Another thread on prices

[mcmahong]

I think after you've made it through your first set of photoshoots, you'll start to build your own idea of what is a reasonable price for your market. I started off almost identically to you, had no idea what to charge (and kind of still don't) as different clients always want something different - a few digitial copies, a whole suite, a few wall pieces, etc. Quite often, clients specifically ask for images on disk as they know they can get a cheap printing deal to do themselves, such as those one-day coupon sites.

Another consideration is post-processing. A few times I've had clients say they love certain photos and would now like copies of them in black and white or some other editing like air-brushing. This can add a few hours to your time for that job, so consider whether you want to add an additional charge for those requests.

For your own calculations:
- price for the sitting/travel (maybe $50)
- a rate per hour of photographing (say $30-$50 per hour) - you determine what you are worth
- cost for consumables like batteries (maybe $30)
- cost for post-processing (say $30-$50 per hour)
- cost for covering a % of your insurance (as a guide, divide your premium by the number of jobs you would expect in a year)
- cost for prints, if needed

This comes close to your estimate of $250 for the job or more, if just providing digital copies. For that price, you still want to ensure you are delivering a quality product. In that market, one of your best advertising methods is probably word-of-mouth. Mums in mothers groups love to show off their baby prints!

[Black Dog]

I think the point what business are you in is more relevant today than ever.

Also the response to "are you any good" is irrelevant to your comment back. You can be a very accomplished photographer and and the skills are fully transferrable from children's portrait to senior citizens. Alternatively you could be a complete hack! So the quality of your work is linked more so to your pricing than your experience in shooting a particular topic.


I have worked for several portrait studios as a photographer and others as a retoucher. I can tell you that it is more about sales than photography if you want to generate any kind of income.

For example on place I worked we had a new client in the studio it self on the hour every hour, they could be individuals, families, couples anything and in that hour we had to get 200 saleable captures, do at least 3 lighting and set changes, and three wardrobe changes. Formal to nudes and everything in between. There was a fee for the sitting and that varied depending on promotions, sometimes a free 8x10 was included.

The sales person would then sell very high $$ for prints. Average sale $2500 never sold a single image on disk.

Point being you make your money in the prints sales not the sitting. If you provide images on disk it not only ruins profits it it bad marketing.

EG You see what should be a great B&W print hanging on the wall instead the client took your color image on dis and hit desaturate (grey scale rendition not a B&W image) then got it printed without any color control, and a grey image printed on a color system turns out to be magenta cast. Someone comes to the clients house and ask who produced this purpley colored flat toned image and they say YOU!

Worse yet the print it on their own desk top printer.

Also with images on disk you miss out on further contact with the client when they come to collect prints which often leads to them buy a gift voucher for a friends sitting or ordering further images they want to give to family or ones that they have regretted not ordering on the day.


Any way that is my 2cents or more like 10c lol

[SamanthaB]

What if you provide the digital negative if a print is bought rather than giving it away per se.

I charge a sitting fee of 100-250 depending on whether it's a family/newborn/child which includes [1] free print and then I offer several options in regards to digital files i.e. 5 to 50 on a disc at incremental increases and I also offer prints. Even though my prints are ridiculously inexpensive for professional printed images people still opt to just pay a couple of hundred dollars to get the images on a disc (which they will forget they bought in a year and they will never get printed... but they might get splashed on facebook so I make a watermarked low res version of each and include in the contract that they are the only images that can be shared online)

[William W]

What if you provide the digital negative if a print is bought rather than giving it away per se.

I charge a sitting fee of 100-250 depending on whether it's a family/newborn/child which includes [1] free print and then I offer several options in regards to digital files i.e. 5 to 50 on a disc at incremental increases and I also offer prints. Even though my prints are ridiculously inexpensive for professional printed images people still opt to just pay a couple of hundred dollars to get the images on a disc (which they will forget they bought in a year and they will never get printed... but they might get splashed on facebook so I make a watermarked low res version of each and include in the contract that they are the only images that can be shared online)

The answer is: it depends what business one is in. It depends upon the Definition of the Business.


The Business, as described in the second para. above, is predicated upon the selling digital files as one of the two, Primary Offers of Sale. (The other Primary Offer of Sale is the Portarit Sitting)

If that is working to achieve the Goals of the Business - then that is fine.


But the description of the Offer for Sale, of the digital negatives - is NOT at all in accord at all with the First Sentence: "What if you provide the digital negative if a print is bought rather than giving it away per se"

The digital files can be purchased WITHOUT ANY prints being purchased. . . as the first print is free and then "I offer several options in regards to digital files i.e. 5 to 50 on a disc at incremental increases.

The FACT that most Customers, then opt to buy only the FILES (and not prints) appears as one major element which is Defining The Business.

To put that another way - the Customers are Defining the Business: not the Business Owner.

Therefore it is an odds-on bet that the Customers will always have the leverage and thus will likely severely inhibit Growth of the Business, as one outcome.


WW

[NatalieM]

Thanks all, still thinking it all over