How much to charge...

[LegacyPhotographic]

I've been doing photography as a hobby now for over 10 years, but just started doing it as a side business here in the past year. I have shot a few weddings... however they were for very close friends that: 1) I owed favors of anyway 2) Did as a favor/wedding present aside from some equipmental costs

Now, I have one scheduled that will be a full paying job, and am really unsure what a fair amount would be to charge for my services. For my portraiture work I typically will charge $50 an hr, and then a charge for a photo disc which is determined by the number of photos, time edited, etc.

If anyone would be willing to look at my Wedding portion of my web album and offer any advice for me on the matter, it would be VERY much appreciated... I have already gathered lots of helpful information from participating and reading various posts since I joined the forum, and look forward to hearing from you all.

Thanks!!!

[HotHolly]

General rule of thumb - if you are charging less than $100 per hour, you are loosing money. That's taking a ton of things into play. The PPA (it may have been WPPI, Im blanking on what else was in that issue) ran numbers a while back. That includes shooting time, PP, client time, phone calls, equipment wear and tear, etc. Usually when new photogs 1st hear that number - they think its insanely high. It really isnt - especially if you spend any time with your clients or working on the images in PP or if your equipment takes a hit. Wedding are unpredictable - something usually happens. It might be minor or it might be major. There are enough threads on here of cameras crashing to the floor, lenses being bowled, and stuff walking off to make you think twice about wear and tear. That should give you a benchmark anyway...

And Aric made a list of expenses on this thread that may help you out too.

[LegacyPhotographic]

Thank you Holly, exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for... just trying to cover bases so I know what sort of costs to consider...

[CaptainTom]

charge $3000. Give them an album and some prints. You will not be making $100/hr.

[LegacyPhotographic]

I think a decent part of my decision problem is convincing myself I'm worth that much... having done it purely as just a hobby for so long, its hard to make the mindset change from "this is just for me for fun" to "this is a valuable service for the benefit of others, and worth a lot of money." I appreciate the comments, everyone!

[barP]

you have to decide if this is a business for you personally, or just something you make a little beer money on. if it's the first, then you should approach every part of it professionally even if you only shoot one wedding a year. that means a contract, all aspects of shooting and client interaction, delivery, and setting a rate. personally, i think holly's rule of thumb is about 1/2 right....as in, it's half as much as you should charge. weddings, however, are almost never done on an hourly basis. you have to figure out how much time you think it will take for all aspects, multiply that by what hourly rate you want to make, and see what the answer is. that becomes your fixed bid. work longer, you lose money. work less and you have a buffer. i also read somewhere that the national average for wedding photography is $1700, but i don't know what that includes. i personally think it's about $2500, but what people deliver for a given amount of money is all over the map. some include prints, some include albums, some just show up.

regardless, my mentor always said, make a rational decision about your pricing, then never appologize for it.

wp.

[HotHolly]

Add up all that stuff on Aric's list. Assuming you pay yourself min wage, you'll check when you check the total.

[MicWayWal]

Robert,

Let me see if I can help you to answer your question. I spend an average of 50-60 hours of work per wedding and I know what I'm doing. I don't have to waste time trying to figure out the best way to handle proofing, streamlining your work-flow, designing an album, getting orders collated so they can be produced together, getting the orders finalized and finally putting the album together. If you have to figure a lot of those things out for the first time, it could easily be two or three times that amount of time.

Basic costs involved may be equipment you have to buy or rent for the wedding. If you put the images on the web it could cost between $45 and $100. Album printing cost could be anywhere between $100 and $1000 depending on what the bride wants. I assume you know what prints cost.

BEFORE the wedding find out what the bride wants in an album. Determine your fixed costs and then charge what you want per hour of work. Now you have an amount of money from which to base your charges. As you can see if you are not careful you can be working for minimum wage.

The best advise I can give you about shooting the wedding is two things.
1. Meet personally with the bride a week to 10 days before the wedding. Spend at least an hour going over the wedding details with her. Find out exactly what she is expecting of you and WRITE it down. Talk with her about what you would like to do creatively as a photographer for her.
2. Have an assistant at the wedding whose sole responsibility is to make sure you accomplish the list from the bride and remind you of what you wanted to do at the wedding. That will take a lot of the pressure off. Then you can relax and be creative.

God Bless you. As a wedding photographer you will need it.