(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
[2014 follow up, here: How to price your photography, Pt. II]
[2012 follow up, here: Pricing for growth versus pricing for profit]
Here’s where a lot of new-to-the-game professional photographers get stuck.
“My friends tell me I take really good photos. I want to start charging and getting customers, but how much do I charge? What if I charge too much? I can’t charge as much as that guy, he’s a lot better than I am. Oh man, what if I charge too much and people realize I don’t know what I’m doing and they’re disappointed and my business is ruined before I ever get started?”
At which point, most people promptly hyperventilate and pass out.
Pricing any product or service is a simple enough theory: you’re worth what people will pay you. The sweet spot is in charging the most money you can while attracting the most customers.
Many photo grognards will tell you that you have to charge $XXX to make any money at all, otherwise you’re not a professional and you’re undermining the industry and you’re going to go straight out of business.
Let’s ask the market, though:
- Do some people get their photos done at Wal-Mart? Yes.
- Do some people get their photos done with <insert work-from-home part time photographer here>? Yes.
- Do some people get their photos done with <insert retail studio here>? Yes.
- Do some people get their photos done with Annie Liebovitz? Yes.
Point being, there is a market for just about any price range and artistic level of photography. I don’t feel I’m stretching the imagination by saying that people pay less for Wal-Mart than they do for my own work, and less for me than they do for Annie Liebovitz.
Let’s cut to the chase.
What to charge for your part time photography
Here’s the pricing system I suggest to any newly-minted professional photographer:
- No session fee
- No minimum order
- $10 – 4×6 print or hi-res digital file
- $15 – 5×7 print
- $20 – 8×10 print or sheet of wallets (8)
- Then double the price for bigger prints: $40 for 11×14, $80 for 16×20, $160 for 20×30.
Simple as that. (I can hear the collective gasp of horror from across the land of “boutique” photographers.)
Now that I’ve thrown those prices out there, let me issue some clarity:
This pricing system is dead simple and dead easy for you and for your clients. As a fresh-faced professional photographer, most likely with a limited or non-existent portfolio and a yet-developed artistic style, your focus needs to be on practice, building your portfolio, and growing your talent and customer base – and as a professional, you deserve to be paid every step of the way.
When someone asks what you charge and you explain, “I charge no session fee, there’s no minimum order, and prints and files start at just $10 – you just buy what you love,” you will never – I repeat, never – lose a potential client due to pricing. Do you run the risk of someone really only spending $10 with you for all your time and efforts? Yes, but don’t worry about it. Those folks are by far the exception, not the rule, and either way you’ll have added another layer to your portfolio and experience.
This pricing system places the onus of responsibility for maximizing profits on your artistic ability. The more great photos you make of your client, the more they will buy. There is no artificial padding of the profits through session fees or minimum orders. Either you produce photos your client wants to buy, or you don’t.
There is zero fakery involved. You can show people your portfolio, no matter how small or weak, and if they hire you, they know what they are getting. There is no risk for them because they only buy what they love. There’s no risk, and far less pressure, for you because they’re only going to buy what they love. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
This pricing system takes all the BS and salesmanship and upselling out of the equation. Your goal is not to squeeze and squabble as much money as you can out of your client – your goal is to make art they love and want to buy. Yes, you’ll offer guidance when it comes proofing and viewing time, and I’ll talk about that in a future article, but your purpose is to maximize their long-term enjoyment of their purchase – not to make that purchase as big as you possibly can. This is how you build lifelong clients and a successful business.
Talent- (read: results-) based pricing
All of that said, the numbers I’ve thrown out have no knowledge of your artistic ability or your market. I’ve had 10 years to perfect my pricing in my market to make sure I stay as busy as I want and earn an average amount per client that perfectly meets my personal and business goals.
Pricing, by and large, is best used to increase or decrease your total number of bookings, not to affect your bottom line. Assuming you’re marketing yourself properly and your market knows you and what you have to offer (another topic for a future article), you can raise or lower your prices to add to or reduce the number of people booking with you.
