Pricing help!

I am picking up some work for music performing and recording artist.
They want editorial work for cd covers, posters, etc.
They also sometimes want fashion type photography with their instruments or just
their "image".

I don't know how to charge. I have a website where they can view proofs and order prints.
I have been charging low for the prints between 2 bucks and 10 bucks for the 4x6 - 8x10 range.

For the on location shooting and fashion type deal,
I was thinking 150 for about 3 hours of work, i keep copyright and they can change looks however many times they want. I would put them online for them to order. Perhaps a few prints included with this.

should i give the dvd? how should i handle the dvd? Im pretty sure they are going to take it to walmart and print it ha.

some artist need heavy modifying of their pics. some want specific details out of the photos. How do i handle editing prices. I was thinking 1.00 or 3.00 for basic healing touch ups and 10 bucks each photo for heavy editing. I always edit the photos somewhat anyway to fit my style etc, but sometimes they want something specific.

Ahh i suck at pricing.

Tags: editorial, pricing

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Permalink Reply by Alex Torres on May 4, 2009 at 11:51pm

Thanks for replying. I guess pricing is not something a lot of people like to talk about here. haha. I checked some of your photos out, they are pretty good. I like the more recent ones the most. There are some wrestling ones i like and the latest with the woman singing came out pretty cool. I think it was tough dealing with the cage and the lowish light situation there. Gotta keep that in mind.

And yea, I'm still thinking of better pricing. Its a continous battle lol.

Alejandro

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Permalink Reply by Sean on May 18, 2009 at 6:44pm

10 dollars for heavy editing? You really need to reevaluate what your time is worth. Remember 3 hours of photography is not 3 hours of your time...add in travel to and from the location, cost of fuel, wear and tear on your equipment, are you going to spend any time on the computer with the files reducing sizes and watermarking them so they don't just get taken?...How are you going to deliver the images?...You my price yourself out of some jobs, but once you start getting jobs it is difficult to get referral jobs if you charge more than you charged their friend and you will be stuck in the really low bracket.

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Permalink Reply by Jay Rodriguez on May 29, 2009 at 10:35am

Look on craigslist.
Get an idea on what the local photog's in your area are charging!
always be competitive but don't leave yourself starving either!

make sure you build a bond with them, that way they will always return to you if they need more photo's!

if the competition has outrageous pricing figure it out this way.
gas + labor + assistant + editing + equipment + late nights + turnaround time = how much % lower compared to the local photographer offering the same thing?

Just make sure you offer a great rate and start branding yaself this way.
I usually throw special on CL for quick and easy jobs if I need to fill in gaps in the weekend.
$100 shoot = 10 prints 2x changes 1 Hour, full color.
when I put this special up the artists call me within minutes of the posting. No fail!
try it out, make sure you keep the shoot within 5 miles of your area otherwise you'll be losing money on travel alone.

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Permalink Reply by J Lee Gibbons on May 30, 2009 at 5:33am

I dont know the market where you are but I would say $2 to $10 per print is too low. I do studio portrait sessions for models, familes etc. I over 5 times that amount (depending on the exchange rate) for 1 A4 print and I find that that is still lower than most others in my country / area.

I would however look into creating a package price for this job as there are lots of aspects involved. Have they actually asked for prints or do they just want the digital images?

Find out their exact requirements. Do they want the DVD? What usage do they want from the images (this will determine any license fees you may want to charge)? Do they want full rights to reuse the images as many times as they want?

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Permalink Reply by Alex Torres on June 9, 2009 at 8:17pm

Thank you for the responses everyone. Sorry it took so long to respond. These are all great suggestions and I will take them into consideration. You guys have a really good point with them, its just more than just photoshopping stuff etc. There is a lot of time and effort that goes into this that I think a lot of people don't seem to realize. I will let you guys know when I find something that works. I'll try a few things out with a few people and see what they like. I hope they don't just pick the cheapest one.

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Permalink Reply by Jeremey Guttilla on July 16, 2009 at 6:21am

I can tell you that the portrait studio i work at 8x10s run 60-150 dollars depending on the session type, and sessions are 40-230. This is just your standard kids on a white background families seniors ect. Obviously if you don't have a storefront or reputation its hard to charge that.

I did listen to a program a lady did a few months ago and she was charging $50 per image, but selling prints of the images they purchased for 5-12 dollars and cd's with the images they purchased for $25. This seemed like a more realistic business model for the 21st century since you know people are going to copy everything anyway and just make your photos look like crap.