Torn apart!

My friends just asked me if I could take Christmas pictures of their family at their home. They also mentioned that are willing to compensate. I never charged for my photography and did a few shoots of my friends before (two engagement shoots) for free.

On one hand, these are my friends and I would not like to charge them. On the other hand, at some point I will need to start charging.

How did you guys do this when you just started? How much did you do it for free? If I do charge, how much?

To give you an idea of my capabilities please see my flickr account.

I think rather than asking these questions to complete stranges who don't know what market you live in, you may want to look around your local area and see what people are charging around there. Being friends you really have a few options, and as this will be your first paid shoot that opens it slightly more. This is really the time to start putting a value on yourself. Determine between now and your preshoot session what your prices will be, and then you can relay that to your customers. Generally you'll charge a session fee for the shoot, and then charge them for the prints that they'll be buying. The price of prints is where thing start to go haywire for me. Look into the place you'll get them printed, unless you're putting on a CD and they print. If you're printing you'll want to charge for the cost of post process/print price/ and shipping. If you put the images on a CD you should either way get a contract signed stating the permissions you are giving them for photo use.

As I see it you have people who are willing to pay you for your talent. Friends or not do not turn that opportunity away. Only way I could see fit not to charge is if you're using their gear, snapshot style work at their location, and know that it won't be a lot of work.

Thank you very much for your advice!

Any advice on most commonly used printing locations? Also, what usually goes into a contract releasing pictures for printing?

Most people I've seen around really like WHCC, a quick google search will get you directly to their site. As for a release for printing contract I can't quite help you with that, but again a quick google search will probably provide many results to thumb through (so to speak.)

Do not charge for these. They will pay you for Christmas portraits next year. Get your confidence up a bit before you make a move like this, especially for friends.

To this day, I don't charge friends. I'm doing a wedding in May for a friend and have turned down a number of opportunities to do paid weddings for that day. But, hey, friends are friends.

However, you need to remind yourself that there are friends and then there are friends. Are these people truly close to you? Would they help you move? Shoot for free; let it be your Christmas gift to them. Are they really only acquaintances with whom you have a friendly relationship? Don't do it for free because they should value your time and work. But I still wouldn't take money. Let them take you to dinner or buy you a drink.

I just charged friends for my first ever portrait shots and it went really well, they ended up ordering 57 prints. If they say they'll compensate then take the extra money.

I don't have a problem with this.

"Acquaintances with whom you have a friendly relationship" describes nearly every single one of my clients, especially my repeat clients. My barber would be out of business in a week if he operated on that basis.

xmas family portraits for friends/friends - assuming they are local, I wouldn't charge a thing, and give them a disc once editing is done.
shooting a wedding for a friend - never. not free, not if they pay. I no longer offer wedding services for friends, for many reasons

Then you're taking my term of acquaintences too loosely.

It gets back to my, "there are friends and then there are friends" comment. Past clients are past clients; they are not friends. We don't call each other up and hang out at the pub for an hour or two. But to harken back to one of my earlier statements and something I consider to be a pretty good benchmark, there are friends who would help me move and there are some who wouldn't. There are some with whom I'm close enough to ask for that kind of help and there are others who I wouldn't even consider asking, although I would still consider them a friend.

For one class of friend, I will do anything gratis as I know they would do the same for me.

For those other friends, although I do consider them friends, I want some recognition in exchange for what I'm doing such as a dinner.

For those who are truly only acquaintances, I have a price list.

It doesn't hurt to show friends a price list and then tell them you will give them a significant discount, because they are friends, swearing them to secrecy. That way they will appreciate your "value" more and when they refer business your way they won't say "he/she did our shoot for free". You can discount to the point it just covers your costs. Most good friends would at least want to cover your costs.

In exchange for the discount, ask them to sign model releases so that you can use the images for self promotion without any restrictions. You'll need to put together a good release and will likely need one for each person in the shots (any kid's release needs to be signed by a parent/guardian). It could just be the "core" of the family that's released, and you will only be able to use the images of them, not Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Joe, if they are also in some shots.

If you need a release, Google up a copy of the ASMP release as a starting point. It's a good one.

Get in the habit of doing paperwork right away... Think about signing a contract with them.

You just need to license the images for their personal use in perpetuity, to include third party printing of the images on their behalf... non-transferable, no additional rights, no commercial usage without further written permission of the copyright holder, which you should spell out in writing that you retain.

Maybe next year they'll order Christmas cards from you using the images.

Charge them a small nominal fee, but make a big deal out of the fact that they will be your first paying customers. Make them feel speacial that they are the ones that launched your photography career.

Friends = free, especially at your level.

I'm doing a portrait shoot for a friend. I've said after you get the images give me a gift that represents the value you get from them, and i've given them my price list so they know what I usually charge.