Sorry - Another "how much do I charge" thread.

[Jim]

I'm getting a few requests for service and don't know how much I should be charging.

Can anyone help me with a general price range for:
Student/teacher group photos
Individual and group Graduation photos
A professional headshot that the person would want to use on a website and/or digital business card.

I really don't know what sizes or packages they're looking for yet either. Feel free to add to this thread or email me at jim (at) lensenvy.com

thank you.

[HotHolly]

Since no one said anything yet...

Hi Jim! Your avatar is way to funny! Me like!

You'll find with pricing that what people charge is all over the place. It depends a little on where you live, but most is based on experience and target demographic, and then just plain nerve.

Someone told me when we got into this, if you aren't making $100 per hour, you aren't covering your costs. I thought they were nuts. A few extra hours with the client, a dropped lens, a dead card, normal wear and tear, plus printing costs and that figure was pretty close. You may not want to pitch your rates as $100 per hour, but rather present it in a package that comes with prints. So, if you shoot for 2 hours add $200 plus the cost of the prints as your bare minimum.

And if you are totally new - it might be worth more to you to swap services for ad space. Advertising is frickin' expensive, swapping where you can saves you money and gets your work in front of more people. Hope that helps a little.

[Outlaw]

Like Holly said, and what follows much of what you'll read in "how to" books on the photography business, your prices are based on your Cost of Doing Business. The complicated answer is research this, use the calculators such as that offered by the NPPA, and do your best to figure out what you can and will earn versus what you project your overhead to be and then add a living salary onto that and you know what your time is worth. With that, estimate time costs to you for each job and then price accordingly.

Simple answer, look at your local competition and charge the median. Judge your skills and marketing efforts versus theirs and adjust higher or lower accordingly.

My prices, service versus prints, may be changing soon. I've found that I do just as much business as I raise my service rates, but the market "did not bear" my on-spec sports print prices last year, so I'll likely be lowering them soon. I'm finding my small business clients earn me a greater and more stable profit than my non-commercial customers.

Best I can offer beyond that is keep track of your own numbers and over time, adjust accordingly; maybe pick a median now, see how you're doing six months from now, and then adjust accordingly to either do more business or earn more profit - or even better, both.

[my3peas]

Thanks both for the informative answers! Appreciate it!

[jagphoto]

This is so helpful!!