Pricing question?

[Jim Poor]

Pricing Your Photos | Pixiq

[candleman]

thanks for posting this Jim
i read it yesterday but didnt comment here, so this is a bump.

[Jim Bryant]

The reasons why a lot of us pro's don't give you an actual ball park figure of what to charge is because of the Anti Trust laws on a public forum. It's sort of price fixing and the U.S. Government doesn't want to see it, unless their inspectors are in the hip pocket and getting under the table payments from large corporations such as Sony. See:Competition law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. But if you email be privately to my personal email at jim@jimbryantphotography.com I could possibility steer you in the right direction.

[rharrison]

I found the author's position a bit silly. His argument seemed to be you should be charging what your skills are worth, but don't ask what others skills are worth.

“How much should I charge for my car?” OK, what kind of car do you have? A Yugo or a Maserati? Both are cars.

What if you don't have any idea what a Yugo costs or what a Maserati costs? OK so I'm trying to sell a Ford or a BMW both are between a Yugo and a Maserati but without knowing what each cost you have no since of scale. People starting out in the industry need to ask those questions so they don't undersell themselves.

[Sterling]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

The reasons why a lot of us pro's don't give you an actual ball park figure of what to charge is because of the Anti Trust laws on a public forum. It's sort of price fixing and the U.S. Government doesn't want to see it, unless their inspectors are in the hip pocket and getting under the table payments from large corporations such as Sony. See:Competition law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. But if you email be privately to my personal email at jim@jimbryantphotography.com I could possibility steer you in the right direction.

Anti trust laws on a public forum? That's why you can't give pricing advice?

[BK553]

This stuff is so common to every industry. Car mechanics, which have been mentioned a lot here for some reason, are a great example. Mechanics compete with each other on pricing, but people return to the ones they like, usually irregardless of pricing. It's better to be an excellent photographer than a cheap one in almost every case.

I think people should honestly and objectively (as much as is possible) consider what they would pay someone else for the level of service they provide. That being said, once you do set a starting price, everything you do after that should be focused on upward pricing and service. You can start out as cheap as you want (even free, if you have to), but always be working to be a better photographer charging more money. It's better for you, better for the industry, and better for your clients.

Shooting for free may get you a portfolio, and does give you experience. But so does getting paid, so why not try that? It surely is much harder to get paid jobs than unpaid ones, but even some money is way better than none at all. Who doesn't like money?

[Jim Bryant]

Even through this is a public forum and Australian owned, Still here in the U.S. I could still get in trouble talking prices with another American. Somehow they think it’s price fixing, when a group of photographers get together to all agree on the charging the same prices.

[rharrison]

Originally Posted by BK553

It's better to be an excellent photographer than a cheap one in almost every case.

I think people should honestly and objectively (as much as is possible) consider what they would pay someone else for the level of service they provide. That being said, once you do set a starting price, everything you do after that should be focused on upward pricing and service. You can start out as cheap as you want (even free, if you have to), but always be working to be a better photographer charging more money. It's better for you, better for the industry, and better for your clients.

I think most people are looking for a good starting point. Early on you may need to charge less to build up a client base but it also wouldn't be very smart to charge half as much as the going rate in your area. That's just leaving money on the table. Once you have a client base built up you should be able to work your pricing up to a level where you stay busy but aren't over worked. That is the market working as it should not price fixing.

[danbaileyphoto]

We're not so much getting together and fixing our prices, we're merely educating the newer photographers in the industry about the complexities and factors that they should consider when pricing their own work. Most photographers don't got to school to learn this stuff, so there are alot of people who decide to get into this business who don't have any idea how to establish a pricing structure.

The overall success of our industry depends on more experienced shooters sharing their knowledge with the younger shooters so people don't seriously undercut either themselves or other photographers, which hurts everyone. I'd gladly explain this to any Anit Trust Federalies who might be tempted to scrutinize this forum.

[Sterling]

Originally Posted by Jim Bryant

Even through this is a public forum and Australian owned, Still here in the U.S. I could still get in trouble talking prices with another American. Somehow they think it’s price fixing, when a group of photographers get together to all agree on the charging the same prices.

Sorry, but I think your tin foil hat is on too tight.