Pricing Question

ShootHoops · Nov 5, 2006

If you were a high school student looking to take pictures for other students, what would your prices be like? I don't want to be to expensive, I'm no pro or anything, and I know other students aren't really loaded with money. Right now, the only prints I might be providing are 4x6's...unless other sizes are wanted by extremely popular demand. Right now I'm thinking the session could be $10 or something like that. I just need a few opinions, or a lot, on prices for the prints. The more, the better!

Thanks.

brighteyesphotos · Nov 5, 2006

First of all, shop around for rates on prints. Who would be printing them? Can you get a discount? From there, tack on maybe 50-100% markup on the prints for your time. Depending on what a session would include, I would ask for more. Maybe $25 for students and then add on prints after that. Think about what you would be investing in these sessions. Are you going on location? How long are these? Plus any editing you're doing afterwards. An average shoot for me takes up to 2 hours plus about 5 hours of editing, give or take. So for an average of 7 hours of work, I'd want to get paid fairly for my time.

ShootHoops · Nov 5, 2006

You made some good points there. I definitely don't want to be overworked and underpayed. I planned on printing them myself, but a minute ago I realized my printers aren't all that reliable. I'd hate for them to mess up at the last minute. I was thinking $10 for students because I know if I weren't a Photographer, I wouldn't give some kid $10 to take pictures of me. Now bands on the other hand, I'm almost more than sure that they would be willing to pay $25 for a session. I planned on shooting on location, since I don't have any backdrops/backgrounds. The more shoots I can do successfully, the sooner I can get more stuff to help make my performance as a photographer better.

brighteyesphotos · Nov 5, 2006

I definitely recommend finding a photo lab that you trust for prints. While it would be great to have a high quality reliable printer at home but if you end up doing a lot of prints, then you will want a reliable lab. My "day job" is in a photo lab. I have complete control over my printing. I suggest you take one picture, print it at home how you like it and then take the same picture (file/negative/whatever) to several places in town and see who gives you the best quality. Big chains like WalMart would not be a good place to go. They don't care 9 times out of 10. Seek out smaller labs. Check out online printing like mpix.com.