Senior Pricing

[Wil_Bloodworth]

It seems like it is most "common" to see photogs/studios offering only packages to high school seniors. The packages usually include the photog's time and a variable number of prints.

I (currently) have that same methodology. However, I am thinking about moving solely to a "a la carte" methodolgy instead. I figure I would just average my time into the prices of the prints and let the parents, friends, and relatives or the prints that they want directly from my POS system. That way, I do not have to be involved (thus saving time & money) and each of them can get exactly what they want and when they want.

Your thoughts?

- Wil

[HotHolly]

We have been selling only al la carte for a while now. You'd think it would take less time, but it seems to take the same amount if you want to keep the sales. I would not recommend changing to al la carte and then putting them all online. Photograph sales are emotional and the more time that lapses b/t proofing and buying, the less they buy. There are exceptions, but that generally is what is happening to us.

And online sales are usually extra icing - they aren't the cake. There is nothing that compares to the personal touch of having someone diode over you while you select your images. You can talk about where they are going to put them, shots that compliment each other, shots Mom and grandma typically prefer, etc. The only spot we kept packages was on wedding sales on the front end and there we used them to upsell to the next package. And - if you do al la carte - proofing parties are a gold mine!

[bondarnes]

A couple of thoughts. If you don't value your time your clients won't either and putting that into the print prices doesn't ring a bell with clients. Probably the absolute best pricing would be a $300.00 photography fee that includes a $150.00 print credit or something like that. That guarantees you at least a $300.00 (or whatever figure you want to use) order on every session.

We are a little more traditional and charge a session fee. That is money spent and money forgotten. Then we decided what we needed to average on each session to be profitable and created a package at that price that includes a nice wall portrait and enough gift portraits for the average family. Smaller packages have much less savings per print and larger packages have about the same percentage of savings. We do not include wallets in most of our packages because they are going to buy wallets anyway. Our ala carte' prices are about 50% higher than the same products in the package.

For those that ask about images on a CD our largest package includes a disc of all the images in files large enough for a good 8X10. Any images they ordered that we retouched will be retouched on the disc. After they have spent that much money I am happy to give them a disc.

[Wil_Bloodworth]

I'm also thinking about doing a combination where they pay (up front) a flat fee based on time. Then, they pay for prints a-la-carte. Sorry I didn't mention that in the first post.

- Wil

[Wil_Bloodworth]

Great info (as usual) Don! Thanks!

- Wil

[HotHolly]

We charge a sitting fee also. It varies based on the session type and length. And like Don said - figure out where its worth it to you to part with the files. If you sell al la carte, you can offer them at a price point, if you dont use packages. If you do use packages - the files offer a lot of leverage to get them to purchase a larger package.

Edit: Oh, and be careful not to undersell yourself. I have clients paying a lot more than I would have even considered initially. If I drew the line too low for the files, I would have shot my sales in the head. So be thoughtful about where you price stuff.