Newbie and not sure what to charge

[dreamer234]

I know there are a lot of threads about what to charge as far as photography services go, so I'm sorry if this is repetitive.

I'm a junior in high school and many friends have been asking for senior portraits, etc. I don't want to give out my pictures/services for free, yet at the same time, I don't want to charge for friends and run off business due to fees. I have had people tell me, however, that they'd pay to have portraits done. I'm just stuck on what to charge or where to even begin pricing my work. I've decided to take the pictures, edit them, and give them to the client on a disc but I'm still not positive about what to charge. What sounds fair? $15, $20 an hour? Or something more along the lines of a flat rate of $40 or $50?

Thanks in advance!

[BCampbell]

Does it really matter?

You have no real expenses, and I doubt you're paying taxes on this.

All the money goes in yourpocket, os the typical pricing methods don't apply to you.

Generally it's bets to set a target and price accordingly (cost of doing business). Decide how much your time is worth. $20/hour works out to being "worth" about $40k/year. Don't forget that there's more to it than just the shoot time; for each hour you shoot, budget 1-2 hours processing. Split the difference and that comes to $50/hr of shooting time. So, start from there... can you shoot two people an hour? Charge them $25 each.