What Should I Be Charging? (Please View My Portfolio)

[Mike D90]

Weddings..Well depends on how long you work that day..Average wedding is a 12hr/day..I would charge bare minimum of $1500 and deliver 100 low-res pics for online use only..and Include any shot they want delivered in a 11x14 print..That's it..Good place to start..Ofcourse if they want anything else printed they can pay accordingly...If they want the Hi-res files as part of the package,then package price would be $2500...

Great advice. I want to also add that, in my opinion, DO NOT count on print sales as part of the income for your work. Put together a package as ShootRaw has suggested and include those prints and/or digital files and charge for that package only. They may not even order more prints or books.

If I were shooting weddings I would price them a package, shoot the event and then forget the whole thing and not even worry about selling more prints and let them get whatever they order at lab prices. Let them worry about framing choices too unless they ask about it. Make your money, put their stuff on a password protected page (such as a Zenfolio account), give them the password and then move on.

 

[Mike D90]

@gohan2091

Oh, you asked about some Wedding Photography Contracts. Here is a link I keep and read a lot just in case I decide to ever do weddings. There are links to contracts and agreements on here as well as some great event information and tutorials. Read read read!!



Wedding Photography - Tutorials for Wedding Photographers - Digital Photography School

 

[gohan2091]

Thanks all, I have read everyones comments and to avoid having this post becoming a novel, I have selected a few to reply to below. Thanks everyone so much and thanks @mike_d90 for the contract link!

Your pricing can be set two ways:

if you are doing it as a business: work out your cost to shoot the wedding, that should include any products you are providing the client e.g. Albums etc. then figure out what margin you want to make e.g. 20% or £100 add the two together and that's your charge.

if, however, you're looking to make some money to pay for a hobby, then look at photographers in your area that you believe are a similar standard, knock 10% off what they are asking and nick all their business

This is what I do, I look at local photographers who are non-professionals and I charge below what they offer. Everyone else on here are suggesting I charge triple or quadruple what I usually charge. If I do that, I would be for sure one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive photographer on the free-ad website and I wouldn't class myself as a professional.

I applaud you at taking on weddings..They are hard work..I looked through your wedding portfolio only..Exposures are great..I hope you shoot in manual..My honest opinion is I believe you could work on a few things for sure..DOF is a big one..Trying different perspectives is another one..I was waiting to see some wow factors in your pics..Another thing is your angles and posing..Posing is something that takes a lot of practice to feel comfortable with..I am still nervous when it comes to posing people..My strength is candids with people and telling stories..I would suggest you followJerry Ghionis ..He is one of the best wedding photogs on this planet..Watching his videos will give you inspiration like no other..Also will give you ideas to try on your next gig...You got to charge more..How much you say? Well I say engagement shoots should be $250 for an One hour shoot...
Weddings..Well depends on how long you work that day..Average wedding is a 12hr/day..I would charge bare minimum of $1500 and deliver 100 low-res pics for online use only..and Include any shot they want delivered in a 11x14 print..That's it..Good place to start..Ofcourse if they want anything else printed they can pay accordingly...If they want the Hi-res files as part of the package,then package price would be $2500...

I mostly use manual but for some candids in the outdoors, the only way for me is Aperture Priority. I don't have time to manually set exposure when so many things are going on around me. I'd rather slightly under or over exposure a shot and capture it, then miss it because I'm changing exposure and chimping the histogram.

Shallow DOF is an issue for me because for the majority of the weddings, I use my 16-85mm which is slow. Also my cameras are DX so it can't blur out the background as well as a full frame can. When a new FX camera is released that's affordable, I will buy it and buy faster glass. I almost got the D610 but in some respects, it's a downgrade from my D7100.

I found a Jerry Ghionis video on Youtube about Posing, I shall watch it for sure. Thanks!

I think charging as a package makes sense, I will up my prices but I am not comfortable charging even a minimum of $1500 for a wedding. I've done 5 Weddings and none have been anywhere near 12 hours. Where do you get that average wedding estimate from? Or are you including editing time with this? 4 out of the 5 weddings have only lasted approximately 2-3 hours each, one was 8 hours but one was just an hour and a half. Do you think my photos are good enough to charge $1500 for a Wedding? Please view the free-ad page I advertise on:

photographer in Norwich | Gumtree

Look at the prices there. If I could select a few as an example:

Photographer 1) £375 8-Hour Wedding Photographer, CD, Copyright Permission Granted ($622) - The phtos are amazing but nice

Photographer 2) I am willing to shoot yours for just £250 ($415) for the entire day. This offer will only be open to the first few individuals as I am fairly experienced as a second shooter and just want to increase my portfolio as the main photographer. All couples will get a Disc containing approx 100-150 High Resolution images from the special day which are all individually edited using professional software and techniques.

