What do you charge?!? - DPChallenge Forums

02/29/2008 12:32:48 PM · #1

I have been asked to shoot a family reunion. Its a large one, I am not sure the # of people but probably about 500.

I am going to discuss details today with the lady hiring me, so I wanted to be prepared to throw some $$ figures out there.

I do know that she wants candids as well as professional shots. I am thinking it is going to be more like a wedding shoot, and I am going to need a back up photographer as well. I cant see doing formal shots and candids alone for that many people.

I am thinking of charging by the hour, then XX amount for each photo, or setting up a package. I think charging by photo might work better with so many people, may continue to get orders for them for a while too.

Any thoughts. I have never charged a fee for doing this, and its a friend of a friends as well, so it may lead into more business.

Thanks

Eyesup

Sigma 70-200 /2.8 APO EX DG Macro HSM II

02/29/2008 01:10:48 PM · #2

I would go with an hourly charge for being there and a price per photo after... if you simply go with fee per photo you have 0 garuntee that anyhting will be bought.

mirdonamy

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

02/29/2008 01:13:47 PM · #3

I charge $50/hr to shoot and/or edit. I don't sell photos of events, so I just provide a CD of images or upload everything to Shutterfly. I do need to find a professional printer, but I've used Shutterfly for years and I really like them. If the client wants me to upload to a different printer, I will.

02/29/2008 05:37:29 PM · #4

Okay here is some more information. A little more involved than I thought

They want me for 3 days. For a meet and greet (family get together) on day 1, a church service on day 2, and then group and family photos on day 3.

I will not be doing prints, but instead providing CD's for those who want to buy them. So I need to price per hour, plus price per CD. I was thinking maybe I should do 2 cds, 1 for the candids/church service, and 1 for the family group portraits. Charge a price per cd.

There are 350 people attending, so the potential to sell a bunch of Cd's is there.

Eyesup

Sigma 70-200 /2.8 APO EX DG Macro HSM II

02/29/2008 05:42:42 PM · #5

I would price where you have the garuntee of income... (the price per hour) you have not garuntee of the cd's so make sure that at the end of the day if you don't sell any cd's you still get paid your worth for being there. the cd's should reflec the cost of the cd istelf, and the time you take to make it and edit the photo's for it. be fair, but do not underprice youself...

you might try doing some research and finding out what other photographers in your are would charge for the same

rbryan22

Fujifilm FinePix S3 Pro

Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8-4 Compact High Speed Zoom for Nikon

02/29/2008 05:47:29 PM · #6

I charge $50 per hour and provide a price list and available packages. I also offer an album of the occasion. A cd would replace the printed album in this situation. I would still have the price list on hand...you never know who may want to purchase prints. I have a laptop set up so I can show proofs on location because people want to see what they are buying and I really do get more sales that way even though they are straight from camera.

I also offer a 10% discount on prints/packages ordered and paid for that day.

Personally I would keep everything on 1 cd if possible.

Message edited by author 2008-02-29 17:54:04.

Ann

Olympus OM-D E-M1

Olympus 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro

02/29/2008 06:07:19 PM · #7

You can pretty much guarantee that if you try to make CD sales a profit center, that they'll just buy one CD and copy and distribute it themselves. My suggestion would be to price it all into the hourly rate, and just charge a nominal fee for CD duplicating.

mirdonamy

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

02/29/2008 06:16:15 PM · #8

I agree with Anne. I don't even charge for the CD's as they are so cheap. I just charge $50/hr for my time to take, edit and burn the photos to cd. I also only provide events with 200 to 250 photos.

Do you know how long it takes you to edit 250 photos to your liking? If so, tell them, it will be ____hrs of digital darkroom / formatting work in addition to shooting the event. That way, they know ahead of time that there is an extra charge associated. Otherwise, bill in those extra hours in the hourly rate you charge them for shooting.

If you shoot for 30 hours and want to make $40/hr, and you know you will need 10hrs for editing, you can charge them $54/hr for the hours you are actually taking the photos. That will cover your 10hrs of editing without even mentioning it to them.

Also, be sure to give them a timeframe as when they will get their disk or be able to view their photos online. :)

Good luck!

Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO M.Zuiko

02/29/2008 06:30:57 PM · #9

I think I will do the $50 per hour.

I am putting together package prices for the formal portraits. I think I will include the candids in the 50/hour fee on CD, but on the family shots, I will do packages instead of CD so that they will be more likely to purchase a package.

Brad

Olympus OM-D E-M1

02/29/2008 06:32:40 PM · #10

Another thought on this subject is do you have to take time off of work to do this?
If so, take what your potential earnings are/were for each day and charge at LEAST that. If you are only needed for about 1/2 of a day to do this and you have to take the whole day off, keep in mind you have to cover the full day's normal earnings potential. Editing and such is on your own time and can charge a reasonable amount depending on what is wanted in post-processing and the skill level you have.

Only thing I an think of that makes this variable is who it's for (like family) and/or if you have a lot to gain in portfolio samples of what you have done, but make sure you get the release to use the work in your portfolio. This past Saturday was a 15-hr day and closed my shop to do the shoot. Potential sales on Saturdays for me averages around $1K. I opted to do donate my time for personal reasons and for the experience I needed. I gained a lot more than I lost in dollars.

Everything is/can be flexible.

02/29/2008 07:11:35 PM · #11

Originally posted by Brad:

I dont have to take off work, I am a stay at home mom. The porfolio potential is good since I am going to be photographing a lot of people. I will have each family sign model releases as well. I am working on my proposal now and will post for review here and thoughts. The lady says she has no budget, but I dont want to over price or under price my work. I will need a 2nd photographer with me as well, so I have to take that into consideration as well.

