(Click here to visit the summary post for the Your First Customer Series!)
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, e-mail me, or call or text me at 830-688-1564.
Similar Posts:
- Pricing for growth versus pricing for profit
- How to prepare for your first photography client’s call – Your First Customer Series, Part 5
- How do I get my first photography client? – Your First Customer Series, Part 4
- Debate: Is longevity the selling point for photography studio prints (and their prices)?
- Response time and turnaround – how to beat the competition for free
{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting stuff. I work at photography part-time. It’s hard to get work!
Love the advice, thank you for taking your time to share. It is greatly appreciated!
I think this is great advice. The simplicity of pricing is very appealing. Do you think it’s worth charging more for digital files in comparison to prints?
Marketa, thanks for your comment! I think pricing is a lot more intuitive and fluid than most people make it. There is no reason you can’t charge more for digital files, or less if you are still earning as much per hour as you need to feel you traded your time well.
I like to sell digital files, myself; for me they are easier, more immediate, easier to sell more of, never get returned because the lab messed them up, I don’t have to pay for shipping from the lab, and the overhead for a CD and jewel case is almost nothing. So for this reason, I charge as much for my digital files as my smallest print; I want them to buy files over prints. It works for me.
If you want a pricing structure with more opportunity for upsell or profits, try raising the price of your digital files – for example, from $10 to $20 – but also raise the price of your smallest prints to that level as well. So your 4×6, 5×7, 8×10 prints, and your hi-res digital files would all run $20. If you feel your art and market can command a higher price like this (or $40 – or $80! Why the heck not, if there are willing buyers?), give it a try.
You can also structure hi-res files to correlate with print sizes and prices; such as, you can offer a 4×6 print or a 4×6 digital file for $10 – then, a 5×7 print or file for $15 – then 8×10 print or file for $20, on up. It will take a bit more explanation and education from you to your client, but it’s a way to test the waters on improving your profits per client.
If you want to sell prints more than you want to sell digital files, such as because you want to open up the chance of multi-print purchases of the same file or because you want to push the sale of larger prints aka wall art, then just match your digital file price to the print size + price of your choice. So instead of $10 4×6 and hi-res files, go for $80 16x20s or hi-res files. Just raise the entry level for digital files. If you present it to a client as having greater value because they can make as many prints of any size as they want with a digital file, they will follow your logic.
Higher prices are always warranted as the level of your art improves and as your client experience improves, both an end product of practice and experience. Don’t be afraid to raise your prices and see if you make the same or more money with less work – that is always a noble and natural goal. But also don’t be afraid to keep your prices very attractive and affordable until you’ve built your portfolio, developed your art and business, and have a nice foundation of repeat and referral customers.
Keep in mind that as you price yourself out of one market and into another, you then have a whole new target market to build awareness and relationships with that will also be harder and more expensive to reach. Never be afraid to experiment though. Photography, like any business, can be a wonderfully dynamic and fun experience. Enjoy the excitement of trying out new pricing structures as much as trying new artistic styles. You know best when you’re ready to step your business up to the next level of art, service, and income.
Thanks for your thoughtful response. I’m only just considering part-time photography and this is incredibly helpful.
THANK YOU…THANK YOU…THANK YOU for this wonderful article! This was exactly what I was looking for! Your first paragraph described me to a T! I now feel much more confident charging for my work!
Thank you Melissa, good luck with your new business! Have confidence, patience, and ambition – you’ll do great things.
If there’s any topic you would like to read about here on the site, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I should have another article coming out this week.
Thank you for reading!
First I like to say. This is great information. This really helps me line things up. One question, who do you send your prints to? Do you have a recommended printer? I live in Ga.
I personally use Miller’s Imaging; their consumer division is at mpix.com. Easy uploading and ordering, drop-shipping, cheap FedEx overnight delivery, boutique packaging options, lots of products, excellent quality. It’s great to find your local labs, usually in your nearest metro, and establish relationships with them. Try to “buy local” when it’s feasible – that extra effort will come back to you every time.
Thx James. I found a local lab called PWDLabs. Also, when will article 9 be published?
Great timing Mark! Part 9 of the Your First Customer Series should go live this weekend. After a month-long hiatus, I’ve reworked my schedule to allow more time for writing here. Articles should be far more frequent as we head into April.
Glad you found a good local lab! Most of the time Miller’s does everything I need, when and how I need it, but as soon as I need something same-day or a special order, I work with a good lab in the nearby metro.
Again, great article! Thank you so much!
Are your prices just for the prints or do they include some form of frame?
Hey Jeremy, thanks for your readership! I personally don’t care for selling framing or matting, so all my prices are just for files or prints, nothing else. I don’t sell anything but prints and digital files, but if you have an interest in that line of products and/or your clients show an interest, certainly add it to your product line. Folks will pay for the convenience of not having to go elsewhere. For my few clients who do ask about framing, I refer them to a couple of local shops and a budget one in the nearby metro.
I also offer white glove service for anything outside my direct product line – if they want framing, or canvas, or whatever it may be, I certainly let them know I’m happy to handle that for them, but at an hourly cost. Most clients prefer to go DIY, but I always offer a paid alternative – it’s good service and good for the wallet.
