Charging For Photos

[redangel]

I do not consider myself a talented photographer, thus I do it for free. Trouble is I have now got a handful of people who want me to take pictures...but only if they can pay me. What to do? I just love giving people joy of a "nice' keepsake picture of their pet/ child. I was going to charge per print & travel...maybe call it a sitting fee. Does 30.00 sound alot??? Its hard to charge for something you love doing for free.

[helen]

If you are going to start charging then you will need to consider a few basic requirements:

- public liability insurance

- If you are being paid you will need a backup set of equipment so if anything eg camera fails you can still produce the goods

$30 seems too cheap, think of how long it takes to get the photos and edit them, costs of equipment and insurance, it would quite possiblty cost you more than this to produce the photos. Also you will need to use a good professional printer, no point charging for big W, snapfish and kodak prints, do some test prints youself and compare the difference between printers, because there can be huge difference

Edited August 2, 2010 by helen

[Guest Tess32]

If I were you I'd be honest with them and tell them you are not a professional photographer and don't feel right charging money for something when you aren't experienced enough to guarantee results.

If you still want to do it for the experience, tell them you are portfolio building and they could pay for your costs to print a couple of photos etc if that makes them and you feel better.

I think it's better to be honest when you're still learning or not at the stage yet where you feel you can produce consistent results - they will understand hopefully and it puts you on a better track if you want to continue in the industry.

[~*Shell*~]

If you are going to start charging then you will need to consider a few basic requirements:

- public liability insurance

- If you are being paid you will need a backup set of equipment so if anything eg camera fails you can still produce the goods

I did some work for a friend's mum who was in a massive bind and couldn't get a photographer in to shoot at a conference. She saw me with my camera and saw the shots I took with it and went nuts. She begged me to come and shoot the conference for her so eventually I agreed (I kept telling her that I wasn't professional, nor was my equipment but she kept telling me she would be fired if i didn't!) - because of it I had to take out insurance, borrow another camera, get an ABN and then register with the office of fair trade here in NSW.

It was a huge undertaking and while the money I was paid was great (and still just sitting in a bank account to go towards new equipment), the amount of time it took me to organise everything really wasn't worth it. I like that I not own a registered business but at the same time, I've done like 3 jobs in 6 months and it's really not worth it for me as I'm still nowhere near professional level and not comfortable charging people for photos - I would rather just have it as a hobby at the moment!

Oh and i should add that she (and her bosses) loved the shots, they're all over the company website but I still felt really wrong about it. Maybe in a few years when I have better equipment and more skills!

Edited August 2, 2010 by ~*Shell*~

[helen]

Good idea Tess. Shell, you have to give us a link to the website now you realise

[pipsqueak]

If you don't want to charge, but they want to pay, perhaps you could suggest that they make a donation to your/theirs favourite dog charity, and then they can decide on the amount that they think is appropriate.

[redangel]

I like that idea fdt.

I print my pics at professional printer when providing pics to even my friends! I am not seeking to compete at a professional level at this stage of my interest, merely to supply nice pics as mementos to those who want simple pics of their dogs to enjoy. I have done this for free in the past but due to increased interest think I should start charging something to cover costs, edit time and some equipment reimbursement. The attraction of working with different subjects to learn more is enticing. With five people on hold I was examining options.

[kja]

If you don't want to charge, don't.

Donations are good. Or have them buy you lunch or something. Charge them for prints and products so you aren't out of pocket (seems totally unreasonable for them to NOT be doing this already), but not your time.

if you are seriously thinking about this:

think I should start charging something to cover costs, edit time and some equipment reimbursement

then $30/session is a joke. You need to sit down, run the numbers, figure out how much time you spend on a shoot really (most people underestimate this by a huge margin & ignore bits and bobs of time here or there) and see what you come up with.

And like others have said - it's not just the camera and lens and your time in front of the computer and behind the lens. Wear & tear, travel, correspondence, delivery, INSURANCE, dealing with taxes, yada yada yada - the list is freakin' endless LOL

There are also different expectations from your clients as soon as a single dollar changes hands, no matter what words are spoken or your relationship. You need to be aware of this and be ready to deal with anything that comes your way.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do!

Edited August 2, 2010 by kja

[Guest Tess32]

I wouldn't let people wanting photos convince you to start doing it. When I started I had lots of people wanting them and I still *shouldn't* have done it because even though I was getting good photos, when the pressure is on and money is changing hands and the light goes crap, you can't guarantee you'll get anything and your weaknesses as a new photographer become apparent.

