to hire a professional to take the pictures. If you charge them "cheap" rates they may not think you are professional.
I would always ask them "What is your budget for a photographer?" \
Then no matter what they say---you need to say "Ohhh"
then pause.
Typically they will then say, "well we might be able to offer a little more"
Then you tell them for the work that has to be put in and editing and need for an assistant you really need to to ask for "X".
Trust me---it is about them buying YOU. If your price is in line and even more they will run with it.

Keep in mind that underbidding is one of the best ways you'll find _not_ to get a job

bieber wrote in post #3734824
Keep in mind that underbidding is one of the best ways you'll find _not_ to get a job

Not to mention how bad it hurts our market. We all want the work but when someone can go get the same thing done for 500.00 when it really should be at least 1,200, then what does that do for all of us?

Halliday wrote in post #3732293
Standard "smile with the celeb" type portraits.
2-3 hours on-site work, 100-200 images, with 8x10 prints delivered to the company. A copy of each image with the celeb sent to the company for the celeb to sign and get delivered.

Printing, shipping, time, organization with a proof cd.......

I also want to make sure to GET the job.......

$500?

No. I wouldn't touch that job for anything under $2000-$2500, especially considering you are delivering prints. Print cost, hours of work, ordering prints, post processiung work involved, travel to and from the job, gas, lunch.

Thsi job will cost you money at $500 and probably break even at $1200.

Yeah, after thinking more it's looking to be more expensive. Ship 100-200 8x10 prints from IA to NY.... :O

$1800-2000 ballpark figure now.

Halliday wrote in post #3736600
Yeah, after thinking more it's looking to be more expensive. Ship 100-200 8x10 prints from IA to NY.... :O

$1800-2000 ballpark figure now.

Wow you have to ship them as well...get a quote and factor in all your costs. Lay them out:

900 - prints
200 - Shipping
75 dollars/hour both shooting and processing

don't know how many hours that will be but I'm assuming it will be close to 15 at least.

Cheers,

Transcendence wrote in post #3735620
Not to mention how bad it hurts our market. We all want the work but when someone can go get the same thing done for 500.00 when it really should be at least 1,200, then what does that do for all of us?

I've never believed that one person should be overly concerned with whether or not another person can get work.

Costs should be figured out, compensation for time should be included, shipping, etc., and a quote given based on what the person actually doing the work is comfortable with, not based on someone else being able to get a job...

Steve Parr wrote in post #3740332
I've never believed that one person should be overly concerned with whether or not another person can get work.

Costs should be figured out, compensation for time should be included, shipping, etc., and a quote given based on what the person actually doing the work is comfortable with, not based on someone else being able to get a job...

...and this is coming from someone who has a few L-series lens. I agree 100%!

Steve Parr wrote in post #3740332
I've never believed that one person should be overly concerned with whether or not another person can get work.

Costs should be figured out, compensation for time should be included, shipping, etc., and a quote given based on what the person actually doing the work is comfortable with, not based on someone else being able to get a job...

Well, I think the point was to not underprice and undercut the industry as a whole, and not so much what other people are getting job wise. There's way to many people out there now that think they are professional photographers when they're not. To many people undercut pro photographers, do lesser quality work, but land a job because they're cheap, and then never get hired again because the quality sucked, and yet companies still go looking for the cheap hires to do it all over again. Now I'm not saying you can't beat or match someones offer, I've done it but there's always that number (figured out by so many factors) that once it gets below that you walk as a professional. I've walked and had companies come back saying "we messed up", and personally I'd rather work for people who give a darn about the quality than joe schmoe who don't. It's pretty much every profession, but yet people do not take photography as serious as something like having having a new addition built on the house. If someone comes in with low prices for that then the owner will ask "why is it so cheap", photography on the other hand "oh yay! we saved money!" --- even though the quality isn't as good.

MJPhotos24 wrote in post #3741673
Well, I think the point was to not underprice and undercut the industry as a whole, and not so much what other people are getting job wise. There's way to many people out there now that think they are professional photographers when they're not. To many people undercut pro photographers, do lesser quality work, but land a job because they're cheap, and then never get hired again because the quality sucked, and yet companies still go looking for the cheap hires to do it all over again. Now I'm not saying you can't beat or match someones offer, I've done it but there's always that number (figured out by so many factors) that once it gets below that you walk as a professional. I've walked and had companies come back saying "we messed up", and personally I'd rather work for people who give a darn about the quality than joe schmoe who don't. It's pretty much every profession, but yet people do not take photography as serious as something like having having a new addition built on the house. If someone comes in with low prices for that then the owner will ask "why is it so cheap", photography on the other hand "oh yay! we saved money!" --- even though the quality isn't as good.

A little over a year ago, I shot a wedding; my one and only. I did it for $600.00. I was damn near read the riot act by "real" wedding photographers for doing it for such a small sum of money.

They insisted that I took work away from the wedding photographers trying to earn a living.

So, I asked them if they would've done it for $600.00. The answer, of course, was that they would not. But the bride and groom were unwilling to pay the prices quoted to them by "real" wedding photographers.

So, I took the job that nobody else would do, at a fee that nobody else would accept, and "real" wedding photographers wet themselves over it anyway. The whole experience left a real sour taste for these "professionals", and convinced me that I shouldn't allow myself to be concerned with whether or not someone else is able to get a job because of what I was paid.

Both me and my client were satisfied with my fee, and with the results I gave them. That's all that matters.

In my opinion, based on that experience, wedding photographers are some of the most overpaid prima donnas on the planet...