How much do I charge for a photo shoot?

Penguins · Oct 31, 2011

I would like to know how much to charge for a recreation photo shoot? I am just starting out with this and would like some idea on how much I should charge. Thanks
Penguins

480sparky · Oct 31, 2011

Material + Labor + Overhead + Profit = Price.

mishele · Oct 31, 2011

This is a very complex question you asked w/ little to no details about your shoot.

MLeeK · Oct 31, 2011

This is such a hard question to answser. What my price is has no bearing on what anyone else's price is and telling you that you should charge THIS is just plain wrong.

You need to know your cost of doing business.
You need to know your cost of goods
Let's have a hypothetical: We'll say my CODB is about $100 or so per regular portrait session. We'll say I am a fair hand at processing and getting everything done quickly so the number of hours for a 1 hour shoot is roughly 6, but it's more than reasonable to expect a newbie to spend 8 hours on every one hour shoot. Value? I am a professional and I damn well better be making more than $10 an hour. I need to make roughly $300 minimum per session to cover my costs and my hourly. How I make that is up to me. I can charge a session fee of $300 with a print credit of whatever % of that I want, I can charge a session fee of $100 and expect the rest to come in sales. I can charge a $0 session fee and expect the rest in sales... It's all up to me how I want to structure that.

Bitter Jeweler · Oct 31, 2011

$2000

mishele · Oct 31, 2011

^^^^^I almost beat you to that....lol

Derrel · Oct 31, 2011

My standard answer to inquiries on how much to charge for a photoshoot:

kundalini · Oct 31, 2011

^^^fat bastard, that's my stanpat answer as well.

MLeeK · Oct 31, 2011

WOW. This has got to be the most useless forum on the internet. Really??? The guy asked for help and you give him the rude snark with NOTHING else? This place is Bedlam run by the inmates. WHAT THE HELL?

MissCream · Oct 31, 2011

I don't think anyone can properly answer this, they can only give you the tools to figure it out for yourself. We also don't know the quality of your work (which doesn't really matter since we don't know the regular rates in your area). Do some research locally and try and see what others are charging and go from there. Best of luck

Trever1t · Oct 31, 2011

MLeeK said:
WOW. This has got to be the most useless forum on the internet. Really??? The guy asked for help and you give him the rude snark with NOTHING else? This place is Bedlam run by the inmates. WHAT THE HELL?

I see you took the time and effort to answer the OP too.

MLeeK · Oct 31, 2011

Trever1t said:
MLeeK said:

WOW. This has got to be the most useless forum on the internet. Really??? The guy asked for help and you give him the rude snark with NOTHING else? This place is Bedlam run by the inmates. WHAT THE HELL?

Click to expand...

I see you took the time and effort to answer the OP too.

Um, yeah. I did... Post #4

MLeeK said:
This is such a hard question to answser. What my price is has no bearing on what anyone else's price is and telling you that you should charge THIS is just plain wrong.

You need to know your cost of doing business.
You need to know your cost of goods
Let's have a hypothetical: We'll say my CODB is about $100 or so per regular portrait session. We'll say I am a fair hand at processing and getting everything done quickly so the number of hours for a 1 hour shoot is roughly 6, but it's more than reasonable to expect a newbie to spend 8 hours on every one hour shoot. Value? I am a professional and I damn well better be making more than $10 an hour. I need to make roughly $300 minimum per session to cover my costs and my hourly. How I make that is up to me. I can charge a session fee of $300 with a print credit of whatever % of that I want, I can charge a session fee of $100 and expect the rest to come in sales. I can charge a $0 session fee and expect the rest in sales... It's all up to me how I want to structure that.

480sparky · Oct 31, 2011

There is no dollar figure we can possibly give. Costs vary widely across the country. There's no way we can know the OP's cost of doing business. With no hard data on gear, overhead, margins, costs, profits, etc. it would be pure folly to say $NNN.

Economic factors play into the scene as well. You can be the best damn photographer in a 500-mile radius, what with your four $8,000 camera bodies, $67,00 in lenses, $13,000 in flashes..... and if your customers can't afford $50 for an 8x10 print, you'll end up working at Wally World One-Hour Photo Print.

kundalini · Oct 31, 2011

MLeeK said:
WOW. This has got to be the most useless forum on the internet. Really??? The guy asked for help and you give him the rude snark with NOTHING else? This place is Bedlam run by the inmates. WHAT THE HELL?

WOW, it's taken you a whole month to figure this out? My Grandfather instilled in me certain wisdoms well before Tom Hanks ever came on the scene as Forest Gump...... and it wasn't about a box of chocolates. If you don't have the wherewithal to do some rudimentary investigation, then one should be subjected with a certain amount of contempt with such an open ended question.

The OP has one post.... how much do I charge. Well, phuque me, I don't have a clue because the OP hasn't given enough information to give a reasonable reply. How is your reply any more informative than the previous replies? NONE. Prove me wrong.

MLeeK · Oct 31, 2011

Yep. Its yet ANOTHER newbie who doesn't have any idea how complicated the question is that he is asking or what is even needed to begin to answer the question so we should most definitely be rude; giving snark and sarcasm will definitely help him to see the error of his ways. Some divine entity will then magically bestow upon the poor clueless soul the wisdom to be able to figure it out. The needed "formula" along with where to find the information needed to come up with the figures in that formula is going to seep into his knowledge base as he watches Fat Bastard and Dr. Evil.