Price for prints?

Wheels1388 · Nov 15, 2012

Hello All,

I am a student at the Art Institute of Colorado only a few months from graduating with a BA in Photography. I've had a few inquires in regards to shooting family photos. It's not really more forte doing portraits but, i have told a few family friend clients that I would charge $100 if they were to purchase prints through myself or $200 if they would like a CD/DVD with 10+ HQ Edited Images. I know this isnt a great deal of money for such shooting but, my question is what would be a good price range for prints?

I can do prints from Wallet size all the way up to 17" x w/e roll paper. High dollar paper. Does anyone have a good price range for the average joe family they could give me a rough price range on?

Thank you very much!

kathyt · Nov 15, 2012

So, you are printing them yourself? If so, you need to caluculated how much it cost you to print each item on X paper before you can decide on a price range.

Wheels1388 · Nov 15, 2012

Thats correct. I have access to some very nice printers here at the school and I normally use Moab paper for prints. A box of 50 sheets of 11x17 is roughly $1.50 a sheet but, we all know to jack up the price for prints. I just don't really know where to start. If I were to go off of what I pay for paper that would only be about $5-6 for an 11x17 which I know can go for a lot more. for 8.5 x 11 a box of decent paper is $50 for a box of 100 so the prices would be super low. Is that what I need to go for? just charge 3-4x what each piece of paper would cost or more?

Big Mike · Nov 15, 2012

Welcome aboard.

I'm a bit surprised that this isn't something that would be covered, somewhere along the line in getting a BA in Photography.

The start, (of what could be a long answer) is that you really should figure out a business plan to determine what you need to/should be charging for your work. Part of that should be trying to estimate what your market can bare. You could probably charge a lot more in L.A. than in 'Podunk'.

I wouldn't hurt to check out what other photographers in your area are charging. That have (hopefully) figured out what works in that market, which you don't need to copy, but it should give you a baseline.

And really, there is not 'standard' price structure for photographers. Some might have a high sitting fee with lower print prices. Others might have a lower (or no) sitting fee but make up for it with print/image sales.

MLeeK · Nov 15, 2012

Wheels1388 said:
Thats correct. I have access to some very nice printers here at the school and I normally use Moab paper for prints. A box of 50 sheets of 11x17 is roughly $1.50 a sheet but, we all know to jack up the price for prints. I just don't really know where to start. If I were to go off of what I pay for paper that would only be about $5-6 for an 11x17 which I know can go for a lot more. for 8.5 x 11 a box of decent paper is $50 for a box of 100 so the prices would be super low. Is that what I need to go for? just charge 3-4x what each piece of paper would cost or more?

"jacking up the price for prints" leaves out a HUGE GIANT FACTOR here.
The paper and ink are NOT what you are selling. Paper and ink are what is costing you $5-7 without YOUR IMAGE. The markup on the paper part is maybe 100%. Then you have to add to that the price of the image! What is the price of the IMAGE?

Unfortunately there are many many just like you (I was one) that are coming out of art school and should be coming out of business school instead.
Please read the following posts. I'm yet to write the one on pricing your prints, but this will get you moving in that direction... and it's coming.

MLeeK said:
Here are some posts for you... in order...

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...ning-business-building-house.html#post2707594
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-shop-talk/304732-finding-your-codb-your-hourly-rate.html
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...-its-not-answer-what-do-i-charge-for____.html
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/general-shop-talk/304649-how-blow-away-client.html

I forgot to add my favorite blog: www.amantofish.com
Todd and Jodie Reichman are pretty brilliant when it comes to business period. I'd LOVE to take their Sexy Business workshop some day, but their blog alone has taught me MUCH MUCH MUCH. I HIGHLY suggest you take the time to read from day one forward before or as you are designing your business plan. And read the comments on many of the posts. THere are some excellent discussions and they don't filter out those who don't believe the same as they do. They very professionally and courteously debate and discuss. He's popped in here a time or two because I am forever linking to them. They're really great people and beyond making a little money, they're just helpful-even to those of us who aren't paying the workshop fee... yet!

tirediron · Nov 15, 2012

You're lucky that you're attending a school which will let you use their resources for commecial work; most won't! You're in a rather unusual, and somewhat artificial situation since you have access to this equipment. I would probably price them according to what they will cost when you no longer have access, since that will mean that you don't have to increase your prices dramatically, which can have a negative effect on business, especially word-of-mouth referrals.

Wheels1388 · Nov 15, 2012

Well Mike, This will actually be covered my last quarter of school starting in Jan for my Business/Marketing class. I just figured I could get a head start as i've been getting a lot of inquaries over the past month with Christmas coming up and all.
I agree, this could be a very long answer haha. Luckly I am not in a "Podunk" town but, finding what photographers in my area are charging seems to be a bit of a challenge thus far believe it or not. I think what I might do is ask an instructor who can relate to my situation and go from there. Hopefully I can get a "base" price for prints and go from there. A lot of other forums or just googling the topic doesn't seem to come up with too many results. It's all just in regards to "everything changes" depending upon your area.

