Gah! Pricing woes...

[laurie millar]

Back story...

When I decided to attempt making money at photography I made the decision to keep my prices low so that good photography was accessible to the many people (mostly college students) who needed it in my area. I can't tell you how many new couples I've seen come out of the lds temples to no photographer, just family members with point-and-shoots. Sad. And I thought that there was no way I would ever make them do prints through me either. They can just have the disc! So that's what I've been doing. For a relatively small amount I'm giving people discs of edited pictures.

But as I've improved and I like my pictures more and more, I can't stand to see the bad print jobs and my prices are so low that I'm starting to feel undervalued. A lot of my clients are young families so I don't want to price myself out of doing shoots for them but....hmmm...I don't know what I'm trying to say anymore. (:

Is it better to have lots of shoots for a small pay or less shoots with higher pricing? I want to stay busy but I would like to make more. Am I being greedy or realistic? Give it to me straight people.

[Niresangwa]

depends on how strong your portfolio is - on one level, is it strong enough to support higher tier pricing and keep clients coming, and on another level does it still need building in order to get to the first instance?

i don't think there's anyone who will advise you to keep taking cheap jobs and lots of them, rather than less jobs at a higher price point. the caveat to that being unless you need to bring more depth and diversity to your port.

[Jim Bryant]

Laura, you don't want to be known as that cheap photographer. Low prices vs. higher prices? That's a decision only you can make. Do you want to work your butt off for peanuts.
Remember a job is from the beginning to end. That's taking the time to meet with the couple, shooting, editing, time spent processing, burning to dvd and delivery. Last month I shot an eight-hour wedding & reception and charged them $1600.00. Took two hours to edit and and anther two to post process the images. That's 14 hours total work. I'd rather make over $100 an hour. My prices run from $900.00 to $2500.00 depending on how much time they want me for and what package they want.

I'd much rather shoot one wedding for $1600 instead of doing five wedding for $300.00. Believe me, those young families have parents with lots of money. IF they are just getting Sealed in the temple that's might be another story.

[candleman]

If its not worth your while and you feel you deserve more, then charge more.

OR, you could keep your prices for the CD the same, and simply offer fewer images/less coverage.. after all.. now that you’ve improved you are more efficient at “nailing” the shots and getting the crucial stuff.

If you don’t want them to print the images.. you could do what i do and remove the need for it.. just include a full set of prints
It doesn’t really cost that much and because they get a physical product its valued more highly.

Personally, i couldn’t make them pay extra for prints after they have already hired me for the day....
However, even though they have the full resolution CD, i still have people buying extra prints.. and i currently have requests for canvass enlargements too.


As for the lots of shoots, low pay VS fewer shoots higher pay.. well.. that depends on how busy you want to be
Whats the point in working your butt off and getting the same amount of $$ as if you only do a few and have time with your family.

[johnStock]

I think you should raise your prices. How high depends on what you feel you're worth. At the same time it sounds like "giving back" and helping people is still very important to you. Maybe you could do some pro bono type work? I have no idea how you would determine who's deserving of that, but it might let you get the best of both worlds.

[laurie millar]

johnStock....Yeah, I wish there was a way to determine who needs it most. As you can see I'm a little scattered in my goals here.

I think you all nailed it, I guess I just need to figure out how confident I am in myself and my abilities. I don't want to be known as cheap because my product isn't cheap....my time isn't cheap. I average two to three shoots a week. If I don't have at least two, a part of me freaks out despite my best efforts to mellow out.

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I'm going to retool my pricing at the end of the year and see if I can come up with some ways to still be of some help to people that need it. Thank you for taking the time to help me out!

[CharlieJ]

Originally Posted by laurie millar

... I made the decision to keep my prices low so that good photography was accessible to the many people (mostly college students) who needed it in my area. ... And I thought that there was no way I would ever make them do prints through me either. They can just have the disc!

I think the answer is in these two statements. You have realized you should make more money from your craft. You're better than "relatives with P&S cameras". However, you want to remain "accessible" to many people.

My suggestion would be to keep your prices low (maybe a slight increase to cover your experience gained), but start charging for prints. You could still give a DVD/CD to the customer, but with smaller, watermarked, slightly edited images that are suitable only for uploading to websites, etc. Then, give the customer the opportunity to purchase fully retouched images through a pro printing service. (BTW, I would never intentionally allow my professional work to end up on a cheap Costco printer.)

In the end, a compromise such as this will likely allow you to stay busy doing the work you love - and increase your income. It will also better represent the work you do because the finished product, sitting on the mantle piece, will be higher quality.

[prince]

I looked at your blog and your work is very good compared to your prices, IMO. No reason to not be confident and be known as cheap photog.

Interacting with your customers with confidence in yourself will instill their confidence in you.

Good luck!!

[neubauer6]

I say it's completely up to you. If you think your work justifies a higher price, then give it a try. It is usually better to start out higher and then lower prices if you don't see business coming in. I like the fact that you aren't arrogant and don't have a chip on your shoulder thinking that you are the best photographer around and deserve the higher prices. That being said, if your work is worth it then people will pay it. Offer one or two smaller packages that are still inexpensive so that you can meet your customer's needs.

[SuperDan]

Laurie,
I think that your prices are very resonable, especially for what you are offering and my prices are almost identical to yours.
One thing that I do though, is instead of the disk, I give two 8x10s or 4 5x7s with instead.

I battled, and battled with staying low price *as I felt the same way for affordability, but honestly i havent had one client stay away due to pricing.
also, i will just make deals when I feel fit. forexample; i recently did a session for a family and now she wants to get a session for her sister as a gift... so, i gave her $50 off that session fee as it was kind of a way of giving back

jim is always right though and you cant think of your prices staying "cheap" as you'll always be known as that and your time is worth alot more...

ha, i even look back at doing the $50 sessions that i did for a while where i was just working on portfolio building, and wow... i was losing soo much money and time... precious time away from my kids and wife in front of the computer processing, etc...
thats when i stopped that $50 session and stuck with my $125....
but, your work is very good... maybe doing more session prices or something different... for example, on your wedding, I hope you charged alot more for those and didnt give away the pics


good luck.. keep us informed