Always have resources available to meet your clients’ needs, whether that’s directly through you or not – happy customers make great cheese.
thank you so much for your guidance. I’m 38, and am a full time welder, have been for 10yrs now…. And i hate it.. With a passion, sick of getting burnt for a living. then a friend came round with a camera that she’d loaned off the college she was attending. I took an interest and was straight out in the yard with it. some of the pics i took were awsome. So i started thinking, “this could be my tiket out of welding”.Well… I’ve been faffing around with the idea of starting a photography business for about 12 months now, and not having any qualifications or a good sized portfolio, you’re spot on, didn’t have a clue what to charge. So have done a few freebies and have a young lady that love to be photographed and the camera loves her. So she’s modelled for me a few times. So starting to get a portfolio together now. happy days
. I came across this blog about a week ago now, and it really is a godsend. thank you very much for taking the time to go through all this.
Wow!!! I cannot express enough how thankful I am to have run across your site! I am a newbie and I’m in the process of building my portfolio… I’ve always had a passion for photography but never thought about making it a career until my grandson was born. It all started when I uploaded some pictures to Facebook that I had taken of my grandson. Everyone raved about how professional they looked and suggested I start my own business… so, that’s what I’m doing and I am having a blast! My site is almost finished… the only thing left to do is pricing… Also, I’m doing two sessions this weekend for some family members… It’s family but I am still nervous!! I need help with making everyone feel at ease… do you have any suggestions or a collection of phrases that photographers use to “break the ice” with their clients?
Thanks!
Robin
Robin, thank you for your kind words! I’m so glad the site is helping you out with your new photography adventure.
Every once in a while, when enough people you like and respect tell you something, it’s an act of wisdom to listen. If someone says to you, “You do great work, I would totally pay for what you do,” it does mean something – and when you hear that from a lot of someones, it’s time to measure the opportunity. I’m very excited for you! This is a wonderful industry to be a part of – wholly rewarding, socially, creatively, monetarily.
I break the ice with clients the same way I do with anyone – I just talk to them like new friends. Show a real interest in who they are and what makes them tick, ask lots of questions, and give plenty of encouragement. Even just little things can set the tone for a shoot. I always find something about my client to compliment off the bat – love their hair, love their jewelry, love their outfit – I try to find specific details I can brag on them for. A little confidence can go a long way, both for the photographer and the subject.
I’m very high energy on my shoots, so I try to create a sort of tidal wave of good vibes and progression through the shoot – I ask questions as to what my clients want, and immediately get an impression as to whether they want to have control or they want me to have control. It’s like when I go to an auto mechanic – I don’t want to tell them what I think is wrong, I want them to tell me what is wrong. I want them to have the confidence of knowing what to do, and I’ll show them my confidence in their expertise. That’s how it is with most clients – you’re the photographer, you’re the expert, so beyond their specific requests, take control and do what you feel will give the client the best photos you can.
Feel comfortable in your own skin – you’ve shown your art, you’ve named your price, your clients are already sold by the time they’re in front of your camera – they’ve already gladly bought what you are selling. When it comes time to meet, greet, and shoot, just be yourself and focus on giving the client a great business experience steeped in personal attention and your best artistry.
Whatever level your art is at, you can always go out of your way to treat folks right and show them a good time. Just like a great waiter can make a huge difference in a restaurant meal, the experience you create for your clients can mean as much as (and with some clients, even more than) the art itself.
Best of luck with your shoots this weekend! Please do let me know how they turn out, here on the blog, e-mail me at James@outlawphotography.net, or give me a call at 830-688-1564. I really would love to hear about your experiences. Enjoy the adventure, and thank you for your readership!
I found your blog the other day, and I am SO thankful for it! I could not find good opinions or advice on how to start a photography business and then I found this website.
Imagine my smile as I read through and tried to glean tons of information at a time. 
I am wanting to move from taking photos for fun to doing it for life. I am young and very naive about business, but I will change that!! 
I started on Flickr (www.flickr.com/karielaine) and decided to make a blog/website. I have taken photos of my siblings and my best friend to get some experience doing actual photoshoots instead of shooting hundreds to get one great photo. Now, I am ready to plan for shooting clients. And I didn’t know where to start!
This article was great! (Along with every other one) I actually decided to use this price structure for now (because I love the fact that it is risk-free). I even put it up on my blog/website already!
Anyway, just thank you and get it up because it is so helpful!
-Kari
Kari, I’m thrilled you’re getting so much from the blog! I’ve really enjoyed starting and maintaining this project, and I’m truly thankful for your readership.
Photography is a wonderful industry to get into – I’m obviously an advocate, both as a photographer and blogger!
One of the best things about being “young and very naive about business” is that you have no preconceived notions – you’ll have the opportunity to start from a fresh slate and build your own style of art and of business. Some of the absolute worst advice I see online meant for newbie photographers comes from the longest-established grognards in the industry. So consider your youth a real asset – find books, blogs, mentors whom you respect and who compliment your creative spirit, and start down the path of kaizen – small improvements every single day.
I really enjoyed looking at your Flickr portfolio! Lots of great, great work in there of all kinds of subjects. Loved your “in the picture frame” photos the most – very stylish, memorable, a great fashion flavor.
Start lean, make money, get your art and name in front of potential clients, and start growing that customer base. Every repeat client you add to your business is a raise to your salary, a guaranteed paycheck, income insurance, an asset worth hundreds to thousands to tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of your business.
Please do keep me posted on your adventure into professional photography! I’d love to hear about your experiences.
