Pricing Help!

[ryansarmstrong]

Hey, everyone. I am a college student and I have been pursuing photography as a hobby of mine for a while now, thinking about the possibility of making it into a career in the future. Recently I took a bunch of photos on a class trip, and a classmates mother contacted me about buying the full resolution photos of her son from me. I am willing to do this, but have no idea what to charge for the pictures. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

In a case like this, I'd suggest charging some small, nominal fee...say $10 or $20.

Of course, this is peanuts compared to what a professional would charge to hand over files to a client. But from the sounds of it, this was a more casual occurrence (class trip) and you otherwise wouldn't be making any money on these photos.

What could be more valuable, is the word of mouth that could be generated from something like this. As long as it's not 'hey, this guy is cheap'...it should be helpful to you for starting a business/career in the future.

You might even want to go the extra mile and make it a nice presentation...like a disc with your name (or company name) on it, in a nice case etc.

That's just a thought anyway.

 

[Big Mike]

Also, the image in your Signature is bigger than the allowed size of 100 pixels high. Please change that.

• Any graphics or images used in signatures will be restricted to a single item with a MAXIMUM size of 500px wide x 100px high

The Photo Forum - Photography Discussion Forum - FAQ

 

[ryansarmstrong]

oops. Sorry about that; I completely missed that restriction. Thank you for the help with the pricing though. Your idea sounds about spot on with what I was thinking, I just wasn't sure on the numbers.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

This is a case where I would take a gamble. I would put the photos on a CD and say something like: Please pay me what you thing they are worth!

It is a gamble but you could end up with more than you will ask for.

 

[ryansarmstrong]

This is also a good idea. The person who is asking also happens to be an artist I think, so that could work out quite well. Thanks a lot for the feedback.

 

[damonb]

"What could be more valuable, is the word of mouth that could be generated from something like this. As long as it's not 'hey, this guy is cheap'...it should be helpful to you for starting a business/career in the future."

Exactly. Perhaps this could be what launches your business in the future. If she buys a few pictures for a reasonable price, she may refer you to other people willing to pay you for your services (or hire you for family portraits down the road).

The fact that this was a field trip (unexpected possible income from an outing) would also be a factor to consider. You weren't actually "on the clock" during the tip.