Yes, there are a couple on there charging a bit more but the majority are so cheap. I'm really going to have to think carefully about this but the days of doing Weddings for £100 - £150 are over.

Some great looking shots there, my questions is though were you a second shooter in some of these as there are a few that lack eye contact. As people are looking off to the side etc. I would try and ensure that you are the main focus unless of course you are going for the looking away look.

EG
http://m1.behance.net/rendition/modules/77327221/disp/023a83fe101900dba5c05b6a1722e2cd.jpg

I am the primary shooter at everything, in fact, I have never been a second shooter, not even before I did my first wedding. I jumped in and tried to prepare as much as I can. I do formal posed shots but I like the majority to be candid. The example picture you shown is of my first Wedding. I think the bride was a bit camera shy. I know I have lots of her looking at the camera, perhaps my portfolio selection was poor. I'll sort through my portfolio photos sometime and try to replace a few.

 

[ShootRaw]

Just to be clear, Fx versus dx does not matter for DOF..It is the lens aperture setting,focal length and how close you are to your subject.. Fast glass helps for sure...I will look through your link shortly and let you know my opinion of your work..Gotta hit the gym first..later

 

[Geoffc]

Just to be clear, Fx versus dx does not matter for DOF..It is the lens aperture setting,focal length and how close you are to your subject.. Fast glass helps for sure...I will look through your link shortly and let you know my opinion of your work..Gotta hit the gym first..later

You are technically correct, but not correct in real world practice for the following reason. Standing the same distance (as photographers do) from the subject with DX and FX you need 50% more focal length to put the same image in the viewfinder/sensor. So where a DX has a 50mm lens the FX would need 75mm to create exactly the same image on the sensor. The longer focal length at the same aperture and camera to subject distance equals reduced depth of field. This is why people say FX has less DOF.

This became very obvious to me when I first got my FX body. I would sit in my chair in the house taking the same pics of the kids etc as I used to with the D300 DX body. I was framing the images in a similar way which required more zooming in. I found that I was missing focus a lot more because of the reduced DOF. I'm now much more accurate with where I focus.

 

[ShootRaw]

O.P thinks that a dx camera camera can not blur the background like an fx camera..To me this does not stand true..So to me it is what I mentioned above that pertains to blowing the background out more...I have a dx and have no problem blowing the background out do to my lens choices and distance from subject..
[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/83727240@N03/12181226164/] [/URL]

 

[Mike D90]

Thanks all, I have read everyones comments and to avoid having this post becoming a novel, I have selected a few to reply to below. Thanks everyone so much and thanks @mike_d90 for the contract link!

You are welcome!

This is what I do, I look at local photographers who are non-professionals and I charge below what they offer. Everyone else on here are suggesting I charge triple or quadruple what I usually charge. If I do that, I would be for sure one of the most expensive, if not the most expensive photographer on the free-ad website and I wouldn't class myself as a professional.

I really think you are looking in the wrong place. Most real pro's would not advertise on a "free" ad service page anyway. Those are the newbies and the wannabe's trying to get some business cheaply.

I've done 5 Weddings and none have been anywhere near 12 hours. Where do you get that average wedding estimate from? Or are you including editing time with this? 4 out of the 5 weddings have only lasted approximately 2-3 hours each, one was 8 hours but one was just an hour and a half.
Do you think my photos are good enough to charge $1500 for a Wedding?

If you shoot one properly you would be up at the crack of dawn getting those candid shots of the brides maids dresses, the wedding dress, shoes, the rings, and even shots of the bridesmaids and groomsmen, the church interior, the guestbook blah blah. Get all of those shots that you can get before the ceremony begins and then focus your energy on the ceremony itself. Some of this stuff can be shot again afterwards but the ceremony will never ever happen twice.

Then after the wedding there is usually a party I think. So if you tally up all of that it will consume a day or more.

 

[ShootRaw]

O.P..there are so many ads on that page..How bout a link to yours..Can not find you on there..

 

[gohan2091]

O.P thinks that a dx camera camera can not blur the background like an fx camera..To me this does not stand true..So to me it is what I mentioned above that pertains to blowing the background out more...I have a dx and have no problem blowing the background out do to my lens choices and distance from subject..