I too am very happy to have fallen into this blog. I am a petsitter and have been told that I take awesome pictures of my clients pets. They are random photographs, and am looking into taking a photography class and getting as much information I can on my own about photography.
Can you give me some information on southern california prices? Photography classes?
Thank you.
Being told you take awesome pictures is a great way to know you’re on the right track by getting into photography professionally. It’s a sure sign you can make money with your art.
Being in rural Texas, I’d wager Southern California prices are a far cry different from here. Your best bet is to just do a Google search for your area, find photographers that you would say are similar in artistic talent to yourself, and study their prices. If they aren’t posted online, just call and ask. I don’t suggest copying price lists item by item, but it should give you an idea of about what a shoot should go for in your area. Convert this over to a no session fee, no minimum order model, and you’ll have no trouble bringing in your first paying – and hopefully, repeat – clients.
For classes, a quick Google search should help you out. I found the following two links off the bat:
http://ask.metafilter.com/97513/BestCheapest-Photography-training-in-Southern-California
http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/photography-beginners-forum-photo-gallery/66916-looking-photography-classes-southern-california.html
Best of luck in your new adventure! Please do keep us posted on your progress. If there’s anything more I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
Thank you very much for the information. I just found your blog and enjoy reading your posts. I can’t wait to finish reading everything you have written so far. Keep up the great work. Your down to earth and real world outlook is a blessing.
Mike, thank you for your kind words and your readership! Please do keep us posted on your adventure into professional photography!
I’ve read a dozen different websites through bing tonight and not one offered simple, to the point, easy to understand reasonable information until I met part time photo. I work a 40 hour week… NOT in photography. My hobby has always been photography. Since the digital age hit, and great deals started popping in ebay (if you’re patient), I’ve taken photography to the next level. I own 2 acres of ground in midwest OZ and there happens to be a mobile home at the rear of the property that I was renting out. Last summer it became vacant. After knocking out a wall and a lot of free labor (myself) it has become a home studio. I never really knew for sure what to charge and, although I did some senior picture shoots last fall on a $45 sitting fee and undercut neighboring professional studios by 50% I still made every customer happy. But that’s just it. Once those customers were happy… well… I’ve had 4 months of silence now to practice my photography skills. I understand the economy is rough, I live in a small (er) town, and everyone is slow right now. But I am totally impressed with your outlook and every word you speak makes perfect sense. Time to spend the weekend redesigning my price sheet for my sales ads and quit worrying about if I am going to make enough and start thinking about how happy the customer is. You make one customer happy, he will tell 10 friends. You overcharge one customer, he will tell 1000. You’re absolutely right. I am now a faithful follower!
Jonathan, I can’t thank you enough for your kind words! I am so very glad that you’ve benefited from reading the blog, I’m truly happy for your successes.
The economy is still in a rough place, but there’s a reason why some folks see a recession as an unfortunate fate and others see it as an opportunity to thrive. Being a part time photographer, you have some of the greatest flexibility any business owner could ask for. You have complete control over your expenses, your investments, and the steady growth of your client base. We can’t all afford to shoot $1,000 clients with $10,000 in camera equipment right now, but I promise you there’s always a market across all income levels for a great, no-risk, affordable, exciting experience – that’s true of any industry, not just photography.
The grognards will try to bury your ambitions and your unique business model, because they don’t understand or agree with it. No session fee? No minimum order? Affordable, scalable pricing?! Earn your pay based on the quality of the art and experience you provide?!?! (I can hear the palpitations from here!) What they don’t know can hurt them, though. They hate their customers, they have no faith in them, they squeeze them for every dime they can wrench from them, they use every method of manipulation to ‘maximize the sale.’ And every one of their failings is your opportunity to succeed by giving your customer a trusting, respectful, cooperative, refreshing experience. A good business IS good business.
I’ll say it again – in today’s market, right now, March 25, 2011, 12:31 a.m. CST, a good business IS good business.
Pick up Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book The Thank You Economy to read more about this seemingly obvious idea – you’ll be very glad you did.
The most important part is to start, to Just Do It, to ‘Ready, Fire!, Aim.’ Once you have momentum, a professional presence, a growing client base, and some experience with your self, your business, and your market, you can then develop down whatever path you see opportunity in, for both financial and personal gains. If you stay lean, practice the 80/20 rule across all aspects of your business (education, practice, time, investments), and hustle, you can’t help but succeed – you’ll be profitable from the start with the freedom to be the artist and business you want to be, earning canary-eating-grin good pay in the process.
Please do keep me posted on your progress Jonathan! I visited your site and really enjoyed your work, you have a great eye for color, composition, and shadow. I can’t wait to hear about your adventures!
Well James, I have updated the website (today) and have posted my elimination of sitting fee and all former price quotes on photo packages. I’ve got down to basics as you suggested and already I am breathing easier. I have 2 associates at work (my full time job) wanting to do some photos for Easter… just at the mention of the new prices. Plus one hit in town from someone I do not know. That is 3 definite shoots that I didn’t have yesterday. Everyone can learn from you if they just give it a chance. If we just take your words seriously and make an effort. I will definitely keep you updated!
That sounds great Jonathan, keep the momentum up! All it takes is a little work, a little betterment every day to make huge gains in time. Early on, you want to concentrate on sharpening your artistic and business talents, your comfort level with being a professional photographer, and building that client base. As you feel your art and your market are ready, you can step up your pricing. I’ve doubled my prices three times in the last three years, and I’m still booked solid – you don’t have to have everything ‘perfect’ from the start – just make progress! Thanks again for your readership!
