Just starting out

Hello,

I have beeen taking pictures as a hobby for a few years and have found my passion/calling. I have had a few people ask if I could take portraits of their children and how much I would charge. One client wants me to drive to Laguna Niguel which is an hour away and shoot her 3 girls on the beach for a Christmas photo.

I was thinking of charging $100.00 sitting fee for my time and travel. Is this reasonable? What else am I missing?

Thans for your help!
Nicki

Here's a few things that I take into consideration for pricing my work:

- Your time (both shooting and prost processing)
- Travel (time and costs including petrol/cab fares etc)
- Insurance costs (if you have any)
- Your gear
- Your competition (is there any? and if so what can they provide for what price?)
- Tax
- Profit

Some portrait photographers charge little for the sitting fee but lots for the prints. Others would go the other way around. It's really up to you as to how you price your work, but I think it is important not to sell yourself short. When you do a shoot for a client and do a good job, they will often bring about more clients via word of mouth. Part of that word of mouth will be your price and you will find it difficult to charge more to the next client if they know that their friend paid less.

I hope this helps.

Thank you! I really appreciate your time!

Nicki

For a hobbyist that is trying to break into the pro ranks, that is reasonable.

However, suppose the client agrees to $100. Suppose you go and shoot it and the client pays. Now what?

Chances are you will edit the shots and get some best ones (in your opinion) to show to the client. Just suppose you get total junk. Now what are you going to do? Suppose you get ten out of ten perfect ones. Now what? Are you going to furnish the digital files for free to the client? Are you going to print some for the client and then try to charge an outrageous sum for each one? Think about it. There are no incorrect answers. You just might want to have a verbal agreement with the client in advance. Or a written one.

I did this for some friends one time. $100. The deal was that I would provide small proofs printed on one sheet. Then the client would choose the ones they wanted. Then I would give them those in electronic files on one CD-R, and then they could have those printed anyway they wanted. I did that primarily because I did not want to be in the business of printing a huge number of prints myself. I did not think that their photos would have any value to me for any future purpose. When I gave them the CD-R, I gave them a printed, signed, unlimited release for their purposes, since some labs will not print if they think the holder might be violating a copyright.

---Bob Gross---

Thank yoou so much for your help.I send off my quote today and charge $150.00 sitting fee. I advised that I will provide a website where she can view all of her photo's as well as a CD of the pics. I want to take you advise on the part of printing, sign unlimited release... How exactly do I complete this?

I also am not looking to be bogged down with printing images and appreciate your advice.

Thank you,
Nicki

Everybody has a different business model.

Some photographers like to charge a big initial fee, and then let the client get prints cheaply. Some photographers like to charge a low initial fee, and then they want to make lots of money on prints later. By "lots" of money, I mean a client price of 3 to 10 times the actual print lab price.

Some clients will get pissed if they have to pay the big initial fee. Other clients will get pissed if they have to pay the high print costs at the end. I prefer to avoid all of that and just tell the client up front that the charge is XXX and for that I will provide only certain items, like a CD-R, and from there on, the printing is all up to them.

You might recommend certain local print companies, or you might recommend certain online print companies if you know of good ones. I even gave my client the entire price list for one good online company for prints.

---Bob Gross---

i think a lot of people who try to turn photography into a hobby simply look at it as a way to make a hundred or several hunderd an hour at something they enjoy doing, and rightfully so... and i also think a lot of people jump in to fast w/out enough experiance, not saying you don't have it, i dont know

id start by shooting your friends and family and their friends and family to get really comfy w/ this. if its an hour away, chances are you are not going to want to drive down there if something goes wrong. on the flip side of the coin, don't overshoot to the point where you spend several hours editing in photoshop because you have 15 very very similar photos

Thank you Bob. Who do you currently use for online printing?

Nicki

Thank you Mike. I have spent the last 6 years taking photos at every event that I attend to gain practice. I have had several people tell me that it's time to take the plunge and get paid for my work and time. I decided it was time!!!

I want to be fair and charge a nominal fee for just getting started and I appreciate all of your help and thoughts!

Currently, I do all of my printing at home (up to 13x19 inches), and I go through $400-$500 worth of ink per year.

I have seen some very good work from MPIX.

---Bob Gross---

Costco has made some great 12" X 18" prints for me for $3.

That sounds awfully cheap.

Just for round numbers, I figure that my ink costs me about $1 per square foot, and paper is about 50 cents.

---Bob Gross---

I thought so too! So, I repeat, " Costco has made some great 12" X 18" prints for me for $3." I showed a few to the guys that came out to the racing weekend last month & they agreed with me.
I guess I should put a thread in "Post P" so I can stop repeating myself! .

Costco is cheap and quite good, 4x6 go for 17 cents and the price goes up slowly. FrankC, have you ever had someone turn the picture over and see the Costco signature, and if so do you ever get any questions about it?

No, 'cause they don't put Costco on the back of the12X18" prints for some reason. Also, there's an option to select what goes on the back of the print! Like your © notice.
I've told them where I get the prints, too. Why should I care? They pay the same price no matter where I get it from, right?