How much should i charge?

6ftblonde

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Janine
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I hate this subject, i will be doing portraits either in my home or at the customers and have no idea of the going rates. I also have an awards cereamony in dec there are 20 awards and a few candid shots and again not sure the going rate so any help would be be welcome.
Thanks all
 
I have just done a couple for work and charged £12.50 for a A4 and £5.00 for a 6x4 printed at home.
 
A completely useless answer is as much as they will pay!

Maybe ring round a few competitors, see if you can find out what they charge
 
my mrs (a pro wedding tog) does a bit of portrait work in peoples homes. she USED to charge £40 for the shoot (yes i know thats too cheap) + prints £16 for 8x10, £12 7x5 etc.
NOW were doing a package shoot and 4 7x5,s fro £100+ extra prints at x amount per print.
as for the award ceremony, if prints are in with the price, maybe you wanna be asking the event guys. even so i would think a couple of hundred quid easily, even if your not a pro.
maybe have a look at the NUJ rates scales too.
 
my mrs (a pro wedding tog) does a bit of portrait work in peoples homes. she USED to charge £40 for the shoot (yes i know thats too cheap) + prints £16 for 8x10, £12 7x5 etc.
NOW were doing a package shoot and 4 7x5,s fro £100+ extra prints at x amount per print.
as for the award ceremony, if prints are in with the price, maybe you wanna be asking the event guys. even so i would think a couple of hundred quid easily, even if your not a pro.
maybe have a look at the NUJ rates scales too.

Thank you thats a great help. I think i'm a pro well i used to be!!! worked on cruise lines as photog, peterborough ET photographer (local rag), then i moved into live tv studios and left stills behind, still work freelance in studios mostly crap cable channels but they are very long days not good for the kids! so looking to get back to my roots can't believe how much i missed it really. i studied photography at huntingdon when i left school about ten years agos.
 
yup. you is a profesional.:). charge accordingly.i give my mrs major grief occasionaly for DISCOUNTING if someone says
"well joe bloggs can do it for £20 less" .
if you wanna make money, you have to charge it. my reply would be
"sorry , those are my prices, if you want quality work , then thats what you pay for."
thats why we dont do shoots in homes anymore for£40. ok some may charge less. but if you dont make money on em, why bother.good luck.6ft.
 
your right my husband is a plumber, we have been in business 2 years, in the beginning like you said people said joe bloggs charges less so my husband put his prices down but now his so busy he charges what he charges and no less, only way to make money!
Thanks again
6ft
 
6ft,

It's really a total impossibility for anyway to give you an idea of what you should charge without knowing your expenses. I'd strongly suggest compiling of list of expenses related to the portrait sessions before trying to put a price tag on your work.

Don't forget to include:

- print prices
- time spent on consultations (including phone time), the session, post-processing and retouching, taking the order, delivering prints
- camera and portrait gear (lenses, memory cards, backgrounds, props, programs, bodies, etc.) Remember that these costs need to be factored in across each session, or you are guaranteed to be losing money in the long run.
- gas mileage and wear on your vehicle if you shoot on location
- taxes, if applicable
- marketing costs (even if it's just a website and business cards)
- packaging materials for your client's finished print order
- costs for childcare while you work, if applicable
- any other related costs you can think of. ;) (Because I travel for portraiture quite often, I even have to consider the cost of boarding my dog!)

Without that information, there's no way to know what you'll need to charge to make an acceptable profit. Start there, THEN you'll get a much clearer idea of what your pricing should be.

- CJ
 
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