It ended up making me dislike doing doggie shoots after a while and I no longer do them. It's tempting at first because you can make a reasonable amount of money but I wish I had waited until I was good enough to really do it.

[helen]

I like that idea fdt.

I print my pics at professional printer when providing pics to even my friends! I am not seeking to compete at a professional level at this stage of my interest, merely to supply nice pics as mementos to those who want simple pics of their dogs to enjoy. I have done this for free in the past but due to increased interest think I should start charging something to cover costs, edit time and some equipment reimbursement. The attraction of working with different subjects to learn more is enticing. With five people on hold I was examining options.

The main difference between amateur and professional is that one charges. There are brilliant photographers who are amateur. I recommended public liability insurance because if an accident happens and you dont have it you risk loosing everything. Also working along side another photographer and seeing what can and sometimes does go wrong convinced of of the need for back ups of everything :-)

[Linda K]

One of the main reasons why so many photographers go into business and then 5 years down the track have suffered the 95% failure rate, is that so many rush into it based on family an friends who all say "you are so good, you should be charging for this", and they do, before being properly ready for it, and discover the reality the hard way As Helen has said, there is an awful lot to consider before just taking shots, and you only risk devaluing yourself if you charge peanuts for all that work, not to mention attracting the wrong clients. Taking the photos is only a small part of the overall business, there is also the marketing and selling of yourself, having business policies in place to deal with any situation, as well as the costs of maintaining equipment and backups, processing software (and backups) - and if you are in business, you cannot use the student or free versions of the software, you need to have a full licenced copy, costs of insurance, computer and harddrives etc, as well as keeping all of that up to date. That can't be done on just $30 for a session, unless you are doing 5 sessions a day every day.

To be in business, you really need to be so totally comfortable with taking shots, that under any conditions, you know you can consistently produce a full gallery of at least 30 killer shots for the client to choose from, and that you get good shots not just from a fluke, but you could reproduce said shot down the track.

If you do not want to be in business, and just want to strictly do it as a hobby you like, then do yourself a favour and do not start going into peoples homes and photographing period - without the backup of insurance, it will not be long before something happens that you might regret (or accident to your gear - I know a friend who had a client knock over her camera and tripod, and bang went a 5D, 50mm 1.2 and a pocket wizard, many 1000 of gear damaged, but thankfully she was insured for it all, can only imagine how bad it would be to have all that damaged without insurance)

[redangel]

I dont intend on giving up my employment situation tomorrow! It is still a hobby but I wanted to be lawful & protected whilst offering to do pictures like for those waiting for me to say yes. I am always up front on the experience I have and they are in no obligation to buy. It just would be nice to be covered for travel etc..

Thank you all for the advice.

[~*Shell*~]

Shell, you have to give us a link to the website now you realise

You have to sign in to see the shots - the company my friend's mum works for is like a union of CEOs (i don't really know how else to explain it but you have to be a CEO or on a board of directors to join). I'm not allowed to release the photos anywhere because some people don't want others to know they're affiliated with them. It was crazy - I had to sign like 4 confidentiality agreeements. One was so I didn't talk about what they talked about in the seminars (boring but very eye opening - I never want to be a CEO of a multinational), one so I wouldn't release the photos anywhere, one so that I wouldn't mention who was there and one so that I wouldn't talk about anything i overheard while at the conference (as in, personal conversations).

When you sign in though, the banner is one of my shots, the shot of the CEO of the company is one of my shots and then there's a border down the left side next to the menu and they're all my shots too.

Besides, you don't want to see them - imagine close to 500 business men, all in black suits, sitting around white table-clothed tables, staring at a panel of people up the front who are talking in boring business-man speak. Very non-interesting, run of the mill shots.

[kja]

. Very non-interesting, run of the mill shots.

Crazy how those often pay the best

[~*Shell*~]

It's true! What the previous person who did their conference shots got paid was ridiculous! They're basic editing (completely in lightroom) and take little to no time to edit and yet they get paid a fortune!

[kja]

Work smarter, not harder

95%+ of all my editing is done in Lightroom.

[~*Shell*~]

Ditto! In fact, I only crack out photoshop for the big things - if I have friends modelling for me, I will use it to get rid of blemishes and even out skin tones and stuff but all the colour/lighting stuff is done in lightroom.