Prof_Fate

02/29/2008 08:14:42 PM · #12

I charge $125 an hour for this type of shoot, and for events and the like I want at least $100/hour to consider it worth while.

I did a couple of HS reunions last year and have more this year - 50 to 120 people, head/couple shots, some candids a big group shot, sometimes a committe shot or two.

Most want a book - Marathon Press makes 'church directory' type books pretty cheap - so I get a guarantee on how many books and a per-book price - $20/book, 50 book min type of thing, and then I put the head shots on the web for sale, as well as the candids.

If you want to stay with the CD concept, then I'd figure out one of these choices:
Figure what, 8 hours over three days, and another 8 at the computer, plus you've met with them, will meet again, pack up, travel, unpack,etc, etc. and prolly meet again - 20 hours. And you want a second photog for 8 hours, so 28 man hours. I base my charge on the shooting time, so 8 x125, plus 8x90 For second photog - more images to edit, store, etc) so I'd likely want $1720 for this, plus whatever they want for product.

If you consider this like a wedding it's not so far off, is it? Two shooters for 8 hours, editing to the proof stage, etc. Just because it's a family reunion does not mean I'd work for less money. My old car doesn't get a discount on repairs 'cause it's not worth as much as your new one.

What does a CD cost you - the CD, any labeling, packaging, delivery (US mail?) and time to create, package, mail? 10 minutes to burn, labeling...5 minutes? CD cost is $2 for a printable CD and ink (the only way to go), TAP makes CD packages that are low end but cheap (75c each) or you can get DVD movie cases and put in full prints, or wedding type CD cases- some run $8 ea, plus time for the 'cover' print. So lets say you do the movie case idea and get a print for the cover...
see //www.polylinecorp.com/category-new.asp?OPT=025&C=02501000&gclid=CLTS3tHc6pECFQ-kHgodz3rrpA for some case ideas and printable disks..

You can do a case and CD for under 75c in bulk, a print is at most $1, and you can burn and print 10 an hour lets say. Your cost per unit would be perhaps $8 with labor.

So you could tell them $2400 and that includes 100 CDs. Extra CDs are $20 if preordered, $30 if they wait till after the event.

You get your $1700 plus more for the CD making time, and they get 100 CDs - $24 each. Family reunions are organized -they can presell the CDs to members and they'll know before you show up for day 1 how many.

You may need to adjust these numbers as they are just ballpark figures. But everyone would get a CD so everyone would have an interest in the pictures and a keepsake. The cover could be a big groups shot - the church is an easy one for this as they're all there, dressed up, and facing one direction!

02/29/2008 08:56:42 PM · #13

Do I do low res or high res CDs? If I provide High res CD's of the family portraits, dont I lose money in print sales potentially?

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

02/29/2008 11:13:36 PM · #14

Here is what I proposed. We will see what happens.

Proposed Fees

$2,000 total package

Includes:

Photographers fee for 24 hours, attendance at all family reunion events
Digital post processing of all photos (editing, retouching, convert to black and white, etc)
100 photo CDâ��s with all candid photos (you can create your own family label for it)
Family and Group formal portrait sessions
50 â�� 8x10 Family Portrait Prints (mix and match) (a $250 value)
500 â�� 5x7 Family Portrait Prints (mix and match) (a $1500 value)
200 â�� Wallet prints (50 sheets of 4 each) mix and match (a $75 value)

If 100 photo CDâ��s are not needed, you may substitute 1 â�� 8x10 for each CD or 2 5x7 Prints for each CD not needed.

Save 25% on additional prints ordered when photos are taken

Prof_Fate

03/01/2008 09:26:35 PM · #15

Originally posted by gwe21:

Here is what I proposed. We will see what happens.

Proposed Fees

50 â�� 8x10 Family Portrait Prints (mix and match) (a $250 value)
500 â�� 5x7 Family Portrait Prints (mix and match) (a $1500 value)
200 â�� Wallet prints (50 sheets of 4 each) mix and match (a $75 value)

Save 25% on additional prints ordered when photos are taken

$5 for an 8x10?? Are you nuts or something? In you last post you're concerned about losing print sales if you give CDs, but at such a stupidly low price (yes, I do mean to be mean about that price) you'll not make any money. Even with $1/print (and you can spend upwards of $3 on an 8x10 print) it's no money. The cheapest I've EVER seen an 8x10 is school photos - NO editing, NO retuoching (albeit controlled shooting conditions) is $12. Even Walmart charges more than $5! Then 25% more off of that??

The way to make a profit on something like this is to do as little editing as possible. Like school pics or sports pics. Especially on the candids.

I'd perhaps offer them the CDs (I'd do hi res and lo res for web/myspace - easy to automate that and it should still fit on the same disk) and and then 50 units of prints - their choice of what, and THOSE I'd 'edit', but not 'retouch'.

Perhaps offer a set of First Edition Prints - all the images in 4x6 format - there are online labs where you get get the prints at 12c each. Essentially proofs. You'd almost be better to offer ALL images rather than a 'select 50 prints' type of thing as you'll go nuts if 30 families each choose a different set of 50 prints! As you have it now you'll go nuts - who pics the prints? 50 8x10 all the same or can we do 50 different images? 100 more different ones on teh 5x7? Then 200 more different wallets? Or is this ONE image just copied 750 times?

Give them an online gallery to pick their prints - each family will want something different. Instaproofs now does 'coupons' - give them a code good for $10 in prints if they buy $30 in prints - then price your prints at $8 to 12 for a 5x7, $18-24 for an 8x10 - the coupon will make it affordable and a nice sales approach to offer them "And everyone gets $10 off their order of prints!"

littlegett

Canon EOS-20D

03/01/2008 09:39:28 PM · #16

I charge an arm here, a leg there, sometimes fingers, toes and other parts. But thats just me, I can use them as props in other shoots. 6-;