How much should I charge?

[Birdland]

I'm a photography student going into my Junior year of college. Next semester I'm going to be photographing for an organization in my school and they wanted to know how much I charged. I've never been paid to photograph before so I was wondering what a reasonable price to charge would be. Keep in mind that this organization has a limited budget.

Thank you so much for helping!
~Diana~

[abisurd]

I have only recently been getting paid assignments, so take my recommendations with a pinch of salt.

One way to look at it is what I have been doing
Calculate the following costs

• Time spent preparing for the shoot (charging batteries, packing stuff etc.)

• Travel time (two way)

• Time to shoot the event

• Time to process (edit) the photos

• Time to export them, burn the files etc.

Multiply this total time with a suitable figure you think represents your hourly wage. It could be USD 10 to 20, given you have not shot earlier. Sorry, this is a number that you have to come to yourselves.
Add other costs, like cost for travel, parking, CD/DVD, postage etc.

This should give you an idea of what you 'should' charge.

Then there is the issue that the organization does not have a big budget. If you can, try to discretely find out what they are ready to pay. I have personally been increasing my charges, but at the last shoot, a friend later told me that even if I had asked for 60% more, I would have easily gotten it. Lesson learnt, you can charge more than what you 'think' you deserve, because someone has deep pockets and appreciates your art for more than what you might. I know this comment of mine will open floodgates on morality and the like, but this is my thought process for now.

Finally, you also need to take into matter what professionals would charge for the same event. You can get this by getting someone to get quotes from photographers, visit websites and pose questions to these photographers. Most of them would be cautious revealing their prices, but some of them might end up giving you a quote.

Given these three numbers, you will be able to offer them a price. I understand that you might be inclined to accept a low fee for the first paid job, but you might not like your decision at a later stage. My first job I took was for EUR 10 an hour, plus parking. I have since revised my rates, and I feel I should have charged way more. The results were appreciated by many on Facebook.

[Birdland]

Thank you so much! I will definately try your technique! I really appreciate it!

[PamEli]

thanks from me too... I've been trying to figure out how to quote some jobs too....

[bgt8ird]

Thanks for the thought. I too have been trying to figure out pricing. My cousin called me the other day and asked if I would shoot a wedding and when I told her $400 she had a cow. I told her that you had to figure at least an hour before the wedding photo, then the wedding, travel time, processing time and also the reception I figured total time would be at least 6 hours and then put the photos on a DVD. She told me that a guy at her church offered to do it for $100 because he just does it for a hobby. She knew I was trying to start my business and I just got paid $100 for a photoshoot that took me 2 days to do. I wasn't extremely pleased with the photos I took and later discovered I had a line on my lense that screwed up the photos.

Your advice was great on this one. Thanks