 Tammy Comer |
charging for portrait photography I know this question has probably been asked before, but I still don't know what I should do. I want to offer family, children, and senior portraits from a portable studio in my home and at location. I want to set up packages and have a price plan before I advertise. I understand that I should decide what my time is worth and work that into the fees. So, if I wanted to pay myself $20 an hour and I was planning on 3 hrs total, my fee would be $60. So should this be the session fee or in addition to the session fee? I guess I need to know where you get your money from, the session fee, or markup of the packages? Of course, I am already aware that if I only get my money from the markup of packages, and they decide not to order, then I will get nothing. Another question, what is a good hourly rate for someone starting out. I know I have a lot to learn but I also feel that my quality is as nice as some of the professionals I have seen around here. I have read tons of books and I am always looking at other photographers work to see what I like about it and find out my niche. Anyway, I hope someone can help. I am at a loss as far as prices go. Also, putting packages together, naming the packages, providing incentives, it is all kind of overwhelming and I don't know where to start. Also, I have signed contracts before with an amateur around here when she took photos for me, where would I find forms like that?There is much more to this than just taking pictures. I'm so glad that I have your expertise to rely on! Tammy
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pcmlphotography.com - Pamela C.M Lammersen Contact Pamela C.M Lammersen Pamela C.M Lammersen's Gallery |
Hello Tammy, wow big question, lots of things will be your deciding factor. What someone charges on the east coast and west coast for instance can be completly different depending on lab, film, and all that good stuff. I would suggest you keep looking around and maybe contact some studios acting like you are a prospective client to see how they run their pricing. Ask for their brochures and when you have reviewed them you will see how the pricing is set up. Dont sell yourself short on your own hourly fee If your work is good you deserve to be paid good. Lots of luck to you! - Pamela
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Julie L. Curiel |
I'm definately not expert in this situation but do have a little advice for you. I too was in your boat recently having no idea what to charge for my services and my prints. I had a trusted fellow photographer give me some advice though. If you're wanting to make $20 an hour and for three hours you're charging $60 it at first makes sense. But then think about it, for the one hour you spend taking the photos, there is probably at least 1/2-1hr more spent outside of that photo shoot either processing the film and all the time that takes if you are doing that on your own, or even just taking your own time to take that film to the lab to have them processed. Then you have to think about all the time you will spend on editing these photos if that is something you will be doing- in Photoshop or whatever program. This can be VERY time consuming as I can contest that sometimes with a photoshoot that because of certain conditions didn't go as well as hoped, you can easily spend 1/2 per photo just touching them up to make them presentable to the customer. Then you have to take into account the amount of time it takes you to put together a proof book if you are doing that and meeting with the client again later to discuss their order- which of course is "uncharged" time. So your three hours can easily turn into six hours by the time you do all the behind the scenes work on these photos. And you're right, if you expect to keep your sitting fee or hourly wage low, and mark up your prints, people just simply won't buy as many prints and you're definately not going to make as much money to make up for all that time you spent. Someone told me a dollar a mintute is what you should charge so in other words- minumum of $60/hr. This way you account for all the other time you have to spend on these photos. If you really think your photos are as good as some of the higher priced competitors in town, then be fair to yourself and price yourself at a fair price. You're probably still going to be cheaper than the others in town. Also, as a customer if I was looking diligently for a photographer and comparing prices- I would wonder why someone ONLY charges $20/hr for their services when others charge so much more. It would almost make a person wonder what is wrong with their work or maybe they really aren't a real photographer and may actually deter their business from you. I can speak of this personally when I was shopping for a wedding photograher. I automatically scratched people off my list who had prices that sounded too good to be true. I went with a more expensive but not the most expensive photographer instead. Anyway, sorry this was lenghtly, I just thought I would pass along advice that has been helpful to me that someone gave me. I charge $60/hr for a flat fee even if it's less than 1hr. Every 1/2 hr after that I charge $30. Then I price my prints individually. I hope this helps. Best of luck with your business! It's not easy.
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Tammy Comer |
Thank you for responding to my question Pamela and Julie. I have been gathering brochures for the past year to get an idea of what the competition charges. When I was going to the competition for photos, I couldn't afford it half of the time and that was very discouraging. It was a goal of mine to provide the same quality of picture for people that do not have endless amounts of money to spend on it. However, I don't want to go as low as the dept. stores, Walmart, etc. I really like the idea of charging more per hour to accomodate for the time "behind the scenes". I do have a couple more questions. I already have an idea of what I spend on film and developing, but where do I add those costs in? Should I sit down and come up with a set price for certain packages and certain sizes? I have already found a lab that I want to use and I have noticed that they have packages so that may help me. Sorry for so many questions, but you have been a big help! Thanks, Tammy
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Julie L. Curiel |
Glad to be of help Tammy. If you're shooting film, I would add the cost of your film into the price of your sitting fee since you're guaranteed to use film. As for the prints, what I do is charge a price for each individual print but mark them up considerably so I make a profit off of it as well. So for instance, it costs me $7.00 from the lab to make an 8x10, so I charge 12.00. That way I make $5 off of each 8x10. I at first was doubling the price from the printing cost and charging less on my sitting fee. I quickly found out though, that it was smarter for me to charge more per hr/my sitting fee, than it was to charge more for my prints so I made my print prices more affordable to the customer. You could also price in packages but I would also have individual photos sizes prices listed since some people may not be interested in a whole package of photos. I don't know if this helps but I hope so. Best of Luck!
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