I am very new at the photography business as I am trying to make my hobby a part-time business. I am looking into classes but I have always been great at taking pictures, and people have told be that I should take it up as a small business so I am following the advise of close friends and relatives. I found this site and I am so happy I did!! There are so many wonderful tips and advise for someone like me. I have read where some will have photo partis. I am wondering what is expected at photo-parties? I have a couple folks interested in hosting, but I’m not sure exactly what would be expected of me, besides taking the photos of course. Any advise is appreciated. Thank you so much.
Thank you for your kind words and your readership, Angel! Congratulations on taking steps to turn a profit on your photography talents. If you’re even thinking about it, you probably already have what it takes to start making money (back!) with photography.
I am not familiar with photo parties. If you have folks who are interested in hosting such a party, ask them what they had in mind – they’ll probably provide you the best ideas for such an event. You might be doing headshots for aspiring actors and musicians, or multiple-family group portraits, or children’s portraits, or just fun and fashiony type stuff for teens.
The “party” business model seems to be growing in popularity – I can’t log in to Facebook without seeing a friend or three hosting a cooking party, a candle party, or some other manner of “party” where guests are expected to buy products from the host.
Whatever you agree to, try to find a way to cover your hours invested so you earn a minimum happy wage per hour (including post-processing and posting, if necessary, after the shoot) – then any photo sales you get on top will be a bonus. Always aim at that bottom line that makes you grin if you get it, and rejoice in additional gains beyond your expectation.
Thank you again for your comment! Please let me know how your photo party turns out, I’d love to hear of your adventure. And please keep me posted as you grow into the business! I want to hear all about your successes and learning experiences.
I just booked my first couple of family Christmas photo shoots – never done this before! I did a search and found your website and this series of articles, THANKS! The hardest thing was to figure out pricing, and I’m still working on the prints part. These photo shoots are for friends and the first one came out of nowhere (I didn’t advertise or ask, I was still too nervous putting myself out there) so I hadn’t spent too much time thinking about pricing. What I told them was I’d do the session for free, the CD of images for $50 and I’d let them know what the print prices would be. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure if I made it sound like they had to buy the CD or if it was an option. From your example above it looks like I should make it optional, though it would be nice to guarantee that I make at least the $50. If I go that route I might then use lower pricing for the prints to make those more attractive than doing it themselves. What do you think? I’m all excited about finally doing this!
Thank you for your readership Anthony! I’m glad the series has helped get you rolling in the right direction.
I like simplicity, and it’s paid off over the years for me. What I recommend for new-to-the-profession photographers is no session fee, no minimum order, prints and files starting at just $10. For example, 4×6 for $10, 5×7 for $15, 8×10 for $20, or hi-res file on CD for $10.
I know the temptation is there to ‘guarantee’ a certain income from a shoot, but the selling point of having no risk for the client I’ve found gets folks in the door with great ease, and it’s incredibly rare I suffer a client who buys little to nothing from a shoot. The onus of responsibility is on me to produce art and an experience so good that my clients can’t help but buy what I put in front of them. And the better I do, the more and bigger they buy!
My goal is always to build good will with clients and the community. Relaxed, non-draconian policies like this help really separate an aspiring professional photographer from the typical grognard who won’t even let a client breathe their air for less than $150 or so. It makes breaking into any market far easier, and with no financial risk placed on the client, it lets you worry less about “performing” and more about “producing” results.
I’m also different from many established photographers in that I prefer selling my clients hi-res files on CD instead of prints. I sell toward this end, so my prints cost the same or more than the digital files.
Consider your options, look at what your local competition is doing (forcing session fees, overcharging for prints, not offering digital files, etc.) and see where the opportunity to differentiate yourself exists. Only you know how much your time is worth, how long it takes you to prep, shoot, post-process and deliver your best art, so apply anything you learn here or elsewhere to your own needs and experiences.
And never forget, this is a learning process – it’s okay, even desirable, to make mistakes early on and correct course along the way. Nothing is set in stone or written in blood, just make your best judgment call and see how it turns out – adjust accordingly if you see the need. If you’re spending more time worrying than marketing, shooting and selling, work every day to focus your energy on tangible actions instead of intangible fears.
As always – have fun. You’re doing this by choice, and you’re in charge – you can form and reshape your business any way you want, any time you want.
Please keep me posted on your adventures in professional photography! I’d love to hear of your successes and experiences.
Did my first official photoshoot yesterday, thanks for your advice on how to charge. I have one or two additional clients already lined up for the next couple of weeks! After Christmas I might change my pricing a bit, but it was great to have a starting point. I setup a very quick blog today (I’ll improve it when I have a bit more time) http://anthonymarkphotography.blogspot.com/
Thank you for your readership Anthony! I checked out your blog and loved what I saw, just some beautiful art and a real passion for capturing the best of moments in your images. Your photos from yesterday of the young girl in the tree are darling, I can’t imagine any mom not clamoring to have those printed big enough to hang on the walls of her home. You’re going to know nothing but great success in this field, I’m very excited for you! If there’s anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to let me know! And please do keep me posted on your adventures!
Hi James-
Awesome series, really informative and helpful.
