Worthy of Charging?

ajcv75

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Hi guys, this is my first post on this site! A little about me, I have been in photography since 10th grade but it wasn't until recently I started formal training under the NYIP Professional Photography course. I have upgraded my dslr Nikon bodies from the D3100 - D7000 -D610. Now I have been contacted by an individual to shoot formal pictures in a prom but they can't pay me per say for those hours. Specifically, it's more like whoever wants to take pictures and pays me, then they get a picture taken. My question, which sounds sad, is how should I go at it? Are my pictures worthy of being sold? By no means do I say this as if I'm sinking myself but rather would love to have the eye of other photographers see and constructively criticize my work. I will post the link to my portfolio and would love to hear your input. Thank you so much!

www.angelcuadradophotography.com
 
If you can be paid up front, that is preferential to trying to be paid later. If they pay, give them a link to a place where they can download the photo. If you can't be paid at the time, post very small photos with an option to get a larger file upon payment.
 
If you can be paid up front, that is preferential to trying to be paid later.
In general, yes, but for a beginner, I would recommend against it. Unless you're very confident in your work (and the question about being worthy of charging indicates you're not) it's a sort of security blanket; in other words, if something goes wrong and someone doesn't like their images, the client hasn't paid you anything so they don't have a lot of room to complain, whereas if they've paid you $50 or $100... you have a lot more of an obligation.

Your work looks decent; I have the impression you perhaps don't have a lot of experience in posing people, you seem to be using off-camera lighting so that's a good start, but you need to be prepared for the odd-ball stuff. Very tall, very short, and/or very fat people. Light skin/dark skin couples... There's a LOT to think about to do this well.

That said, I do a lot of this sort of work at events, and it's a lot of fun. It's important to remember that you're going for a mean, rather than individual optimum, that is: You need to choose a lighting that will work well for most circumstances because you likely won't have time to adjust for each client.
 
If you can be paid up front, that is preferential to trying to be paid later.
In general, yes, but for a beginner, I would recommend against it. Unless you're very confident in your work (and the question about being worthy of charging indicates you're not) it's a sort of security blanket; in other words, if something goes wrong and someone doesn't like their images, the client hasn't paid you anything so they don't have a lot of room to complain, whereas if they've paid you $50 or $100... you have a lot more of an obligation.

Your work looks decent; I have the impression you perhaps don't have a lot of experience in posing people, you seem to be using off-camera lighting so that's a good start, but you need to be prepared for the odd-ball stuff. Very tall, very short, and/or very fat people. Light skin/dark skin couples... There's a LOT to think about to do this well.

That said, I do a lot of this sort of work at events, and it's a lot of fun. It's important to remember that you're going for a mean, rather than individual optimum, that is: You need to choose a lighting that will work well for most circumstances because you likely won't have time to adjust for each client.
Thank you! In your experience, as a beginner I should just take their information, give them mine and make each customer a password protected page for them to see their work? If I do that, how should I sell the images? Do packages work best rather than single images? I'm sorry for asking so much, I am aware there are many aspects to the business side of photography. Also wanted to know more about that Mentoring Program. Could you PM me the info?
 
If you can be paid up front, that is preferential to trying to be paid later. If they pay, give them a link to a place where they can download the photo. If you can't be paid at the time, post very small photos with an option to get a larger file upon payment.
Thank you so much for the information! I will have that in mind for the next time!! I appreciate it!!
 
I rarely take payment in advance. My system is to have a form on a clipboard (actually several clipboards) for the client to fill out while they're waiting. Name, tel #, address, e-mail, etc. They hand me their form and I write their name on a whiteboard and the first shot is always a 'prison line-up' shot with them holding their name up; that way I can always go back and figure out who's who.

I then do a rough process on all the keepers (WB, colour, crop, straighten) and e-mail proofs (72ppi, max 300 pixels on the long edge, with a shallow opacity watermark across the image), and they tell me what they want, I have it printed and mail/deliver it. I don't offer packages, but there's nothing wrong with them, it's just not my thing. I prefer to e-mail the client directly (assuming they don't live nearby; if they do, I always try and visit them in their home) rather than just posting a gallery as it helps to establish and maintain communication and they're more likely to purchase.

Make sure you have your prices plainly visible as well as mailing/delivery fees and expect to have 20-25% 'tire-kickers', that is people who sit for a photo and are never heard from again.

There's a great post on the mentorship scheme you can read by following the link in my sig.
 
