Pricing Issues

[BOLP]

There seems to be many different opinions as to what pricing should be. There are many people undercutting prices for one reason or another. I would like to see more consistent pricing among competitors and less undercutting.

1. Please let me know what you feel fair pricing is for a one hour outdoor session with 10 - 15 edited photos. To keep it simple, no prints. Just the session and digital, watermarked proofs online.

2. Now, how many prints, if any, would you include and how much would you add on for the prints you provide as part of the package.

This is just for a general outdoor shoot. Either a Senior Portrait, child or family of four. My feeling is that many skilled photographers are not being fairly compensated because they are focusing on the photography but not on the business. I look forward to your responses!

Chris

 

[BOLP]

This has been viewed 42 times and nobody has an opinion on pricing? Really? If you are reading this I am guessing you are not shooting for FREE.

I will tell you what I feel is a reasonable fee:

One hour shoot, within reasonable distance, and 10-15 processed images for $150. $150 session fee is to be collected at time of booking and is non-refundable. The session can be rescheduled but the fee itself is non-refundable.

Prints sold seperate with minimum order of $50 from my website. Printing fulfilled by Mpix. Approximate profit of $35.

Upon order completion, all edited images, logo watermarked, are emailed to the customer in JPEG format, 600X400 at 72dpi FREE of charge.

The customer's investment is $200, they get a handful of quality prints as well as digital images to share with their friends online for FREE. The digital prints are large enough to share but small enough to look bad if printed larger than 4X6 and they help to promote the business with the logo stamped on each digital image.

OK, let's take a look at the earnings:

The photographer makes $150 on the session + $35 (approx from prints) + gets FREE promotion when the digital images with logo watermark are shared on facebook and/or emails to friends and family. In other words, $185 + advertising. If we are talking about a senior portrait you are talking about GREAT advertising potential as these kids have HUNDREDS of friends on facebook that will see these photos, and your logo...

Remember, this is on the low end, quoting minimums. More prints will result in more proifit because the prints will be ordered through my website.

I am not saying my way is the best way or the only way. I am simply sharing my pricing strategyl. I would LOVE to hear yours! Please post a reply!

I know there are opinions out there, so let's hear them!

 

[onedayillknowbetter]

I think BOLP said it well, for "budget but not cheap" prices. Though, unless you're scheduling 6+ sessions per week, there's no way to live comfortably off this when you consider that you'll need to make equipment upgrades, and pay taxes. I wouldn't charge less than $200 for the session itself, for up to two hours, including lo-res (72dpi) watermarked images. Only to my corporate clients do I release hi-res files, so I would then have a minimum print order, as BOLP mentioned similarly. This would be relative to what you're charging for prints.

The most important thing is that you are confident about your prices. The fact of the matter is there are people charging $2000 for something similar, and people pay it because the photographer is confident in charging that. I'm not saying you should do that, but just be confident.

 

[KmH]

This has been viewed 42 times and nobody has an opinion on pricing? Really? If you are reading this I am guessing you are not shooting for FREE....

And, Welcome to The Photo Forum.....:thumbup:



How long have you been in the retail photography business?

 

[KmH]

Ok, I'm back. Here is some food for thought:

Ok, let’s take a closer look at your numbers.

You have total revenue of $185 for a “One hour shoot, within reasonable distance, and 10-15 processed images.”
Out of that $185 you pay your cost-of-doing-business and cost-of-goods-sold.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, self employed retail photographers that do not have a studio need total revenues of about $125,000 a year to have any hope of earning an income of $30,000 a year, out of which personal expenses must be paid, like health insurance, income taxes, food, utilities. (Self-employed photographer that have a studio have to have more revenue. They make more money, but the money they do make is a smaller % of revenue.)

So, $125,000 total revenue divided by $185 revenue per shoot = 675.68 one hour shoots that need to be done per year.
675.68 divided by 12 months = 56.3 shoots a month
56.3 divided by 4.3 weeks = 13 shoots per week
13 divided by 7 days = 1.87 shoots per day. Doesn't sound to bad, on ein the mornign, one in the afternoon.
But that’s not realistic, because no one can shoot 365 days a year.