What’s your take on offering CDs of entire shoots? Many clients these days pretty much expect a CD with the all of the images. If I’m charging $10 per file and quoting a client $400 for a disc containing 40 keepers they will surely go running for the door.
Thanks!
Hey Chris, you could place a cap on the price, which is what I’m doing at least until after Christmas. Since I’ve just started, I decided to have a “Christmas Special” where after 5 digital files the rest come included – pretty much guarantees I’ll get $50 for the shoot – which is very minimal but it gets me started on building my blog/portfolio/experience, gets me used to charging etc. You could put on a cap after 10 files for $100 or any amount that you think won’t scare away your type of clients. I still wouldn’t give them all of the files especially if there are a bunch of the same basic pose. You still want them to look at all the photos and think “what a great photographer”, if you put in too many so-so or poor ones it could change their opinion.
Great points Anthony – I enjoyed looking at your web site, you take great photos! I think you’re worth a great deal more than $50 a shoot, but you’re right on track – build that portfolio up, then you can charge more and ride you’re existing momentum to some great profits.
I took in a workshop with Doug Box many years ago, and he was very much of the “buy more, get more” mindset – the most expensive print you could buy was the first one. Everything got cheaper the more you spent.
I felt his pricing schedules were wildly complicated and leaned too far into the not-customer-friendly realm, which is why I like a la carte and flat-rate options. As I’ve written here, I like to keep the onus on myself to produce enough variety and quality of art to earn the client’s dollars. If I do better work, they’ll spend more money.
Certainly, I’m partial to a tight cull – I’d rather show a client 10 great photos than 10 great and 20 mediocre ones. One benefit of practicing new setups with each shoot is you can grow out your repertoire until you’re nailing 10, 20, 30 different interesting, unique and salable sets of images per shoot. I do my best to get as much variety in with each shoot, and from a typical hour-long shoot I’ll show a client 30-50 proofs. The better your variety, and of course overall quality, the easier it is to sell more – including that full CD of images at a tidy profit.
Thank you Chris! I really enjoyed checking out your Flickr this evening – the time lapse video was awesome! Doing something fun photographically would probably be the only way to get my desk at work clean!
I always offer CDs of all (keeper) photos from a photo shoot. I try to go with a price around 20 to 25 times my base print / file price. If I know that I average a sale of $300 per client, I’ll offer an all-photos-on-CD package for $400 for example. Anything that beats my average per-client sale provides a boost to my bottom line. If I sell “too many” CDs this way, it shifts my per-client averages, so I raise my price for the CD anyway. Pricing is very much a learn-as-you-go sort of thing.
Try adding up all of your typical client sales (ignore the really high or low ones), get an average, and charge $100 or so more than that for a CD of all photos. See if it sells. I’d say about one in four clients will buy the full CD option. It does add quite a bit to my total processing time (I do complete processing and touch-ups on all purchased images), but I always make sure that my desired per-hour income is met. If it’s not, I raise prices, of course.
Like infomercial king Ron Popeil would say, “Set it and forget it!” Pick a price you like the looks of that makes sense in some way, throw it out there, and adjust as you go as you see the need. Trust your gut.
Let me know what you decide on, and how it turns out for you!
Do you think it might be easier for clients to think in terms of packages? I’ve been advertising pretty much the basic pricing you have above in your article, but I keep wondering what the perception is when people see it’s only $10 for a print/digital image. Do people actually get out the calculator and see that 20 images will cost $200, or do they just think “$10 seems like cheap photography, I’m looking for quality”? I know it’s not hard to do that math in your head, I’m just wondering about immediate quality perception of this versus a package model which seems to be the very strong norm in my area (ie I’ve never seen anything else than package pricing). Just tossing this around in my head as it still seems very hard to get clients so far even with the no session/minimum fee. I probably need to read your marketing articles again
Anthony, thank you for your comment and your readership! I really enjoyed looking at your blog tonight, your subjects’ eyes in all your photos are just magical!
Truly, there is no one pricing style that works for everyone – every photographer and market is different. That said, I am a big fan of simplicity, and a big fan of customer-friendly practices. I’ve experimented with all manner of pricing styles over the past 13 years – session fees of $0 to $300, packages and a la carte, turn-key style setups of a session fee that includes a full CD of hi-res files, charging for touch-ups and sepia tones and black and whites, and so on.
What I’ve found to be ultimately simple and attractive to clients, while still offering a great return on my investment of time, is the no session fee, no minimum order, flat base rate for prints and files setup. Having the elevator pitch of, “I charge no session fee, and have no minimum order – you just buy what you love. Prints and files start at just $10,” I can’t recall a potential client who turned me down because of price. It’s really just an imitation of the Walmart style of pricing – folks come in for the $8, 40-print special, and walk out having bought $200 or $300 worth of photos. Except with the system I follow, instead of using up-selling techniques to improve my sales, I rely on putting together the best art and experience I can for my clients.
Regarding having the impression of being a ‘cheap’ photographer, I try to let my art do the selling for me. My pricing is just a hook once the bait, my art, has done its job and piqued interest in a potential client. I don’t advertise my prices, they aren’t published anywhere – potential clients see my art, contact me to visit, and then learn my pricing style – which is almost always immediately followed by booking.
If you’re not scoring the number of shoots you would like, consider a few possibilities:
Exposure – Are enough people seeing your art, and seeing it in a way that inspires and enables them to contact you to book? How are you marketing your services? Are you including a Call to Action so your potential clients know what to do once they’ve seen your art? Is it obvious what you do, who you do it for, and how to contact you?
