Help! It Was Bound To Happen Eventually

[Kirislin]

I've repeatedly said I do photography for fun, a hobby, but someone has asked for copies of photos I took at the recent girls motorbike track day. She said would it be alright if she paid me some money and I put them on a disc for her. I had previously said if there's any she wants I'll put them on redbubble.

I have no idea how to much charge for such a thing and I actually dont even know how to burn the photos onto discs. I've got some discs here but I dont even know if they're the right kind. they say DVD-R

Can someone who's done it all before please advise me on a fair price to charge and if I even should give her a disc. Is that what people do when they sell photos or do they give the old fashioned paper kind?

Edited July 6, 2011 by Kirislin

[persephone]

Can't help - sorry .. but you may be interested in THIS ;) Good luck with it all !

[Oskar & Zsa Zsa]

Why not google up some websites from other photographers who take bike pics, gain an understanding of where they price things and then work from there as to what you feel is fair and reasonable as well as being viable to you and the buyer. SD pics is one I remember from name, but if you google up motorcycle ride day pics, you will come up with a few I am sure....

[kja]

How much would you expect to charge for a print on red bubble? Charge at least that per image you put on the disk.

As to burning a disk, you should have some sort of disk burning software (nero or the like) on your computer. I think there are ones that come with the computer (both windows and mac) but I've never used them. Assume they are easy.

Or ask her for a usb stick instead.

[Inevitablue]

http://www.jpmphoto.com.au/

That is the photographer at Eastern Creek in NSW and

http://blog.sdpics.com/

for Phillip Island. The prices should be on there. Just bear in mind that some tracks have exclusive deals with photographers. I'm not sure about Winton and Broadford though. Wakefield Park has no official photographer.

[Linda K]

Unless you are set up as a business, and constantly delivering exactly the standard of work you want each and every time, no matter the conditions, then IMO you are not ready to be charging. If you are in the practice shooting stage, then usually what is fair is a time for disc exchange - eg they pay nothing towards a shoot, and they get a limited no of images free on diskette. At the portfolio building stage, where you have already got the skills down, but are merely going to be padding out certain areas of the portfolio you might be lacking enough subjects in,it is generally a % discount on what your regular fees would be. Each photographers costs though are likely to differ, as it depends on what type of business model you are following - if you are a high volume, low editing type model, or a sports event photographer where you are shooting large nos of subjects then your costs per image and per session would be vastly different to a custom model where you might be planning on spending hours per session, and may only do 1 or 2 sessions a week. You also need to factor into the cost of goods expenses like software, website, insurance, upgrading gear, etc etc, and other various overheads, as well as tax, salary for yourself, and money to go back into the business. As a guide, when I am shooting images at a cat show, my price per image (which I offer as either a websized file, or full sized file, or print), are nothing like the custom images I do in a session in someones home or on location, where I would be sending vastly longer working one on one with the clients - these are 2 vastly different session types, and are different business models of my business.

For what you have described, if it was practice only, I would be maybe charging her $10 to cover the cost of disc and postage, with images for free, but only give her images that meet your standards (ie nothing out of focus, or bad limb chops etc), and I would also size them down before you do them, to say 4x6, and a websized file as well. If you are past that stage, then you really need to sit down and work out costs as to what you are wanting to charge, and then say a 50% discount on that price. JMHO

[kja]

See, I'd go in it like I was serious and charge accordingly.

You'll find something that works for you, I'm sure

[Stutterfly]

Also don't forget licensing. Would you transfer the copyright directly to her or would she own it for a year...?

I recommend $50-$100 for the lot and something like...

"Upon full and complete payment of this invoice, all rights in perpetuity including the copyright to the photo described herein are transfered to *insert buyer's name* his heirs and assigns. Seller warrants that he owns the all rights and copyright to said photograph and transfers them to purchaser for the agreed upon amount. Seller agrees to emdemniy the purchaser against any present and future claims by third parties including the creator of the photographand any persons or properties whose likeness is in the photograph described herein,"

That's a sample I found online.

Just because it's your first sale doesn't mean it should be a freebie - but nor should you charge what a serious professional would. Go for an in-between. It's still your time and effort, not only to have taken the photos but also to now edit, copy to a disc, etc.

If you do freebies now...you might be stuck doing them forever.

[kja]

Don't screw with copyright, it's ridiculous. Just keep it.

Grant the licensing rights so she can print or whatever from the disk. You retain copyright. Easy and straightforward and everyone has what they need to get on with things.