highballin'?

notelliot

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hi guys,

i'm really new to child portraits, in fact the client i'm mentioning is my first of the nature. she thinks i'm asking too much, i think i'm giving her a decent deal. i'm fairly comfortable asking what i am from her, but i wanted some opinions. so here goes.
my client wants a few shots of her daughter for christmas. the theme isn't going to be christmas (i can't do that!), but the shots are gifts for family. so i said "okay, normally not my thing, but you're a friend of a friend, so.." $200 and for that price, prints of the (2 or 3) images and a cd of hi-res files of the whole shoot.
i feel that it's fair. the prints are going to cost 30-40 dollars, so my profit is around 160 for 4-6 hours total (after shooting, processing, printing..) work it would work out to ~$26/hr.

someone take a side and give me a second opinion! :mrgreen: thanks.
 
I say thats too much personally.
I dont think the Post Processing will take alot of time or just a portrait of a child. I think you should charge say a 50 dollar sitting fee, and then if you can, Get all of the photos to your computer and let her choose the few images that she really wants. Then PP those, and charge her on the prints. I personall would rather charge on a per print or per CD basis, or even give the client a package deal.

If you are going to print 8x10s of 3 images, charge her like 50-60 dollars for them total. So then you have your sitting fee (50 dollars) and then you will make so much a print, or per image on a CD.
 
30 - 40 ! you need to find a different printer
 
I think your price sounds fine but I would personally include more than just 2-3 images. For the price you quoted, I'd do about 10 of them.
But, if you feel your price is fair, then stick with it. If she doesn't like it, she can find someone else. I've discovered that it's best to let those who don't like my prices find someone else than try to lower my own prices to make them happy. I'd rather not do it at all and concentrate on finding other clients.
Just my .02
Good luck!
 
$200 for a sitting fee, post processing, a few prints AND releasing rights for all images taken at the shoot and turning over the files. I think the $200 is fair until you flush away your rights to your work. Maybe a Cd with thumbnails w/watermark. This way you might have repeat sales.
 
thanks for the advice guys.
 
Sounds like a good price to me. There are plenty of photographers who charge more and plenty who charge less. Just make sure that you are capable of creating a good product. Child photography isn't as easy as it may seem.
 
Just remember you are competing with wal-mart and that is the big problem. If you think your work is worth more you need to stand behind it and be ready to tell any potential client to take a walk if they don't like your prices. What do you think would happen to them if they tried to negotiate prices with the afformentioned wallyworld???.
 
What do you think would happen to them if they tried to negotiate prices with the afformentioned wallyworld???.
the same thing that would happen after trying to negotiate with me :p
 
Set your price at whatever you think it fair. If it is too much, she will go elsewhere. BUT--be sure you can deliver the goods. Child photography can be very, very tough if you don't have the experience to get a child to warm up and relate to you and your camera.
 

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