I do not think what you said in your message is what I said I am fully aware of how to get a blurred background with DX cameras. I own two fast lens with a 1.8 and 2.8 maximum aperture. Getting closer to the subject does help blur the background as does having the background further away from the subject. Telephoto focal lenghts such as 200mm and 300mm throws out the background a bit too. I look at photos taken with a full frame camera and those taken with a crop sensor and the full frame seems to have a shallower depth of field at smaller apertures (F5.6, F8 etc).

You are welcome!

I really think you are looking in the wrong place. Most real pro's would not advertise on a "free" ad service page anyway. Those are the newbies and the wannabe's trying to get some business cheaply.

If you shoot one properly you would be up at the crack of dawn getting those candid shots of the brides maids dresses, the wedding dress, shoes, the rings, and even shots of the bridesmaids and groomsmen, the church interior, the guestbook blah blah. Get all of those shots that you can get before the ceremony begins and then focus your energy on the ceremony itself. Some of this stuff can be shot again afterwards but the ceremony will never ever happen twice.

Then after the wedding there is usually a party I think. So if you tally up all of that it will consume a day or more.

Yes, most real pros won't advertise in the free-ads but I am not a pro. As I said, I've shot 5 Weddings and none have them involve spending all day with them and certainly not getting up at dawn. I appreciate that this does happen but I have not encountered it at all so far. The longest Wedding I photograph was 9 hours and most of that was due to the reception and music/party at the end. The ceremony itself was very short and I wasn't required in the morning.

O.P..there are so many ads on that page..How bout a link to yours..Can not find you on there..

Sure, Semi-Professional Photographer Looking For Further Experience | Norwich | Gumtree thanks!

 

[ShootRaw]

Looking through your Ad solely..I really feel you are worthy of raising your prices...Just keep this in mind, Once your prices are raised. You will attract another crowd of people that are willing to pay for quality work..Which will put you on another level. Given you do great work consistently,word will spread by mouth...Good Luck..

 

[southwestsam]

What you have to think about is that you are advertising yourself as a professional in the sense that you are charging for your photography service. Some people are charging less than you might normally expect for various reasons including limited experience.

why are you hesitant to increase your prices to a sensible amount? What are you worried about? If one person books you, you might make 5 or 6 times what you would make charging your current rates in the same amount of time.

There are plenty of people in my area charging £800+ who's work isn't up to your standard.

 

[gohan2091]

What you have to think about is that you are advertising yourself as a professional in the sense that you are charging for your photography service. Some people are charging less than you might normally expect for various reasons including limited experience.

why are you hesitant to increase your prices to a sensible amount? What are you worried about? If one person books you, you might make 5 or 6 times what you would make charging your current rates in the same amount of time.

There are plenty of people in my area charging £800+ who's work isn't up to your standard.

What you said makes sense. I will be increasing my prices but I don't feel comfortable charging so much for a Wedding. £800+ is a lot of money! wow, I could buy a new lens per job if I got that sort of money. Thanks so much for your high praise, I guess I suffer from low confidence in my ability and a fear of people not being satisified with my work (if they're handing over cash) but this thread has been an eye-opener. While I won't ask for £800, I'll try at £500, see who bites and I'll go from there. Would you say £500 for a few hours Wedding is too expensive? because sometimes that's all people want, just the ceremony, family and friend, group shots and a few formal shots of the couple done.

 

[Mike D90]

What you said makes sense. I will be increasing my prices but I don't feel comfortable charging so much for a Wedding. £800+ is a lot of money! wow, I could buy a new lens per job if I got that sort of money. Thanks so much for your high praise, I guess I suffer from low confidence in my ability and a fear of people not being satisified with my work (if they're handing over cash) but this thread has been an eye-opener. While I won't ask for £800, I'll try at £500, see who bites and I'll go from there. Would you say £500 for a few hours Wedding is too expensive? because sometimes that's all people want, just the ceremony, family and friend, group shots and a few formal shots of the couple done.

Weddings are a lot of work and it only happens once, usually, with that couple! Its worth a lot of money to have it recorded properly! Get your confidence up and go forth!

To get some quick business do quick portrait sittings of one or two people, don't shoot so many images and offer them the edited/processed files on CD or DVD.

See if you can get into the corporate/office portraits with a plain background. One shot per person and give them the digital files. Fast and cheap.

 

[gohan2091]

@Mike d90 how would I get into the corporate/office portrait scene? Where would I start? emailing random offices? I don't own a backdrop, any advice on this? or would a plain wall work just as well? One would flash be good enough for this sort of work? and who much would you personally charge?