When you raise prices, you’ll price yourself out of landing some clients. That’s perfectly fine – you’ll make up their loss with a higher per-client average. If you price yourself too high, you’ll lose more clients than you make up with those that remain. This is also perfectly fine if your goal is to reduce bookings.
Your goal is to shoot as many people as you want, to spend as much time working with clients as you choose, while earning enough money in exchange for your time and talents that you feel more than satisfied having made that trade.
I repeat – the goal is not to always make as much money as you possibly can off of every person you can make it from. That mentality will leave you stressed out and burned out. Some people, however, do play business like they play chess, and the numbers game is one they enjoy playing in its own right. If you’re like me, you would rather focus on growing as an artist and, as a result, getting paid better and better for your work.
This is not to say you should never raise your prices. I am a firm believer in the adage that if nobody’s complaining about your prices, you’re not charging enough. But this assumes you’re booked solid. If you’re just starting out, as an artist and as a business, work on building your portfolio, client base, and artistic ability. When your art and your marketing have people beating a path to your door, then you can start raising prices and maximizing per-client averages and playing the numbers game to your heart’s desire.
But, but, but!
But but, you ask: What about framing? What about coasters and key chains and photocookies and mugs and gallery wraps? What about outsourcing my Photoshop work? What about expenses and Cost of Doing Business calculators and Costs of Goods Sold? The grognards are doubtless red-faced that I’ve spoken of pricing without saying word one about any of these almighty acronyms.
All good questions to be answered in future articles. For now, in this moment of getting your feet wet and landing your first clients, don’t worry about it.
If you have a camera, you can start making money with your photography today. And if you don’t have a camera at all, I’ve even got an article in the works for you.
Remember: Ready, Fire, Aim! Start shooting and making money with your photography today. Call a friend or run into someone on the street and book a shoot. Make photos, let them see them, and let them buy them. Go make some art, get out of the way and let your subject buy what they love.
Next Steps
- Call a friend or family member and set up a photo shoot! Go over your list of top money-making outdoor photos, take your subject to the nearest park, and have at it. Invite them over later or the next day, after you’ve had the chance to cull and process, and show off your work together. Let them buy what they love. Pocket the cash and revel in astonishment that being a professional photographer is just that easy.
- Pay a visit to Google and look up your local competition. Check out their web sites and take note of their prices and where you perceive their artistic level to be. If they don’t list their prices (and they probably won’t), call them up and ask what they charge. See how they handle the question and what numbers you get. Don’t forget to ask about session fees, prices for prints and prices for files.
- If you have the coin, hire one of the photographers for a basic session, even if just to get some headshots. Make sure you budget enough for the session fee and a hi-res file or 8×10 print or two. Enjoy the experience and critically evaluate how the other photographer does business and makes photos. Are they nice on the phone? Do they book shoots on Sundays? What’s their turnaround for proofs? Do they proof online or in person? How do they present their pricing and why they charge what they do? How do they work with you during your shoot to get the best possible photos? How do they work with you during the proofing session? Are they helping you get what you want or trying to sell you something you don’t necessarily want? What’s the final product like? This entire experience will be invaluable for you as a photographer, businessman, and competitor to this and other local photographers.
- Brainstorm session: Who are the best photographers in your market? Why and how? Who are the worst photographers? Why and how? What do you need to do to move away from the worst and closer to the best? File this in your Brainstorms folder.
- It’s taken me time to find my groove with posting here on PartTimePhoto.com, but I think I’ve got the hang of this blogging thing now. If you enjoy what you’ve read here and don’t want to miss your daily dish of part time photography goodness, please feel free to click the “Subscribe” link at the top of any page of this web site.
- What do you charge for your photography services? How do you feel about that? What’s one thing you could do to earn more? Leave a comment below or drop me an e-mail.
