Need help pricing group portrait

[jprechel]

I am only about a month into being a "professional" photographer. I have been doing mostly baby portraits with a couple of small family shoots mixed in. I am currently charging a $50 session fee and then I have a $50, $100, and $200 packages available. I was contacted yesterday about doing a larger group portrait (10 adults 3 children) that would be a generation portrait women/kids in a large family. They would like a group portrait of everyone and then single portraits of each person or mother/daughter. If they only wanted the group shot I would probably just stick to my standard $50 session fee. Of course they also have said they are not interested in anything but 4x6s and 5x7s, or maybe one 8x10, so my standard packages would have to be reworked. With the addition of the single portraits I am going to be doing a lot more work, not to mention dealing with 10 separate people for payment, image review, delivery, etc. How should I deal with this situation? My first inclination is to go to a $100 session fee ($10 per adult) and then go purely a la carte on prints. I mentioned to the caller that I normally do 20-30 edited proofs per portrait session, but for this group of singles it would be more like 3 proofs for each. I appreciate any advice you may have for this NEWB. :) Maybe I am over-thinking it, but my gut feeling after the woman called was: Headache!

[ShaneKislack]

At 4x6 and 5x7, you'll lose money on any prints you sell given the time you'll put in. Better make the session fee worth it. I did this for a family at Christmas and sold 4 prints even though everyone loved it.

[Duane Hickman]

The money is in the wall portraits....there is where you want to go...wall portraits, retouched, mounted and sprayed.....this should be a minimum of a 450.00 session...and that a little on the cheap side....do you have any means of projecting your images?? Think Wall Portraits.

[jprechel]

As sad as it may seem, I have been in business for a couple of months now and I have not sold a print larger than an 8x10. My prices are very reasonable, if not ridiculously cheap, but people just are not interested in the larger prints. They absolutely love the images, but they usually say something like: "I wouldn't have the room for a larger one," or "I think an 8x10 is plenty big for me," or "I'm happy just getting my pictures in a normal size." How do you talk your customers into going bigger to something CRAZY like a "16x20? :) I have even created foam boards of each size print I sell up to a 24x36 and prop up each size in order for my clients to view while they are selecting their images. A 5x7 or 8x10 looks a lot smaller this way, but my clients still don't go for a larger one.

[MicWayWal]

Originally Posted by jprechel

As sad as it may seem, I have been in business for a couple of months now and I have not sold a print larger than an 8x10. My prices are very reasonable, if not ridiculously cheap, but people just are not interested in the larger prints. They absolutely love the images, but they usually say something like: "I wouldn't have the room for a larger one," or "I think an 8x10 is plenty big for me," or "I'm happy just getting my pictures in a normal size." How do you talk your customers into going bigger to something CRAZY like a "16x20? :) I have even created foam boards of each size print I sell up to a 24x36 and prop up each size in order for my clients to view while they are selecting their images. A 5x7 or 8x10 looks a lot smaller this way, but my clients still don't go for a larger one.

Extended Family sessions are by far my most profitable sessions. I set up and photograph the big group, then each family, each couple, each set of kids and anything else they want. I usually suggest many more groups than they think of doing. There is not as much variety but you can sell tons of prints of the different groups. First don't worry about selling large prints. 85% of my profit is made from selling 5x7s. I build most of my profit into that product.

If you want to sell larger prints, SHOW larger prints than you want to sell. Show family groups. Show prints of images not blank boards. I have 24x30s on my walls, nothing smaller. It is no shock that most of my wall portraits sold are 20x24, one size smaller that what I show. People will buy what they can see.

How big are the images when you show them to your clients? I project my images on a screen. I show all my images 60 inches wide. When you size it down to 16x20 on the screen it looks small. When I show them what an 8x10 looks like, it looks like a postage stamp. But by far most of what I sell are 5x7s.

[jprechel]

Thanks for the advice Michael. If you don't mind, could you tell me how you handle the session fee or package pricing for your large groups? I want to try to make sure I guarantee that I at least break even on the session. A little voice in my head is telling me that this potential client has more time than money!

[MicWayWal]

Sure Jim,

First I have to tell you I live in Collin county, one of the most affluent counties in the US. They are accustomed to paying very nicely for professional portraits. These prices may not apply to you because of where you live and the income level of your area. But you can adapt it for your situation.

I have several ways families can operate their session.
1. Normal portrait session: $100 session fee and then they buy prints. Normally I have a very high price for the first print of an image. Then additional prints are very low. This high price is to make sure I get what I want financially from each image. The very low additional prints are so my clients can get as many as they want without money being that big of an issue. I want people to have lots of my images. If they are too high people will scan them and print their own. I make the price so low it is not worth the time to scan their own.

2. Extended Family portrait session: $695 session fee and then they buy prints. ALL prints, including the first one, are the low price like the additional prints in the above session. This allows everyone to buy lots of prints. I don't offer packages. I let them buy what they want. But the price is very low compared to what they expect. Somewhat like most people wedding candids are priced.

I explain to them that if you are planning on buying at least 4 8x10s it is cheaper, by my structure, to go with the extended session. It seems like a lot of money UPFRONT to them, and it is; but they will have more pictures when everything is finished.

My first print price is based on the fact that the first print is where all my work is done. It is where my time is spent. I have to account for all my time and talent to produce that first print, as well as expenses. That is a lot of money. For additional prints after the first print, it is just submitting the file to a lab and delivering to the client. Not much work to do, so they can be much cheaper based only on what it costs to produce the print. I mount all of my work so a 5x7 costs about $8. I usually charge 3x that for additional prints. Remember I get ALL I want financially from the first image.

My customers average spending about $1,800 with each session, no matter which one they choose. When they go way beyond that, I usually do something special for them. Like an album, or a ton of wallets, or something they may have cut out to save on cost. I give them that back and don't charge for it.

I think my system is very rewarding for my clients. It gives me the opportunity to sell lots of images for them. They love it and are very happy. I love it and I love my clients.

[jprechel]

Thanks a lot Michael! I appreciate you sharing that information with me. I ended up charing a $100 session fee and then I gave the client a slight discount on individual prints (no package) based upon an agreed upon minimum. I really do like the way you handle your pricing and I will certainly look to do something similar in the future.