Impression – If exposure is the number of people seeing your marketing, impression is what people who see your marketing (in whatever form it may take) think when they walk away. You have obvious artistic talents, but does your marketing show off your personality as well? Does it show how fun, or sophisticated, or down to earth you may be? Does it leave people wanting to see or know more? Does it stop them in their tracks as they say, “Whoa, wait, what’s this?” Basically, if you’re getting eyeballs on your art, what are you doing with those eyeballs?
Targeting – Making a great impression through extensive exposure within a market that has no interest in what you have to sell is worth jack diddly. There’s always some crossover (baby photos turn into children’s photos which turn into family portraits which turn into senior photos, etc.), but if you’re primarily a children’s photographer, are you maximizing your exposure where children (and more importantly, their parents) are? Are you doing any co-op marketing with your local children’s resale shops? The maternity ward of your local hospital? Your pediatrician’s office? School PTO? Sunday School? Be Where Your Clients Are.
Niche – You always have to scratch a niche, especially early on. Looking at your blog tonight, all your art is just lovely (again, those eyes!), but I see pet portraits, landscape photos, children’s photos, baby photos, commercial/editorial style work, still life…in that order. It’s often hard for photographers early in their careers to ‘let go’ of everything but what they are best at or love shooting the most, but I feel it makes it vastly easier to break into a market when you focus your work and marketing on that specific niche. Be the best Baby Photographer, or Children’s Photographer, or Family Photographer, or whatever you love, in your market – but don’t try to be the best at everything. As they say, trying to be everything to everyone makes you nothing to anyone.
Going back to pricing, I honestly would say if you’ve never seen anything but package pricing in your area, then that tells you precisely why you need to use a different pricing style. Stay one step ahead of your competition, be innovative, so long as that innovation is in the benefit of your clientele. Make the competitive battle You versus Everyone Else, not you versus each individual competitor – change the game.
I’d wager it’s not your art or your pricing that is causing you to come up short on clients, but more likely your marketing. If you can improve your marketing message and get it in front of the right potential clients, I think you’ll see a serious uptick in the number and quality of your clients. Without knowing your market, competitors, personality, shooting style, etc., I can’t give very good specific advice, but the above ideas are transferable to just about any photographer’s situation. Please don’t hesitate to comment here or e-mail me at James@banderaoutlaw.com if you would like to discuss specific ideas at greater length!
And please do keep me posted on your successes and adventures! Thank you again for your readership!
Thanks for your well-written article and excellent advice. It feels a bit strange to charge for something that you’ve been giving away for years. While one can wing it and adjust prices and tactics on the fly, it’s nice to have the guidelines you’ve provided. Kudos!
John, thank you so much for your kind words!
I really enjoyed visiting your portfolio tonight, you have an amazing way with color in your photographs. You are more than capable of charging for your work, and in fact I look forward to hearing from you about your successes when you do start charging and marketing your talent.
Charging is a huge step – it’s really hanging your shingle and saying, “I am a professional.” Your art is there, though, John – truly. Put yourself out there and allow yourself to enjoy the rewards of your work, and allow your community to be blessed in having you to hire.
Please do keep me posted on your successes and adventures!
What’s your perspective on charging a session fee + a specific number of images on CD? Seems real turn-key.
In all truth, there’s no silver bullet pricing style that works for everyone, of course. Every photographer and market is different.
What’s worked for me and has grown to be my philosophy, is that no client should have to put a dime on the table until they see the art created from their photo shoot. And when they do spend their money, it should be in the purchasing of that art. I feel like session fees and minimum orders only exist to place the onus of risk on the client instead of the photographer.
Not to say there’s any sin in it – especially once you’re established and have a solid client base, charging a session fee does give you a level of protection for your time. But in the early stages when you’re trying to build that base of repeat and referral clients, I think it’s vastly easier to just accept the risk yourself and give the client an unbeatable offer to get them in the door. “I charge no session fee, have no minimum order – you just buy what you love. Prints and files start at just $10.”
Will some clients make a minimal purchase and leave you with little pay for your time? Yes. Will most clients beat your desired minimum and more than make up for the cheap folk? Yes – in my experience, you win far more than you lose for your time. And again, early on, you’re also enjoying the invaluable benefits of growing experience, developing your artistic talents, practicing your skills, refining your business acumen, building your portfolio and base of clients, earning great referrals, etc.
Eventually the time does come to raise prices, maybe set up a session fee or minimum order, to maximize your profits while protecting your time. But early on, and/or in a competitive market, having no session fee breaks the system – instead of it being You against John Doe Photography and Jane Doe Photography and Kiddie Kandids and JC Penney Portrait Studio and Portrait People, it becomes You versus Everyone Else. It evens the playing field in one move.
Thank you again for your comment! Please do keep me posted on your choices, and how they play out in your market. I’d love to hear of your successes and adventures!
Just ran across your site..love love love it.been pondering this idea of becoming a phitographer for quite sometime…im kinda shy and lack confidence but after reading your articles i realized im not alone and its just part of becoming a new photographer. I feel more confident and knowledgable. Pricing really helped a lot as well..i will keep coming back and recommend your site to all i know in photography…which is several and know they will use n love it too…thanks soo much for your time n helpfulness with your site.
