What is the correct procedure in selling your photographs to clients

[JeannieK]

Hello

A friend of mine who has just started an events company has asked me to photograph a school dance in September. I have never done anything like this. She wants to know how much I should charge. I have no idea how much to charge her for this. I definitely need some hardcore advice. I'm saving up for some new equipment that will be suited for this event, such as a flash, new lense etc.

What is the procedure after I have taken photos and clients want prints of the photographs. Obviously I will have to take the photos to get developed to show the client. I have no idea how to go about this. I'm even offering to do this for free, put the photos on a cd and let them decide what they want to do with the photos and perhaps they can sell them. I'm more concerned at how much practise I'll be getting from this, that money isn't even a concern for me.

How do the pro's do it. My friend would not haved asked me this huge favour if she didn't like my photos that she has seen before.

Please??? Some advice here. I'll be so gratefull.

[LeeR]

While there are probably as many answers to this question as there are people willing to answer it, I think you are onto something. I mean what parent or grandparent can resist a photo of their little one in tights and tutu? If it were me, I would handle it much like the Little League photos; take shots of everyone and offer different packages to the parents. It has been some time since I have done this so I'll let others suggest pricing and companies to deal with, but trust me when I tell you there are companies that are set up to handle this kind of thing for you and do a beautiful job. Plus, it is a process most parents are familiar with. (You may even find there is a company near you that can do this for you. If you talk to them ahead of time they will give you all sorts of information to help you on your way.)

[Benji]

Having done our local school's prom for 20+ years, here is how I handle it. At the time you photograph them have a form for them to fill out indicating which package they want to purchase. They pay for it at that time. You either deliver the finished photographs to the school or mail them to them for an additional charge. I have three packages, with the most popular being $20.00 for two 5 x 7s and 8 wallets.

I suggest practicing on a couple of volunteers at the site where this will be done, several weeks or months prior to the shoot. Shoot with the camera and lens you will be using and with the lighting you will be using. You DO NOT want any surprises. I use a fill light above and behind the camera and the main light short lighting them. I use a fairly easy ratio of about 1.5 to 1 or so. You do not want deep dark shadows or hard harsh lighting so I use a 62 inch umbrella in my 400 watt second a/c flash unit and a 24 x 36 softbox for my main light. I leave the modeling lamps on but use 1/100 shutter speed and usually f/ 5.6 or f/ 8 for the aperture.

When I do "my" proms I have a lady taking the money, she also makes sure the form is filled out correctly and she makes sure the flowers are straight and the man's jacket, tie etc look good. I do the actual shooting and an assistant poses the subjects for me so I don't have to pose them, walk back to the camera compose, focus and shoot. This saves LOTS of time. Immediately after I make the capture I check the LCD to make sure all eyes are open BEFORE they break the pose and at the same time I also look at the expressions. If I think someone looks bad I quickly approach them and show them the image. If it passes muster, I write the image number on the form they filled out and handed to me right before I photographed them. If not I reshoot the image and again show it to them. I seldom have to do a third capture. I don't erase the bad ones yet.

DO NOT move the lights at any time during the shoot. Shoot in Raw and in manual. Shoot a gray card first. If you do these four things all you will need to do is load the images into ACR, click on the gray card, move the "Blacks" slider to 3, sharpen about 60% then Synchronize All. Then bring up the first image, get a 240 "R" reading on the brightest diffused highlight on the subject's face and click again on Synchronize All. Then Save All. You are now done with white balance, sharpening and exposure. You can either fire them off to your lab after you get rid of the captures with eyes shut or bad expressions, or if there are not 1000 images you might want to retouch some of the zits on the worst "offenders" in the shoot to keep them happy.

K.I.S.S. is my moto!

Benji

[JeannieK]

Thanks for the tips, however I don't own any other equipment, such as umbrella's or any other lighting except for my camera. Perhaps I am not ready for this approach just yet. I've only ever charged for the time I photograph people (models to be exact). I'd put the photos on a cd and give it to their agent to sort out. That is how she wanted it. It was a small local group so it was not a big "even".

Step 1 - take photo
Step 2 - get clients
Step 3 - ?
Step 4 - profit!