 

[southwestsam]

£800 is a lot of money but consider that you will be taking photos for about 8 hours (ish), processing/editing for another 8-10 hours and burning to DVD.

so far you have:

£800 - £5 (DVD)
£795 - £10 (1 month PS/LR subscription)
£785 - £25 (your travel costs for the day)
£760 - £25 (backup memory card)
£735/18 hours = £40 per hour which is about the same as your average mechanic will charge.

thats not taking into account the cost of all your equipment (camera, computer, lenses, tripod etc.)

be be keen to know how you get on increasing to £500.

like others have said you will start to attract a different clientele.

 

[gohan2091]

Yes, but out of the 5 weddings I have shot, only one was 9 hours, the others were short, say 2/3 hours on average. Travel is usually provided by the couple, or if I get a taxi, they pay that separate from the cost I charge. As for the different clientele, I don't advertise my price on my ad, so everyone is welcome to contact me. I have a high success rate between potential clients and ones that accept me. I'd say turnover percentage is 80%. I don't get a whole lot of messages though, I think because there is so much competition already on that site. When I do get messages, I'll charge more and see if my turnover is as high as usual.

 

[ShootRaw]

Getting into corporate shooting takes a lot of hustle..You would surely need a backdrop or two with atleast 2-3 lights...You would have to sell yourself very well to secure a gig like that...

 

[Mike D90]

@Mike d90 how would I get into the corporate/office portrait scene? Where would I start? emailing random offices? I don't own a backdrop, any advice on this? or would a plain wall work just as well? One would flash be good enough for this sort of work? and who much would you personally charge?

I am not sure myself. It is something I was going to look into. I don't necessarily mean large corporations but more like local businesses that need photos of their managers and other employees.

 

[SkvLTD]

What you said makes sense. I will be increasing my prices but I don't feel comfortable charging so much for a Wedding. £800+ is a lot of money! wow, I could buy a new lens per job if I got that sort of money. Thanks so much for your high praise, I guess I suffer from low confidence in my ability and a fear of people not being satisified with my work (if they're handing over cash) but this thread has been an eye-opener. While I won't ask for £800, I'll try at £500, see who bites and I'll go from there. Would you say £500 for a few hours Wedding is too expensive? because sometimes that's all people want, just the ceremony, family and friend, group shots and a few formal shots of the couple done.

As others said, always include processing time of that hour of shooting into that hour's cost. Though 50 quid an hour + about same for processing sounds about right.

It's all about time and skill investment. If a couple feels 500 is too much, they can do it themselves however sloppy and live with that for the rest of their marriage. Since most plan it to be a once in a lifetime kinda thing, and spend plenty on the ceremony, another piece of chump change in comparison is nothing to properly commemorate their special day.

Look at prices around you too. Most pros charge anywhere from $200-500 for a proper, detailed, 1 hour portrait session. That or roughly $200/hr regardless of what event they do.

 

[Geoffc]

What you said makes sense. I will be increasing my prices but I don't feel comfortable charging so much for a Wedding. £800+ is a lot of money! wow, I could buy a new lens per job if I got that sort of money. Thanks so much for your high praise, I guess I suffer from low confidence in my ability and a fear of people not being satisified with my work (if they're handing over cash) but this thread has been an eye-opener. While I won't ask for £800, I'll try at £500, see who bites and I'll go from there. Would you say £500 for a few hours Wedding is too expensive? because sometimes that's all people want, just the ceremony, family and friend, group shots and a few formal shots of the couple done.

I don't intend to be rude, but I'm worried that your still missing the point slightly. If this is a business rather than a hobby £800 isn't a huge amount for half a weeks work by the time you've done a pre-meet, shoot and processed the results. Take 20%+ off straight away as I take it you're going to pay tax and national insurance. Remove something for equipment purchase and maintenace. Don't forget any insurance is now business rate. You'll need to do your accounts and file returns which is more time. As a professional self employed person budget 6 weeks holiday and sickness per annum (more insurance required for long term sickness protection if you're doing properly). If you shoot a wedding every single Saturday of the year that's £41,600 per annum at £800 per slot before those deductions. Holidays and slack periods will dent that. Hopefully you also do some other commissions to make up the shortfall. Personally £800 per week revenue before deductions does not make me want to give up my current job.

There is a saying in business along the lines of sanity or vanity. Vanity is where you turn over lots of revenue but make no profit. Sanity is where you turn over less but make a nice margin for your trouble.

In case you hadn't guessed part of my job is working out the true cost of delivering services as part of large IT contracts. My glass starts half full and I work down from there.