First paid event, Please Help!!!

I've been approached with a possible project taking pictures for a young girl's 15th B-Day party. To be honest this would be my first paid gig and I really don't know how much to charge her. From what I've been told, the event is at a ball room hall and should be about 3 to 4 hours in length. So far this is all the info I have. I have done an engagement shoot for a family member in the past, but that was probono work.

So with this information, what is an acceptable rate for the event?

Also, please share any consideration you might have for me, I'm sure I haven't thought about many.

Thanks

R.

the main question is what do you think you, your time, & your experience is worth?

you could charge $100...you could charge $300. how much work you plan on putting into this? how much equipment you gonna haul around? how much PP you wanna do? there's no right or wrong answer to your question. Maybe getting an acceptable range for something like this & go from there to figure out what works best for you.

I hear exactly what you're saying and that's what I'm looking for, a range of where to start. I'm new to this so I don't know what an acceptable starting price would be. I believe she was quoted $800 by another photographer and she thought that was a bit expensive, so I'm using that as a guide so to speak. If I had to quote her right now, I would probably say $300.00. Does that sound about right for a new photographer starting out with this type of event?

R.

wow....$800 for a 3-4 hr gig for a 15th b-day party?? he must have some serious talent or something....that's gotta be at least three times the amount of the budget for the party!

unless this is a quinceanera?

IMO...$300 sounds fair enough, as long as you feel that your work quality is worth that much. If you're just gonna snap, print, & deliver that may be on the high side. But if you plan on getting posed family shots, awesome candid shots, & do a fair amt of PP, that doesn't seem too bad.

josullivan,
That's what I was thinking of doing, getting involved, taking good candid shots, individual shots etc... then PPing and making them look good, add some effects etc.... I'm not just snapping and handing over.

What I don't know yet is if she wants prints, and if so how. That would change the cost quite a bit.

Let me ask you something, if printing, how do you handle that, do you prep the images in LR of PS then take somewhere to print and add that cost to the client on top of the hourly rate or do you print at home, then add the cost of materials (ink/paper)? I would think printing at home would be VERY expensive.

R.

well...being the client would assume that for the price she's getting charged, prints would be included. Otherwise, what's the use of hiring a photog? So charging x-dollars more for prints wouldn't make sense.

& unless you have a professional printer at home, I'd say send the prints out. It's cheaper & it'll last longer. I personally would be pissed if i got prints that were ink-printed on a home photo printer, but that's just me. If I pay for prints, I want professional printing (whatever method they use).

Just make sure that what you see on your monitor matches close enough, if not exact, to what the prints come out as. Prepare by finding a print company (online, or local brick-and-mortar place) & send a couple pics to them to print out. Then you'll see how much calibration you need to do on your end to get colors to match. If you don't do that, & instead just snap, edit, & print right after the party, you could be rudely awakened if the prints don't come out looking how they should. Then you'd be eating the cost of that print job, & have to calibrate & do another print job or two.

I agree about the printing. I have a printer that does pictures like a pro, you just have to feed it the right paper, but as you can imagine it eats up ink and can got expensive.

I'm good to go with using a company for the printing. I've used a place near my house that does a great job and I know how the images come out compared to what I'm looking at. The color is the same I just need to brighten them up just a tad since they come out a bit darker than what's on the computer.
What I do need to do though is try and get some sample paper to show the client and let them decide what look they want, as far as glossy, mat, etc.... I also need to get solid idea on what the cost would be so I can add up the total.

Thanks for the info, it's been very helpful.

R.

as far as the cost for the prints, come up w/ several different package options you can provide. (ie...1-8x10, 4-4x6, 4 3x5, 6 wallets). This way, you can find out the cost of each print at each size & how many you'd need per package to come up w/ the package price. Then you can present her w/ the packages & let her pick. Better than going there & saying "$x for this size, $y for that size, $z for this size...how many of each do you want".

If she'd like to customize a package, let her, but tack on a couple extra bucks for a non-standard package option

Great idea.

Another question for you. Where or how did you come up with a contract or agreement? Is there a liability form that applies etc... I guess I'm looking for the paperwork part of this.

R.

I do this type of thing often since I advertise slumber party photo shoots. $300 for 4 hrs is right in line with what I would charge. All my pics go up on Zenfolio and they buy what they want. The minimum promised shots are brought down to web ready and they get that to keep. Since it is a teenage party, that web ready cd is really a selling point!

rickp1 wrote in post #11824017
Great idea.

Another question for you. Where or how did you come up with a contract or agreement? Is there a liability form that applies etc... I guess I'm looking for the paperwork part of this.

R.

I haven't done any paid photoshoots I do DJ as as side business though, but the contract I use was originally drafted up by a lawyer. I have liability insurance as well, even though my contract states that I'm not liable for anythign that happens to someone (ie...someone falls while dances & blames it on me cause I was playing the music. Yes...it's happened. Not to me though!)

Whatever you do tho...esp. if you don't know these people from a hole in the wall...get your terms of agreement written down & signed by you & them. Don't do ANY work w/out anything written down that pertains to what you all agreed upon

karobinson,
Can you expalin the Zenfolio and the web ready? How do they see the images and not be able to download them and just keep them.

How do you break down the event in terms of images taken or them buying what they want?

That brings up another question, how man images are you taking or gving the client at the end?

R.

I'd suggest that for now, you should keep things easy for now & sit down w/ them to review the final pictures using a CD or USB drive & their (or your) computer. Then, as time goes on, work on a website & all that fun stuff.

I have a Zenfolio acct too (www.zenfolio.com), so I can help a little w/ the question relating to that. There's an option w/in the Zenfolio portfolio that prevents people from right-clicking the picture & saving it to their computer. But if they're extremely computer literate, they'd still be able to dig it out of the browser's cache.

Regarding the 'web ready", it sounds like karobinson gives her clients a disc of the agreed # of pictures that are great for viewing on the web (ie...personal web sites, thru email, blogs, etc..), but probably don't print out too well in 3x5 size & up. But karobinson would have to answer that one as that's my guess as to what she means by that.

They have a 14 day trial period. You should check it out...I'm happy w/ them.


how much time do you have til this party? to be honest (not knocking ya here), but it sounds like you're not really ready for a paid photog event. You have very legit questions (good thing!), but to implement the responses could take more time than you have. You should really sit down, figure out exactly how you wanna do something like this. Come up w/ packages/options, pic viewing access, pic availability to clients, contracts (if you wanna be serious about it), & anything else that may come up.

josullivan,
Thanks for the info on the website.

I'm not sure how long until the party. I was just asked if I would be interested in doing it should I be approached, so just in case I'm trying to be proactive and get all my ducks in a row. I would agree with you about not being ready for it, hence my quest for all this info here and now.

I have a lot of info to process and paperwork to generate, so its' time to get busy. This wont be my last post on this.

My first step is to find an agreement I can use, something on paper that will cover me and the client. Then I'm going to get prices for print packages.

Again, thanks for all the info and help, it's much appreciated.

R.

BTW one more question, how many pictures is the normal amount to give the client for this type of event?

R.