Hi. Just one simple question, please. If I understood correctly, you want a new photographer to charge $10 for a 4×6 print and so on. What if the customer gets the CD with hundreds of picture and he prints the pictures himself at walgreens with 35 cents a 4×6 print ? Thank you.
Collin, thank you so much for your readership and comment!
If you’re not launching your business because you’re stuck on pricing, my pricing schedule is a great place to start. It’ll evolve as your art, experience, business acumen and clientele grow.
Clients want CDs both for archiving and sharing, and for making their own prints. They can choose a good printer or bad, but it’s on us as their expert advisors to steer them toward the best option. Mpix is where I send my clients, and needless to say, they get prints arguably imperceptible from what I order from Miller’s. I tell them why the local cheap or bulk labs aren’t the best choice. I tell them about great local pro labs, growing my relationship with my favored vendors.
But it is an education thing. Your clients are only as ignorant as you leave them. Not to say some won’t go cheap no matter what, but time spent worrying about it is a waste. Invest that time in seeking and serving your ideal clients. You’ll be happier and your business will grow faster.
Thank you again for your readership! If you have any other questions, please do drop me an email. And keep me posted on your successes and adventures!
Hi!
I have always had a passion for photography, and have just recently developed my website. I would like to start making money, as I have posted several of my photos on Facebook, and have received many compliments and suggestions that I should start a business. In fact, a dear friend has asked me to help her by taking a custom photo for her website. She has already expressed her desire to pay me, but I have NO clue what to charge her. She also wants to buy the rights to that photo. I know I will have to find subjects to photograph for this project, and it will probably be outdoors, in a pleasant setting.
Should I charge her by the hour, or by the photo? I have no idea what amount to charge on either. Help, please! I want to make this as easy as possible for both of us. And I know she will help spread the word, once her project is completed.
I like the way you charge set amounts for set sizes. I’m guessing, if they want their photos printed on something other than photo paper, or they want them framed, you would add the cost of that into the charges, too. Would you add more to those fees, or just what you would pay to have those services done for them?
OH! One more thing, she wants people in her photo. What would I need to do legally in order to get that done? I read somewhere you should always get written permission from each of the adults in the photo before you take their picture, or pictures of any underage children. Would I have to pay them, too?
Thanks for your help! I’m looking forward to making my first sale a pleasant one for everyone! :O)
Thank you so much Vicki, really enjoyed visiting your portfolio and admiring your work!
Hearing “you should get paid for this!” is the number one gateway that takes amateur photographers into the dream of becoming professionals. You can totally do this!
There’s no perfect pricing model, but here’s what I would do:
1. Charge by the hour + expenses (and those hours include every minute of your time invested in the project, not just behind the camera), but bid the job at a set price that includes your creative talent, time, and the license for the image. Make it simple. If you’re efficient, you get paid more for your time invested; if you’re inefficient, you chalk it up to being paid to learn. You win either way. But make sure your contract clearly details every expectations on both sides: what will and won’t be delivered, and when. Make no promises you can’t keep.
2. Charge humbly – as one of your first paying jobs, focus more on learning and earning testimonials, video testimonials, ratings and reviews, social shares, and building your skills and portfolio.
3. Just make up a number as to what your time is worth. Go by minimum wage. Go by your day job wage. Go by a humble number that’s still high enough to make you grin, and both excited and proud to do the work. Only you know what that number is.
Re: my pricing model, it’s designed for portrait photographers. What you’re talking about is more in the commercial realm, which is built around licensing, which can get very complicated. As a portrait photographer, I just license images for the same rate I charge portraiture clients, or I’ll custom price based on the needs and size of the entity – but that’s because my bread is buttered by portraiture, and commercial work is just a nice add-on. If I had to rely entirely on licensing for my income, I’d become an expert in it, and my pricing would be more nuanced.
