Pricing Quandry: can you help?

Bridgett

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Hello, everyone!

I have a pricing quandry...

I did a photo shoot yesterday for a fitness studio. We have a trade agreement I like very much, but yesterday's models now want to buy the photos of themselves and I have no idea how to price them. These people are exercise enthusiasts (most are not professionals, but some are) and many (but perhaps not all) are probably anticipating that they will not have to spend a fortune to acquire the images of themselves.

A few want to use the images on their own websites/other websites, so they would want the digital files. With things being such a "digital age" already, I am guessing most people will want them this way.

How should I price them so that I am getting something worthwhile $-wise for my work but I am not pricing them so high that some people just decide they can do without them? I'd rather have some money than no money, so I don't want to price myself out of business.

By the image? By the "package" (all your shots [whether you love them all or not] are $X)? I'm guessing my documents of sale should place limitations on use...do you folks who have been in this position price depending on intended use? Should I charge more for use on a website or on personal promotional materials? (what's a "fair use?" Only personal use? How do you define that edge?) I would assume I would charge extra for editing.

How do you smart people deal with all these pricing complexities?

Thanks!! :heart:
 
Did you have any agreements before hand on property rights of the photos? It may be that if you did this for a Fitness Studio, that they may have the sole rights to them now.
 
As D says, what contract do you have with this fitness studio? You do have some kind of written, signed contract with them, right? If your contract with them is only verbal you may be in for a nasty surprise when the studio comes after you for selling images to those people when you don't own the rights to the image any more.

I assume by the questions you are asking that your are not a professional photographer who makes a living doing this? You are looking for the classic answer that all non-pro photographers want: I want to make some money selling photographs but if I charge too much I may not make anything.

I'm not trying to be mean here but you probably won't get much sympathy from pros who make their living shooting. The reason is that every time a hobbist sells someone a photograph cheaply the public gets conditioned that professional photographers should be inexpensive. When they visit a working professional they become put off by the apparent high price.

Well professional photographers do cost more then non pros but what you get is so much more that the price is reasonable for what you get. Ok, enough lecture. If you're going to sell your images I assume they are of a quality that you wouldn't mind them appearing on the cover of Time magazine for all to see. Assuming this to be true you should be charging on average what most pros in your area charge. Google a few studios and you'll get a good idea what pricing looks like. In general, CDs cost more because once you give a CD to a customer they will never be buying any prints from you so you need to recover you costs on this one-time sale.

The more well known you are the more you can charge. Most hobbists don't want to hear this but if you don't believe your work is of a quality to command what pros charge then just let the client know and cover your costs and nothing else.
 
The fitness studio actually informed me that people were asking for them and the studio also suggested I sell them since they are in such demand. I maintain the copyright to all my images...the studio has permission to use them in all marketing materials, etc. as they see fit.

I don't think that having a day job does not mean that my work is no good. I usually do fine art photography, not this kind of thing...though I have been getting more and more requests recently...so coming from the fine art side (which does not involve models, etc.), I am unsure how to approach this.

The studio very satisfied with my work and use it in all their marketing materials, which are very nice. They must think my work is good enough for the cover of Time Magazine, given the manner in which they use them. So I wouldn't say my work is only worth my expenses, no. And the circumstances are very different than what I usually do, so I was hoping someone could give me a little guidance rather than a lecture.

Does anyone have any helpful suggestions?
 
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At this point in time you should come up with your own business model. Sounds like you will be getting a lot more work. Personally I am of the opinion of hitting the client with a one time usage fee and call it good. Said fee depends on your time spent, wear and tear on the gear etc. If you really wanted to get silly you can also charge for your creativity. Most importantly you need to approximate how much traffic the image will get. Will the photo end up in a magazine? or someone's blog? And yes do consider the clients pocket book.

Long story short. Try and be slightly fair to the client. First time out in these matters is always sketchy. Trust me. It will get much easier.

This is a handy tool to throw some numbers out there. http://photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm This a handy blog that explains it better.
http://blog.charlesbeckwith.com/2008/02/how-to-charge-for-commercial.html

Love & Bass
 
Thanks so much, Craig! Those are very helpful resources! I really appreciate the time to took to guide me to those.

:heart:
 

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