My 1st paid gig...how much should I charge???

[Mark Elberson]

A friend of mine, who is a semi-pro, was asked to do a gig but he had a conflict so he recommended me, nice guy! Anyway, it's for a couple that is renewing their wedding vows. Here is how the client described it:

…We are interested in getting someone to take some pictures for us. We are not looking for a "professional" to take tons of posed pictures and do a traditional wedding album. We are more interested in getting someone to chronicle the day in photos from the ceremony to the party afterwards at our house…

I was thinking of charging by the hour instead of a flat rate. Your thoughts??? Also, any advice on how to execute such a shoot would be much appreciated too

[Colin]

I've never charged money for photographs, mostly exchanges for model releases, but...


The typical rule of thumb, from a business standpoint, is that you charge 3 to 4 times what the hourly rate you pay the employee is...


So, if you would consider your talents, as an employee photographer, worth 25/hr, for example, it would be reasonable, as a professional, to charge 75-100/hr.


You may want to work in some sort of discount, if you just want to do it, but you can ask for something in return. Like, say, I'll do it for ____ if you'll give me model releases and/or referrals. That way, you don't cheapen the value of what you're providing.


Or, you can offer package options as well. $XXX will get youX hours of my time and I'll mail you a CD. If you'd like the images to really look good, I'll charge you $XXX(X) and give you X hours at the event, cull the results, crop and post process, and allow you to select X pictures of your choice for printing. That way, if they want to be cheap, they can be cheap, and you don't have to pay for it. If they want the value of having your expertise from start to finish(and you might want to show them a comparison of straight off the camera and after you work your magic) they can do that too.


Just a thought. I'm sure that those actually able to make their living in this field will have better advice.

[Daniel Browning]

How much should I charge?

How much are you worth?


Some photographers wont get out of bed for under $2,000. Others will shoot a 12-hour day for $300. On Craigslist you can even find people willing to shoot events for free, just for the experience. Of course, the quality is all over the place.


There are two forces at play:

• How much your time is worth to you.
• How much your time is worth to the customer.

The price you charge should fall between those two points.

[Mark Elberson]

Thanks for your input guys. Sorry it took me so long to reply but I had a busy weekend


I gave the client an hourly figure (conservative) and he was happy with it so we're going to speak sometime this week to lock down the details. Can you offer any advice on how to approach the event? I was thinking about bringing two bodies. One 50D with a 17-55 f/2.8 IS and one (borrowed) 50D with a 70-200 f/2.8 IS.


All input is appreciated!

[wusstigphoto]

As to your last post question, I have a 30D and both lenses you mentioned (17-55 2.8 and the 70-200 2.8). I think you'd be golden doing your shoot with both those lenses on separate 50D's. Good luck...


Personally, I wouldn't do a wedding at this point in my photog (part time) career as theres too much pressure/liability butI guessre-newing vowsis a great way to start off.


I myself just started getting paid jobs these past few months andpricing is the biggest part I struggle with too. My niche is sports photography as a hobby and althoughI'm now setup to make money at it with fixed pricing and online ordering, I'vebeen gettingprivate shoots for decent amounts more so for the experience and marketing than for profit.


Here'stwo really BAD examples of howto price stuff...a local high school team momwas looking to hire a pro to take pics of their HS VarsityBaseball Seniorsfor alarge collage for their sports banquet but couldn't drum up the money for a private shoot like that.One of the dads who was a friend of minesuggested me but becausethat was my firstpaid gig, we never really settled on a price and in the end the dad whosuggested me ended 'giving' me a fair amount for my services (which the pics/collage came out awesome btw) but the other parents who all agreed to it never pitched in so he got screwed in the end. I thought I learned my lessonbut ended up doingit again for a baby shoot inmy home studio for agood friend. Again, it was my first time with that type of shootso I struggled for a set amount up front and just agreed that it would be a 'fair' price for both of us. He made out with some really nice pics (versus a really bad JC Pennypkg he bought 2 months prior), I got a good idea of what it takes to take pics of an 20 month old todller, andthe compensation was fair.


I probably chargedabout 1/4 to 1/3 of what a pro who does this for a livingcharges, but once I establish a good portfolio, I'll startto up my pricing as to not cheapen the art and industry. This is also the reason why I've stoppedposting my sports photography on my flickr site forthe other parents to pull as they take for granted all time spent, $K's in equipment and software, and time spent post processing.... they take things for granted and justdon't get it as theystruggle tomatch the quality ofmy pics.


Not sure if I'm supposed to be postingmylinksper the forum rules but so you can see examples of my work as a newbie just starting out charging money , here goes...


10framesasecond.com (10fas.com for short)... Softball galleryonly for now (the othergalleriesare allmy friends stuff). I partnered up withhim to help curbcosts and double up on events for better coverage.


Although I don't have a homepage yet (just using exposuremanager raw template for now), here's the private shoots I mentioned along with a grad shoot i didn't mention... wusstigphoto.com


Don't mean to hijack this thread but I wished I had more insight when I started charging for shoots.


Dave

[wusstigphoto]

I edited my first post but can't delete this one... ? [:@]

[peety3]

I've been avoiding paid gigs for a while, mostly from an insurance perspective. We've begun taking a few select "paid" gigs, but we are making it a point to donate any profit so we come out at $0. Here's a synopsis of our recent paid gigs:


Weekend bicycling event, two of us shooting for 2.25 days, $3250 plus fuel, client provided hotel rooms as agreed.


Weekend bicycling event, two of us shooting for 2.25 days, $2500 plus fuel, client provided hotel rooms as agreed. This one was priced lower because of a smaller event budget; we're seeing even less profit because of two additional hotel nights incurred because of travel time/distance.


Weekend bicycling event, one shooter for 3.25 days, second shooter for 2 days, offered packages of $600, $900, and $1250 which equated to our gear rental costs if we were to rent solely for this event; the $1250 also included a "day rate" to justify one of us taking a day off to expedite the post-processing. This event told us they couldn't afford us whatsoever.


We acknowledge that we were underpaid, but we consider it a community service for a non-profit (for the first two) and a good-faith offer to a club that we both belong(ed) to. I built the suggested prices based on vehicle mileage estimates, hours worked (shooting and processing), etc., with a base hourly rate around $10/hour/person. Wowsers. *wink*

[mpphoto12]

would you have happened to shoot this with someone named John?? lol JW

[Dallasphotog]

My pricing model is always fee plus products. A wedding is $1,850 base price, plus whatever prints, albums or disks the bridedesires. It usually works out to about $2,500. Senior pictures are $200 base, plus product. Most parents spend around $400.


It really helps to have your cost sperated intopieces as people think they will just wanta few prints and end up papering a room in your stuff. I have a wedding client whocame back three times for more prints and took home more than 100 prints in total...