I rarely sell anything but digital to my portraiture clients, but for those who want custom wall art or framing, I go in this order: 1. I tell them they can save money by doing it themselves, but that I’m happy to take care of them at an added cost. 2. I build out that cost from my personal time and risk investment (if I’m printing or framing, I’m at risk if the client doesn’t like it and wants changes, which come out of my pocket unless I manage that expectation… The more risk I shift to the client, the less I can reasonable mark up the price. But client complaints are very, very rare). 3. I always get paid more for doing more work. This is simple to make clear to clients when their requests start going well beyond the scope of the photo shoot, and I’ve never had a client balk. I’d rather give them the option of paying me to do something they don’t want to, or to “have it their way,” than to stomp my foot and say “I won’t help you! I’m an artist! I’m above it! You do it MY way!” Which I think is an absurd expression of the elitism in the photography industry. (/rant)
With subjects in a photo that will be used for advertising or commercial purposes, you’ll want the subjects to sign model releases. I’m a fan of this simple one from New York Institute of Photography: https://www.nyip.edu/photo-articles/archive/basic-model-release. You don’t necessarily need to pay them (giving them copies of the photos can be considered a proper exchange of consideration for the purposes of the model release; some photographers recommend paying at least a dollar to make it official), but even a token amount will get you better and more motivated talent. Charge the cost (and the time you spend seeking models / subjects) back to the client.
It’s never your responsibility to bear financial burden to achieve the client’s vision. Manage expectations. If they want a lot, let them pay a lot; if they want a lot but will only pay a little, let them clearly know what they can and can’t have at that price, what the additional cost would be to upgrade, and why. Just be honest, and don’t offer to waive your fees or sacrifice your time to lower the price for them. Get paid. Even if you’re getting paid minimum wage, get paid. Respect your time and your work, and you’ll maintain far more powerful motivation as you push through The Dip on your way to success. (There’s a big difference in doing free or low-cost work early to earn experience and testimonials, and letting a client take advantage of the situation; again, managing expectations is absolutely vital at every stage.)
You’re going to do great Vicki. Don’t overthink it. Have fun with it. Enjoy the process, and be grateful for all you learn, no matter how hard-earned. You’re setting yourself up for a lifetime of success in art and business.
Drop me an e-mail to james@banderaoutlaw.com anytime if I can be of more help! And please do let me know what you decide on for pricing, and how the shoot turns out. You can do this!
I found the pricing article so interesting. This is very productive to those of us who are trying to find a career in the photography industy with no enough knowledge. Keep us updated .
Thanks so much for your kind words!
Hi James,
I’m going back to the beginning now and re-reading all your old posts and have a question about selling digital files. Do you find people buy the smallest and cheapest size (4 x 6) but then print them out larger? I’m thinking that with the higher megapixels of cameras these days, that they could take even the smallest file and print it bigger with very little loss of quality? I know with prints they could still scan them and do the same thing, but just wondered if you have found it to be a problem.
Sue, great question! When I sell digital files, I sell the full hi-res copy. So people can print wallets to billboards with them. I then visit with them about how and where to get those prints made, how to get the best results, where the pitfalls may lie (cheap store prints, un-viewed and thus un-enjoyed files sitting on a hard drive, etc.), etc.
Someone could buy a 4×6, scan it, and print it large, but in my model it’s the same price as the hi-res digital file, so they could just buy the file and print it as big as they want and it will look nice.
The balance shifts in producing a wide variety of photos your client “can’t live without,” so when you do sell digital, you mostly sell full CDs of hi-res images, driving your per-client sales average higher. If you want to push a more print-centric model, then you’re trying to sell the truth of the enjoyable value of wall art that is both a conversational and emotional centerpiece in the home. That’s a different kind of clientele, often harder to break into early on, which is why I mostly promote a digital business model to get started and begin earning clients and word of mouth and social capital (testimonials, introductions, etc.).
Whatever path you choose, you just want to be sure that you’re serving in the role of the expert in the room – you can’t assume your client has any clue about megapixels or print sizes, etc. You want to lovingly guide them toward decisions that will bring them the greatest joy – thus value – from your work together, whatever that end product looks like.