What to charge for Wedding shoot?

[Lynn4519]

I have done several weddings the past couple of years. I am not a professional, but everyone has been happy with my work. I have been asked again to do a wedding only (they have someone to video the reception). I live in a small area, and would like to be a little under what others like me charge. The trouble is that I'm having a hard time deciding what to charge. I figure it would be about 4 hrs altogether at the wedding, and then I go through and do all the editing, and put them all on CD. Just wondered if anyone has a reasonable figure they might charge? One price I think might be to high, and then another to low. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
I have attached a photo to show some of my work.

[Nicole]

Originally Posted by Lynn4519

I live in a small area, and would like to be a little under what others like me charge.

Then your first step should probably be finding out what others in your area charge. See if you can find some local photographers online and use those starting rates, especially since you say you want to be slightly under what others like you charge.

The thing is, say I tell you that the average price for photos here is $2000 (just a random number for arguments sake). Well, first thing to consider is that I'm in NZ, you might be in the US. Prices may be in a different range. And then there are people who are perfectly happy to charge $100 to shoot a wedding. So how do you pick which one is the right starting price for your area? And even better, how do *we* on the forums know what is the right price for your area? Small town East Coast USA might be more likely to pay more for photos than say, small town NZ

[AnneWynne]

Two things to consider in what to charge: your time AND the worth of the CD of images.

When considering your time, be sure to allot enough to cover the time in post. You might start out at $50/hour, so 4 hours there plus 8 hours pp=12 hours total x $50=$600 The amount of time in pp can be shortened by culling the worst shots then giving the couple access to a low resolution, private, gallery and having them choose x number of prints they want to keep, then charging based on that.

As for the CD of images, that is a touchy subject. There is a split camp on whether to release your images on CD or sell prints only. Most will sell CDs for a very high price because of loss of print, frames, and product sales.

The main thing is to not set your prices so low it is diffiuclt to raise them to a rate that really covers your time, skills, and experience.
Good luck

[ShSimpson]

It sounds as though you already have the wedding booked. If that is the case why would you want to be charging less than everyone else. If you want to continue this as a going concern you,imo, wouldn't want to set the bar so low that become known as a budget shooter. Once you get that tag on you it is hard to move your prices to the area mean price.

I have found that is always easier to lower your price, if you have to.