So, let’s look at it in terms of shooting days.
Ok, there are 52 weeks in a year. Cross off 2 of them for vacation, leaving us 50 weeks. Cross off 1 week for personal time – 49 weeks left.
Staying current is important so cross off another week for the yearly convention and a seminar or 2. That leaves us 48 weeks.
We better plan for it slowing down some during the Christmas holidays and shooting outside in the winter can be problematic in many areas and high school seniors is kind of seasonal, so it’s not a good idea to plan on more than 42 solid shooting weeks a year. If you get more it’s gravy.

Each week we will have business management tasks, image editing, client consultations, web site maintanence, etc. to accomplished plus we need at least one day off to do laundry, mow the lawn clean up the car, etc. Call it a 6 day work week.

You are very efficient though, so you can shoot 4 days a week and get all the other tasks done without going stark raving mad. (3 shooting days a week is much more realistic, and you'll still be working your butt off.)

So, 4 shooting days a week times 42 weeks = 168 shooting days
We recalculate what we did above: 675.68 shoots a year needed, divided by 168 shooting days = 4.02 on location shoots per shooting day. (at the more realistic 3 shooting days a week, it’s 5.3 shoots a day)

In 3 words….No way, Jose.

2 on-location shoots per shooting day is a real full-time job.

 

[rbiz]

I just joined this forum because I wanted to see if anyone else was having trouble with their pricing. After 19 years in business we have gone from $175 for one business headshot on CD down to $95.. They get full copyright release. I'm starting to feel that I'm worth more than that but have lowered prices for fear of losing business to 'cheaper" photographers. I'm still confused! Here are samples.

richardsphotography dotcom

 

[rbiz]

I just joined this forum because I wanted to see if anyone else was having trouble with their pricing. After 19 years in business we have gone from $175 for one business headshot on CD down to $95.. They get full copyright release. I'm starting to feel that I'm worth more than that but have lowered prices for fear of losing business to 'cheaper" photographers. I'm still confused! Here are samples.

richardsphotography dotcom

I think I may have answered my own question LOL! :lmao:

 

[lisa_13]

right now for seniors i have a few different options:

a quick and dirty (15 minutes tops) yearbook headshot on a classic blue backdrop is $139. the prices includes a 4 sheet print package ($100 value) if they want it. i used to not include the prints, but had a few people do a shoot and never order prints...so at least this way they have paid for it, and if they don't order prints that is their problem. i do remind them once or twice to order prints and most people do now.

the "standard" session is $209 - this is about an hour of shooting if they need a studio headshot for the yearbook, they get that, and then can choose whether we shoot all outside at the studio garden, all in studio, or both. if they choose both they can pick 2 background colors for the studio. again they get the 4 sheet print package, free, if they want it.

then there is the "deluxe" session, for $259 - up to 1.5 hours with travel. studio headshot, session at the studio garden OR a location of their choose (within a reasonable distance - i charge a fee per mile if it's out of the way), and they can choose up to 3 studio backdrops. and again that same print package is included.

on the $100 print package, my profit is ~$88, and i have a few other packages as well.

i noticed someone posted previously that they will send the low-res watermarked & edited files for free...great idea! i may start doing that. as of now i send low-res proofs with a huge watermark but i hate seeing those guys on facebook.

i am a student so this is just to make extra money for now...i shoot musicians and models as well but those prices are always varying because they are usually custom

 

[KmH]

I just joined this forum because I wanted to see if anyone else was having trouble with their pricing. After 19 years in business we have gone from $175 for one business headshot on CD down to $95.. They get full copyright release. I'm starting to feel that I'm worth more than that but have lowered prices for fear of losing business to 'cheaper" photographers. I'm still confused! Here are samples.

richardsphotography dotcom

Interesting. For full copyright release my pricing starts at $5000 - for out takes.

That pricing is based on the fact I own copyright for the rest of my life + at least 70 years. So the minimum value of full copyright release for an image I have made has to include how much myself and my heirs might have made from the image over that time frame.

A business, business owner, or executive is going to make quite a bit of money from any quality headshot made for them, so full copyright release of business headshots from me starts at $10,000.

Few businesses need full copyright release.

You are throwing money away. Sell use licensing that meets, but doesn't exceed, your customers need.

Actually, there is no legal term known as a copyright release, only copyright transfers whereby you no longer own or control your image and use licensing whereby you sell limited access to some of your copyrights for a limited period of time and uses.