 Rhonda Royse |
Photoshoot pricing & CD's Hi - I am slowing trying to build my busienss. I hve dones things for family and friends of family. I started charging $100 and then would give them a copy of their pics on CD. But I am now trying to get them to visit my site and buy from there. I still find myself spending alot of time with each shoot and editing afterwards - I want to be sure that they are happy! I have also had people ask to buy the CD's of pics. Any thoughts on what I should charge for a shoot. The last one I did I took about 400 pictures. yes - alot - I enjoy it so I get carried away! especially families with kids! And then I ended up editing about 75 of them. Alot of work! Again I enjoy it but looking to the future I need to figure out how to limit it all! Help!!!
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Christopher A. Walrath |
Ya know, I've been out of the wedding photography business for a long time and I was shooting film then as now. But I have a couple of ideas that I might be able to throw out there to give you food for thought. 1. When I was shooting, the event packages which included modest albums were reasonable. The money was in extra print sales. I might bring in $1000 for a basic wedding for all the work/time that went into it. But give the proof album to the B&G and come back with a $800 print order which requires time only to order, receive, sort and send prints. That's where it was at. 2. Proofs. This was the analog version of you CD. I would only give up the proof album after prints were ordered and for an additional fee. Until then all they got were the 4x6's to look at and base their order from. I would make your public file sizes small so that they can be readily viewed. But get your sales and send them the CD for their one year anniv. Or for whatever your work will be, portraiture, etc. 3. What to charge. An honest question. Are you any good? Because if you're not then your clients will find out later rather than sooner and be kinda sore about it. If you are, see what others are charging for services and base it from there comensurate with your actual experience. Personally, I always figured my overhead. Then I figured what I wanted to nab from a job for myself. I would then add an additional 15-20% just for wiggle room and go with that. As to limiting the number of keepers you shoot. You need to learn light and how it affects your gear (ie. its ability to render it). The more you know, the better you get, the less you think, the smoother a shoot goes, the less retakes, the more great shots, the less work afterward. Get it right on camera and there is less work to do later. And the only way to consistantly get it right on camera is to practice, practice, practice. Until your pusher can't push and then practice some more. Drive yourself hard and it will pay off for you. Your photography will only give you that which you give to it. Good luck. Hope this rambling has been of some assistance.
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Rhonda Royse |
Thanks so much - yes your rambling was of assistance! I think I am learning that the money is in the prints afterwards. Working on that one. I think I am pretty good. have taken quite a few classes on lighting. I have down the instudio lighting and still working on the outdoor stuff. Some of them are still off. even whe I experiment - take a look -www.rjroysephotography.com.... I am always up for contructive feedback! Only way I will get better. have tried shooting more manual - but when I am with a family and they are all over the place, I find it more difficult to make sure I am getting it right. More practice and more classes I think! thanks!
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Cynthia L. Sperko |
Rhonda, I would avoid selling your clients a cd since you do not know where they may get their prints done. I read a recent response is to tell your client that you do not sell cd's b/c you want your work to be the best is can be and the (ABC) lab that I use is the only one I trust to do the job correct. Place the "proofs" on your website for your clients to view and select what they want to get printed. Most clients will thank you. The ones who don't thank you, are the ones who want their services done for free, or on the cheap. As for shooting manual, it's good practice, but there isn't anything wrong with shooting in aperture priority. Cindy
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Christopher A. Walrath |
If you want to offer a CD, you could do so as proof CD (along the lines of a print proof book) but with smaller sized files so that if they tried to print larger than 3x5 their eyes would look like Rubik's Cubes. Of course, that could be the new look. We may be on to something here.
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