I rarely take payment in advance. My system is to have a form on a clipboard (actually several clipboards) for the client to fill out while they're waiting. Name, tel #, address, e-mail, etc. They hand me their form and I write their name on a whiteboard and the first shot is always a 'prison line-up' shot with them holding their name up; that way I can always go back and figure out who's who.

I then do a rough process on all the keepers (WB, colour, crop, straighten) and e-mail proofs (72ppi, max 300 pixels on the long edge, with a shallow opacity watermark across the image), and they tell me what they want, I have it printed and mail/deliver it. I don't offer packages, but there's nothing wrong with them, it's just not my thing. I prefer to e-mail the client directly (assuming they don't live nearby; if they do, I always try and visit them in their home) rather than just posting a gallery as it helps to establish and maintain communication and they're more likely to purchase.

Make sure you have your prices plainly visible as well as mailing/delivery fees and expect to have 20-25% 'tire-kickers', that is people who sit for a photo and are never heard from again.

There's a great post on the mentorship scheme you can read by following the link in my sig.
This is super great! Thank you
 
FYI, you need a minor fix to your website. In your portfolio section, relabel "Shootings" to "Portraits". To a native English speaker, this does not come across as how you intended. When most people hear "shootings", they think gun shots.
 
Take a modest on-the-spot amount of payment...say $10 or so, at least...that cuts the tire kicker factor in half....a "free sitting" can be interpreted to mean that your work isn't any good. Almost every parent will want a nice, formal prom photo, but make sure to get some up-front cash from each prom couple. As Tirediron mentioned, have the prices plainly posted, get good, adequate contact information from, BOTH the boy AND the girl, and a quick description of the people who are in the shots, so there are no accidental "oops!" deliveries later. Of course, start with the camera's counter set to DSC_0001, and so on.

I looked at this: Shootings

You can do this.

Keep in mind--without ANY up-front sitting fee, if you shoot 50 couples, you will have in-hand, at night's end... let me do the math...lemme see...Zero. But 50 times $10 is....why....it's five HUNDRED dollars...huh..better re-check my math here....yep, keeps coming up as $500 dollars!

If you shoot for FREE, you leave the prom with zero payment in-hand.
 
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FYI, you need a minor fix to your website. In your portfolio section, relabel "Shootings" to "Portraits". To a native English speaker, this does not come across as how you intended. When most people hear "shootings", they think gun shots.
Will do thank you for that!
 
Take a modest on-the-spot amount of payment...say $10 or so, at least...that cuts the tire kicker factor in half....a "free sitting" can be interpreted to mean that your work isn't any good. Almost every parent will want a nice, formal prom photo, but make sure to get some up-front cash from each prom couple. As Tirediron mentioned, have the prices plainly posted, get good, adequate contact information from, BOTH the boy AND the girl, and a quick description of the people who are in the shots, so there are no accidental "oops!" deliveries later. Of course, start with the camera's counter set to DSC_0001, and so on.

I looked at this: Shootings

You can do this.

Keep in mind--without ANY up-front sitting fee, if you shoot 50 couples, you will have in-hand, at night's end... let me do the math...lemme see..50 times $10 is....why....it's five HUNDRED dollars...huh..better re-check my math here....yep, keeps coming up as $500 dollars!

If you shoot for FREE, you leave the prom with zero payment in-hand.
Great tip!! Thank yoy so much for the information and the help!! I will do this!!
 
I noticed on your site, the "portfolio" link is inactive, it should link to a page that lists the items in the drop down menu with an interesting looking page itself in case someone wants to view the dropdown menu as a page to select from. It can have the links that are in the menu and give a small thumbnail image for each type of photography.

Here are a few other items on your main page that need to be addressed:
Due to the site trying to turn letter combinations into faces, "x m l n s : o g " (no spaces) is turned into a face.
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    crossorigin - How the element handles crossorigin requests
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    height - Vertical dimension
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Good Luck. :)
 
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I noticed on your site, the "portfolio" link is inactive, it should link to a page that lists the items in the drop down menu with an interesting looking page itself in case someone wants to view the dropdown menu as a page to select from. It can have the links that are in the menu and give a small thumbnail image for each type of photography.

Here are a few other items on your main page that need to be addressed:
Due to the site trying to turn letter combinations into faces, "x m l n s : o g " (no spaces) is turned into a face.
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    height - Vertical dimension
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Good Luck. :)
Works for me.
Screen Shot 2016-05-02 at 5.11.13 PM.png
 
Worked great for me as well...no issues.
 
We all have to start somewhere and it's up to you if you want to take on this gig or not. Will it worth your time? Can you use the photos for your own portfolio to attract more clients? Do you want to do this? Those are the questions that you have to answer yourself honestly.
 

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