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Photography pricing.
Career / 10:37 AM - Wednesday March 06, 2013

Photography pricing.

Yesterday I received three messages.

1) Wanting to know if I would be a Photographer at a wedding in September.
2) A two hour mini session for Maternity next month
3) Senior Photo's /Fall

Thing is, I am not a professional. Each person that messaged me wanted to know my pricing. I've never charged anyone because I've only done Family Photo's, Maternity Photo's (As a baby-shower gift) and my own engagement photo's. --I plan on going to college for photography once my financial aid kicks in. In the meantime I want to set an appropriate price for the occasion. For 2 hr. Maternity session, Unlimited Senior photo's in the fall, and a wedding. What would you find suitable and reasonable.

- Asked by 20149go, A Thinker, Female, 18-21, Artist / Musician / Writer

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Depends on many things.

First. The minute you quote a price, you are a professional. Don't under price yourself because you lack a degree. Photography is about your eye and technical skill.

Call photographers in the area you will be photographing in and get quotes. You need to be comparable. You need to compete on your skills and the beauty of your work not on being "cheap" because you feel you need a degree to do this. ( you don't )



- Response by siouxzen, A Creative, Female, 56-65, San Francisco, Self-Employed

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I would pass on the wedding. This is too important for an amateur. Tell the person you are not qualified.

I believe the going rate for the others are $50 an hour.

You may wish to go to the website You Are Not A Photographer to learn some of the things you should NOT do.

- Response by utahmom, A Thinker, Female, 46-55, Managerial

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Community Rating: Community Star

This is my suggestion:

Wedding: $300 for 3 hours, any additional hours will be charged $75/hour
Maternity photos: $75
Senior Photos: If this could be an all day affair, like 8 hours... I would charge $25/hour. If this is going to be a 2-4 hour type deal, I would charge $40-$50/hour

You are just providing a cd copy or something of the photos, right?

These prices are considered low, but it's because w/ just starting out it's a good idea to keep your pricing low b/c word of mouth can start getting you a good client base. What do you do when you find a good deal, while also getting reasonable service- you tell all your friends/family! THEN, as you build your client base, bring up your pricing.

- Response by nonnahsvd, A Thinker, Female, 26-28, Financial / Banking

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And DO NOT pass on the wedding- this is something GREAT to add to your portfolio. Just by charging a low price is fair game that they may not be of the utmost quality someone dishing out $5,000 would be expecting. I have tons of friends (w/ no photography education whatsoever) who do wedding photography at great deals and to be quite honest, they aren't that great at what they do- and in reality, the customer just learns 'hey, you get what you pay for'. Definitely do not pass on this opportunity to do such an elaborate event.

- Response by nonnahsvd, A Thinker, Female, 26-28, Financial / Banking

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Research what photographers in your area charge and discount it to what is fair and equitable. At any rate, your time is worth something, processing pictures, etc. and obviously those that want you to take the pictures think you are good at what you do. Go for it! =0)

- Response by uasked, A Career Woman, Female, 46-55, Retired

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$30.00/ hr or picture plus costs, or like jim rockford tv show, $100 per day plus costs.

- Response by A Mr. Nice Guy, Male, Who Cares?, Who Cares?

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I have no idea, I just wanted to say, make sure you know how mnany seniors are in the graduating class. Could be 120 or in my local high school's case the graduating class is over 800.
Good luck

- Response by youngfuddyduddy, A Married Girl, Female, 36-45, New York, Who Cares?

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1. tell these people that you are not a professional photographer
2. find out from photo studios or people who do this type of work and guage your prices accordingly
3. you can start doing jobs with minimum wage pricing and get a portfolio of you jobs and show others what you work looks like and see if they will like you to do a session for you.

- Response by flwoodpecker, A Mr. Nice Guy, Male, 36-45, Other Profession

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