You are most welcome Jamie, thank you for your kind words! Portraiture photography is a wonderful business to get into, you have real opportunities to both bless and be blessed in the creation of your art. Approach your business and clients with confidence, knowing that what you do benefits you as an artist, and your clients as beneficiaries of your art. They wouldn’t hire you if they didn’t want to. Please do keep me posted on your successes and adventures this year!
I’ve been told by many professional photographers that selling digital files basically ruins the potential repeat business of clients coming back for prints, and also gives clients the ability to “tamper” with the processing you’ve done in their own editing software. Professionals also worry about clients printing at lower end places (i.e., Walmart) and ending up with crappy quality to present to their friends (other potential clients). Personally, I like the idea of selling files over prints (except for my fine art work). And I believe people have the right to their images. Having been a photography client myself (for my wedding), I’d be very upset to have my images “held hostage” by the photographer (I was happy to pay for the files, but insistent that I have them). But I keep second guessing myself on this issue. I see that you are okay with selling digital files. Do you really think no money is lost by doing that? Do you worry about clients re-working the images (lots of people like to play with editing software) and how the edits they might make affect your presentation of your work? Do you worry about them printing low quality prints to show their friends? (I’m still reading through your blog, so I hope I haven’t asked something that’s already been addressed elsewhere).
Thank you for your comment Lisa!
I switched to an almost completely digital sales model years ago, and I’ve not looked back since. I learned that for me in my market, my stress level was minimal and my clients were most happy (and profitable!) as I walked away from conventional practices and did what I thought was right, what made sense to me as both an artist and a consumer.
There are so many things one can worry about in life – about life, about business, about art. My best advice is to simply let go of the worry and focus on what’s actually important: your art, and marketing it to an interested clientele. You will get some bad clients, some may even do horrible things to your photos, but the vast majority will be great subjects, make for great art, buy well, and treat your work with respect, while being your biggest fans and cheerleaders in their social circles. It’s vastly easier to win over people in this way when you don’t treat them like criminals, but as respected, appreciated clients.
Education helps: when I hand over a CD to a client, I also make a recommendation of my favorite local and online labs to have prints made, and encourage them to pay the extra dollar or so to get much better quality than the one-hour shops.
In my experience, my photo shoots are both more profitable and my average sales are larger than they were when I primarily (or only) pushed prints. I used to do it all – frames, canvas, add-ons, upgrades, up-sells, packages, volume discounts, the whole kit and caboodle of “tricks” photographers (and many other industries) use to squeeze clients for more dollars. It was like trying to teach a pig to sing – it just frustrates you and annoys the pig.
Honestly, I think the whole “what will they do to my art!” argument is a paranoid one instilled by artists who like to call themselves such with a capital A – focus on the art and experience you’re creating for your client, and don’t worry about those things which are wholly beyond your control (if you don’t sell digital, they’ll just scan the print, etc.) – improve your art, improve the experience you create for clients, adjust your prices and policies as you go along and adapt your business to best serve your market. If you do this, you will be so busy with the fruits of your success that you will have neither time nor interest in worrying about what a few squirrely clients do with your digital files after they’ve bought them.
I hope this helps! Thank you again for your readership! Let me know which path you choose, and how it serves you this year.
After many years of contemplating what I should do career wise, I have finally decided I would take my passion for photography and turn it into a career for myself. I can’t help but thank you for all of this advice you have given. I found part time photo a few days ago and haven’t been able to stop reading. This particular entry has helped me decide on my pricing. I have an engagement photo-shoot coming up, and it may be my first paid session. So nervous but excited at the same time. I am so grateful that I found this site during my journey. I hope you continue to grace us with your wonderful advice!
Thank you for your kind words Elle, and congratulations on making the decision to move forward with your professional photography! Part time, full time, or part time eventually turning to full time, it’s a wonderful business to get into full of good people, and good times. Almost 100% of the time, it’s only we photographers who make it more complicated and fearsome than it needs to be.
Please do keep me posted on your successes and adventures! I truly look forward to hearing how your engagement shoot (and hopefully sales!) turns out. Trust me when I say, it’s a lot like getting a flu shot – thinking about it hurts more than the moment itself.
The path you’re on is indeed a journey, and it will be as enjoyable, fun, and fulfilling a journey as you let it be. Again, we are always our harshest critic – while we need to continually recognize where we can make the most important improvements, we need to forgive and accept and encourage ourselves in equal measure. If you screw up – and we all do on a regular basis – recognize the mistake and use that powerful energy to plan and practice improvements.
Thank you again for your readership, and please keep in touch!
HI James, Me again!
I am using your guide, and it is working a treat, Im getting clients, I’m loving the work, the clients are loving the final images, but I feel as though I am putting a great deal of time and effort into getting the perfect image only to have the client want to pay $10 for ONE 4×6 print…I feel a bit used and abused!!!
I am struggling (mentally) with the whole digital file part too. I know it works well for you, and I commend you, for being able to keep your prices low after so many years. but I have a couple of questions for you…
I believe that digital files are a premium product, am I being too precious?
Do you not worry that when the client prints the image with another supplier, the colour and quality may not be to their satisfaction.
And, are you not worried that an inferior product could bring your talent down?
Just a couple of things that worry me…If I offer the digital files, at a lower price, the client WILL go and get them printed, not only do I loose money , but the image will definatly be of lesser quality and not colour correct…Im not sure how I feel about this.