MLeeK · Nov 15, 2012

Wheels1388 said:
Well Mike, This will actually be covered my last quarter of school starting in Jan for my Business/Marketing class. I just figured I could get a head start as i've been getting a lot of inquaries over the past month with Christmas coming up and all.
I agree, this could be a very long answer haha. Luckly I am not in a "Podunk" town but, finding what photographers in my area are charging seems to be a bit of a challenge thus far believe it or not. I think what I might do is ask an instructor who can relate to my situation and go from there. Hopefully I can get a "base" price for prints and go from there. A lot of other forums or just googling the topic doesn't seem to come up with too many results. It's all just in regards to "everything changes" depending upon your area.

Don't listen when they tell you that it depends upon your area either. It doesn't. It depends upon YOU and YOUR business design, marketing and sales skills.
I can tell you that a couple years back the average retail price in the US for an 8x10 was $25 and people were NOT making money hand over fist at that price.

Wheels1388 · Nov 15, 2012

Thank you very much for the your forum posts MLeek, I am reading your "Pricing Structure" one now =) I can already tell there is a great deal of very valuable information in those. That is more what I am looking for an average price for what things are going for or what they were going for and I can base my prices from there. I seem to be the only person who can put a "value" on what my work is but, it is difficult lol. It seems even more difficuly trying to give "discounted" prices for friends and family. At this point it's not so much about money just because Portraiture isn't my specialty but, at the same time it is because I can't really pay my bills per say with my fine art just yet. I will be sure to read up on what what you have posted for me and go from there. Again thank you very much! same goes to everyone else replying. Any info helps a great deal!

MLeeK · Nov 15, 2012

Wheels1388 said:
Thank you very much for the your forum posts MLeek, I am reading your "Pricing Structure" one now =) I can already tell there is a great deal of very valuable information in those. That is more what I am looking for an average price for what things are going for or what they were going for and I can base my prices from there. I seem to be the only person who can put a "value" on what my work is but, it is difficult lol. It seems even more difficuly trying to give "discounted" prices for friends and family. At this point it's not so much about money just because Portraiture isn't my specialty but, at the same time it is because I can't really pay my bills per say with my fine art just yet. I will be sure to read up on what what you have posted for me and go from there. Again thank you very much! same goes to everyone else replying. Any info helps a great deal!

You aren't the only one, by far! It's very hard to do when you are starting out! Right now you just need to get a handle on the 'costs' to you to be doing this. The CODB post.
I am guessing you aren't legally a business and you don't have the necessary insurance, etc-so be sure to figure in for those things. Do not mess around without doing the legalities for more than a few minutes. They are very minimal in cost-under $100(most places under $50) and will CYA if something comes up to say the state tax dept or the IRS.
Off that soap box... Once you know what your costs to do this are you can know what you need to make to make a buck. For you right now you will need a lot less to cover costs, but remember that you are setting yourself for the future now.

Friends and family pricing is another one of those posts 'on the list' but I'll give you a quick run down on my theory about pricing:
You should have 4 prices for EVERYTHING. Your DREAM price. If you were to charge what you REALLY want per 8x10 it wold be say $50. Your ACTUAL price-what you are really charging any joe blow off the street, say $30. Your Friends and Family pricing-this is for THOSE friends... the ones who are your friend and you want to give a discount to, but you don't want to give away everything either. ANYONE can be friends and family pricing-even a newly made client "friend." That price is say $20. Then your FAMILY pricing-this is all of the aunts, uncles, cousins and so on that you want to charge next to nothing, but want to make something at the very least! And that price is maybe $10-15. None of those are what I'd charge my brother, sister, mother or father, but you can do whatever you want there.

KmH · Nov 15, 2012

Something like 85% of all the photographs that ever sell, have people in them.

It seems Fine Art photography is your specialty? Once you graduate, how do you plan on generating income?

Wheels1388 · Nov 15, 2012

MLeek, I am not a registered business but, I did pick up insurance through PPA.

That is a good way to put it with having 4 prices for everything, Thank you much for that idea.

KmH, you are correct Fine Art is more a long the lines of what I really enjoy, as stated above though, I do understand I will have a hard time "making a living" off such photography so that is why I am not against doing portraiture and such so I can pay my bills. My finance also attends AiC but, she will be graduating in December but, she does more portraiture stuff so between what we both bring in together things should be a lot easier for us.

MLeeK · Nov 15, 2012

Wheels1388 said:
MLeek, I am not a registered business but, I did pick up insurance through PPA.

That is a good way to put it with having 4 prices for everything, Thank you much for that idea.

KmH, you are correct Fine Art is more a long the lines of what I really enjoy, as stated above though, I do understand I will have a hard time "making a living" off such photography so that is why I am not against doing portraiture and such so I can pay my bills. My finance also attends AiC but, she will be graduating in December but, she does more portraiture stuff so between what we both bring in together things should be a lot easier for us.

Equipment insurance, Indemnity insurance and Liability insurance? Or just the indemnity clause? You need all of the above, not just the indemnity insurance through PPA.