So a friend of mine asked me if I would take her daughter's senior pictures, which I happily obliged for free. I figure I get the experience and she gets pictures. Not being paid takes a little bit of the pressure off as well! I posted a few of them on Facebook last weekend and now I'm getting all kinds of requests for me to take pictures of families, seniors, etc. They want to know what I charge, etc. I'm really excited, but I'm not trained in the least and I almost feel like I shouldn't charge anything. I don't know what to do! Should I charge? If so, how much? Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!! :)
well all I can say that if people are asking you based off what they've already seen on FB then IMO they should be willing to pay! Of course it is up to you whether or not you feel comfortable enough to undertake this type of thing or not. You might also feel more comfortable with charging a small session fee, giving them proof with a watermark very visable, and then only charging them for what they are happy with. I don't know just throwing that out as an option. Good luck!
I don't know how much you should charge, but from an article I read I do know you should charge. If you don't and you keep doing this people are just going to assume you can do this whenever and always at their leisure, not yours.
You could search for websites of semi-professional independent photographers in your area. Many of them list their rates on the site. You could charge half of the going rate for your area or whatever you are comfortable with, but you definitely deserve to charge something. Your time is valuable.
My wife and are starting out like this too. People are starting to see some of the pictures we’ve taken and have asked us to do something for them. Here are the lessons we are learning:
- We have to remind ourselves that we are providing a service that takes time. People pay all the time just to have someone come to their house and give an estimate. Let alone go out to the railroad tracks with them to get a shot with their fiddle. See I checked. :)
- Don't compare yourself to the portrait studios at Wal-mart or (insert local department store here.) We are providing a much more tailored and personal experience than they will get at the local store, so we can not compare the two.
- We are much harder on ourselves than others are on us. I think we get desensitized to how good our own stuff is when we look at all the great photos on a site like this. Average here is great to people outside our little circle here.
Thank you so much for your replies!! I really appreciate all of your feedback. Your help is invaluable and I'm grateful to have a place like this with such talented people to help me out! I'll let you know how it goes. I'm getting more and more excited the more I think about it! :)
These are very good. There are some that I noticed that the eyes are a bit blurry. The eyes are the most important element in a portrait, they must be in focus. If you find yourself in a low light situation like a heavily shaded area, a tripod is a must and focus on those eyes.
When I first started doing portraits, I did them on a TFP basis. (time for portfolio). The session was free and they got a cd with all the poses low res with watermark for their websites plus a free 5x7 print of a pose of their choice for free. If they wanted anything else (more prints or cd of all hi-res images) they had to pay for them.
If you decided to do this, how much you profit off prints or how much to charge for a cd would be up to you. I use Mpix.com for print processing, very good and inexpensive. Take the base price, add your desired profit and the shipping charges and that's what you charge for a print. as far as a hi-res cd, I've seen them priced as low as $25 and as high as $300. Just keep in mind the number of images you are giving them, as well as knowing how inexpensive it will be for them to have the images printed. And don't devalue your work by charging too low. Also give them a print release, without one they may not be able to get the images printed. here's an example of a print release..... http://www.focuspointphotography.com/Prints.pdf
A print release gives the client limited rights to the images to print the images for personal use. you still retain copyright.
David is right, when decided prices, packages, session fees and so on.....don't devalue yourself by comparing yourself to chain studios. Someone once asked me why I charge so much when they can go to Portrait Innovations and get a bunch of pictures for 10 bucks. Well, places like that deal in fixed lighting, the lighting situation never changes so it's not a challenging factor. They simply pose you and snap the picture. They don't take the time to capture your personality, and they take no time to enhance the images. they are all SOOC. Sure, they've got the built in software that'll add a vignette or make a grayscale black & white, but they put no effort into these images. That is why they cost so little.
There was an ad in the paper not too long ago for portrait innovations wanting a photographer, but required no photography experience. nice huh? you don't have to know a thing about photography to be a photographer in one of these studios.
Shannon, thank you so much for your insight! I really appreciate the feed back and I really focused on making sure the eyes were in focus as much as I could. I'm still learning about using the correct aperture, etc. Thank you for taking your time to give me such great info! :)
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Work out your happy place, and be consistent.
I highly recommend Easy as Pie by Alicia Caine as a place to start, if you're really not sure how to begin.
My wife and are starting out like this too. People are starting to see some of the pictures we’ve taken and have asked us to do something for them. Here are the lessons we are learning:
- We have to remind ourselves that we are providing a service that takes time. People pay all the time just to have someone come to their house and give an estimate. Let alone go out to the railroad tracks with them to get a shot with their fiddle. See I checked. :)
- Don't compare yourself to the portrait studios at Wal-mart or (insert local department store here.) We are providing a much more tailored and personal experience than they will get at the local store, so we can not compare the two.
- We are much harder on ourselves than others are on us. I think we get desensitized to how good our own stuff is when we look at all the great photos on a site like this. Average here is great to people outside our little circle here.
When I first started doing portraits, I did them on a TFP basis. (time for portfolio). The session was free and they got a cd with all the poses low res with watermark for their websites plus a free 5x7 print of a pose of their choice for free. If they wanted anything else (more prints or cd of all hi-res images) they had to pay for them.
If you decided to do this, how much you profit off prints or how much to charge for a cd would be up to you. I use Mpix.com for print processing, very good and inexpensive. Take the base price, add your desired profit and the shipping charges and that's what you charge for a print. as far as a hi-res cd, I've seen them priced as low as $25 and as high as $300. Just keep in mind the number of images you are giving them, as well as knowing how inexpensive it will be for them to have the images printed. And don't devalue your work by charging too low. Also give them a print release, without one they may not be able to get the images printed. here's an example of a print release..... http://www.focuspointphotography.com/Prints.pdf
A print release gives the client limited rights to the images to print the images for personal use. you still retain copyright.
David is right, when decided prices, packages, session fees and so on.....don't devalue yourself by comparing yourself to chain studios. Someone once asked me why I charge so much when they can go to Portrait Innovations and get a bunch of pictures for 10 bucks. Well, places like that deal in fixed lighting, the lighting situation never changes so it's not a challenging factor. They simply pose you and snap the picture. They don't take the time to capture your personality, and they take no time to enhance the images. they are all SOOC. Sure, they've got the built in software that'll add a vignette or make a grayscale black & white, but they put no effort into these images. That is why they cost so little.
There was an ad in the paper not too long ago for portrait innovations wanting a photographer, but required no photography experience. nice huh? you don't have to know a thing about photography to be a photographer in one of these studios.