If I offer the files at a higher price, I loose out and look like Im trying to make money out of doing nothing…
Any Ideas how to tackle this…or am I just being a control freak…give in and sell the files cheap and let the client deal with the repercussions?????
Sorry… staring to ramble now!!!!
Thanks again James, your blog has been a wonderful help to me!
Cheers, Vianna
Thank you for your comment Vianna! I’ve surely had many clients over the years who have bought little or nothing, but I’ve been blessed in that they have made up the vast minority of my clientele. They cheapies do exist, and it’s inevitable you’ll run into them, especially with such a great offer as no session fee and very affordable products.
What I’ve learned over the years is that cheap clients usually come as a result of cheap marketing. If I’m running around town shouting from the rooftops that I’m doing free shoots with only $10 prints, I’m begging to end up with a bunch of clients that just want to spend $10 or $20.
As in all things, there is a balance to be achieved.
My goal is always to stay booked to my personal desired capacity. Whether for you that’s five shoots a week or one, you know about how often you like to or want to shoot.
In the early stages of your business, any client is a good client. Every single one lets you grow as an artist and business owner. They allow you to experiment, fail, and grow using live guinea pigs for fodder. They let you poke at this price, prod at that policy, and begin to really define and refine your work. All the while, improving your artistic talents.
That said, if you’re booked solid with cheapie clients, don’t be afraid to raise your prices, or likely better, stop marketing yourself on price and start marketing yourself solely on art and the experience you create for your clients. This was a big step I took once my art was good enough to keep me booked solid for a month or two in advance – and when you stop advertising price, you start getting clients whose primary concern is your great art, not your great prices. When they find out how low risk your pricing schedule is, they don’t hesitate to book.
Early on, it takes very little stress or worry to offer no session fee, no minimum order, and prints/files starting at just $xx. When your art and experience mature, it takes a lot of confidence to sell on the same platform – the onus truly is on you to create art so excellent and varied that your clients can’t keep from buying it.
There’s certainly an argument that digital files are premium products (maximum size, unlimited number of reproductions, kills potential for follow-up sales). There’s also an argument that digital files are virtually free (can be reproduced infinitely without cost, a CD full to the brim costs a fraction of even the smallest print). When you’re setting prices for any product, have a reason – a real, arguable, logical reason for why you charge what you charge, for any product.
I love selling digital files – I love the ease, I love the simplicity, I love educating my clients on what cool things they can do with those images, I love seeing my images all over Facebook, I love empowering clients, I love just handing over a CD and not having to stress about what the lab will or will not have done to my image upon its printer, I love that what I hand my client is a pure and perfect copy of what I showed them when they made their purchase.
There are many, many photographers who love prints and wall art for a completely different set of reasons, and for those photogs, it makes sense that they price digital much more expensively, or don’t sell digital at all – it’s not what they or their clients love. Every photographer, and every market, has its own personality.
To directly answer your questions:
- When I hand over digital files to a client, I always educate them as to where to get the best prints, what will happen if they print at a one-hour shop or drugstore, what cool stuff they can do with the files, how they may look different on different computers because of monitor calibration, etc. A little education goes a long way to ensure the client knows how to get the most out of their images.
- I have never feared what my clients might do to my art. I’m too busy photographing more clients. If one out of a hundred load up my images into Paint Shop Pro and make them look like a dog threw up a cat, and then post their artistic interpretation to Facebook or their wall or wherever, it’s still just one client out of a hundred. The breadth and depth of my portfolio, online and in print, the art I show in my marketing pieces and advertising, on social media, and what my other 99 clients share in pure form with their friends and family, creates a tidal wave of good impressions that reduce any lesser examples to impotence.
- If you worry about your clients buying digital files and printing them too low of quality, educate your client as to where they can get best quality work done. Hand them the keys to the kingdom. The professional lab I use has a consumer division that produces prints and products of near-indistinguishable quality from what I sell for much, much more. And I tell my clients as much. I give them the web address, and tell them how easy it is to just upload and order “for just a few dollars more than what you’ll pay for fuzzy, off-color prints from Walmart.”
- If you do offer files at a higher price, you just shift your place in the market more toward prints. You’ll market to and earn more clients who want prints, desktop framed images, wallets, and hopefully, nice wall art to enjoy for generations. I only recommend photographers push a more digital-friendly offering because it’s what the majority of the market wants, it’s very low-risk and low-cost to the photographer, it breaks the mold of what most other professional photographers do, and most importantly and true of anything I recommend here on PTP, it works very well for me. When a client buys a full CD of images from me, even at a highly discounted price, I look at my per-hour earnings (in pocket, after all expenses), and grin like a Cheshire cat.
Your questions are fully valid, indeed I should write an article on the “letting go” aspect of selling digital files, and I thank you for the inspiration. If you focus on ever-improving your value to clients, through better art and a better experience, you’ll quickly grow beyond pricing and soon be able to book yourself solid on the merits of your good work alone – which leads to an equally better quality of client, as well.
Please do keep me posted on your progress, how you decide to handle and price your files and prints, and what the results are for you this year! Don’t be afraid to experiment for a few months, then change things up and see how your business changes with it. Nothing is ever set in stone – never forget, you’re the boss, you’re in charge. Look at it as an adventure, a grand and profitable experiment, which only grows more profitable over time. It’s a wonderful profession to enjoy!