Charging for photos

[Jaime Vinas]

I have a question about pricing. I want to be fair to the client and myself. How much should I charge for taking pictures of property (backyards, pools, gazebos, etc)?

They want to use the shots for their webpage gallery and brochures.

I am not looking to extort the client, I want to give them a reasonable price , but at the same time I dont want the word to get out and then have to charge everyone the same price.

Thanks
Jaime

[Killeenguy]

well your certainly not charging for a regular session here. As a side note, profit isn't a four letter word here. Don't be fair to them, be fair to you. That's just my opinion... but it seems for comercial work I would charge per hour.

[zepp]

Originally Posted by Jaime Vinas

I have a question about pricing. I want to be fair to the client and myself. How much should I charge for taking pictures of property (backyards, pools, gazebos, etc)?

They want to use the shots for their webpage gallery and brochures.

I am not looking to extort the client, I want to give them a reasonable price , but at the same time I dont want the word to get out and then have to charge everyone the same price.

Thanks
Jaime

I doubt you will get many clear cut replies to your question.

Pricing photography is not a constant. Having a good understanding of common photography business practices is a key factor in helping you to determine proper pricing.

Do yourself a favor and go to the bookstore and buy John Harrington's book "Best Business Practices for Photographers" then spend the weekend reading it.

It won't directly answer your pricing question but it will start you out in the right direction from the beginning.

Also, a tool that might help you in your pricing situation is "Fotoquote"

Good luck...

[canoflan]

The key to pricing is to understand your cost structure and how much the market can bear over that.

You need to sit down and layout what all it costs for you to do certain things like: labor (your time), equipment depreciation cost (including camera gear, computers, printers, etc...), materials (i.e. printing paper, CD's), insurance, travel expenses to and from customer and site of the shoot, etc.... Include in this the opportunity cost in terms of what you are selling (i.e. when wedding photographers give a high quality CD away, they are probably giving up print business that would normally be part of the revenues needed to run the business profitably, etc...).

The only thing that is pretty subjective is what you should charge for your time. I have heard some say that you shouldn't charge less than the hourly rate for a plumber, or other professional's time.

This is the only way you will be able to know whether each time you sell your services/photos, you are making a profit (that is, covering you r costs and receiving cash above that cost).

Remember, business is business and if you are into selling your work to people other than really really close friends or family, then you have to charge like you are running a business, else, most people will not take you very seriously and will be glad you feel "guilty" about charging them a real price.

Canoflan.

[barP]

i'll make this easy for you: charge them $200 per hour.

wp.

[FreshPhotography]

Go to http://photolovecat.blogspot.com and read Anne Ruthmann's GREAT article on how to price yourself. It will give you a really good place to start.