Why am I such a pushover?

[Jen473]

I was asked by my cousin if I would attend her company party and provide posed shots of all the employees and their guests. She wanted me to write up a proposal for what I would charge and of course I am completely lost.

The party would be 4 hours long and there will be 50 - 75 employees with their significant others. The company will be purchasing one 5x7 print for each employee.

I was thinking of charging $400 for the shoot time. I normally charge $10 for a 5x7 but figured with a large order like this I would give a 25% discount. That $562.50 for 75 prints. That brings me to $962.50, I figured I would just round up to $1000. I also plan on offering additional prints at each employees expense should they want more.

I really cringed when I came up with that price. I don't know why I have such a hard time charging for my time. I always have to force myself not to be a pushover and give in to a cheaper price. Is $1000 too much to charge for this??

[dbevisjr]

Absolutely NOT. It is a very fair price for them. (Might be a bit light for your efforts.) Think about the time you'll spend processing 50-75 photos. If you get to set up a mobile studio or such in a corner or near the entrance to the venue where you will have good control of the light so that all the images will be exposed equally then your processing time will be shorter. But if you are taking photos where each employee wishes (one in front of the tree, one in front of the fireplace, one of Big Bob in front of the buffett) then everything will be exposed differently and processing times become longer.

[nickbedford]

I think what you're charging sounds okay, but you're missing one important element. Processing time. Charge what you are but add maybe $70/hr for the processing and use a rough guess of say 4 hours.

On top of that though, you want to throw in a travel/expenses charge of maybe $50 or so to cover fuel, time for travel etc.

[Jen473]

Thank you for the quick responses. The posed photos will all be in the same place so I will not have to worry about funky exposures. That would be a post processing nightmare! I will take into consideration the travel and processing time before I write up the final proposal.

The other question I was going to ask but forgot, concerning model releases. Do I need a model release from each employee or can I just have one corporate bigwig sign a release to use the shots from this venture in my portfolio?

[nickbedford]

Originally Posted by Jen473

The posed photos will all be in the same place so I will not have to worry about funky exposures. That would be a post processing nightmare!

Not necessarily. I just did a shoot for a university (my first professional job) with 12 students modelling various activities of uni life and we went through about 5 different lighting environments, bright sunlight, soft library lighting, bright lecture rooms, darker sunlit mess hall etc and I the 200 final shots I came out with were pretty consistent. As long as you expose and shoot well you as the photographer should be able to handle it.

But if you're shooting a standard environment then, yes, processing will be pretty efficient

[nickbedford]

Originally Posted by Jen473

The other question I was going to ask but forgot, concerning model releases. Do I need a model release from each employee or can I just have one corporate bigwig sign a release to use the shots from this venture in my portfolio?

It would depend on the terms of the release. You might want to contact the company about model release and who will take responsibility for it.

For example, I did a shoot at a university for the marketing dep. but it was the marketing coordinator that organised the model release from the students involved. I had no part in that area of the shoot.

[AnneWynne]

Originally Posted by Jen473

I really cringed when I came up with that price. I don't know why I have such a hard time charging for my time. I always have to force myself not to be a pushover and give in to a cheaper price. Is $1000 too much to charge for this??

Why are you a pushover and felt, perhaps, guilty at charging for your time? Because you may not value your time in an endeavor that is frequently not highly valued because of the hobby-association to it. (I am not saying you are a hobbyist, but that photography, unlike many professions, is a popular hobby, particularly in the digital age).

You may not have confidence that anyone will pay you what you price, or even that you are worth that price. You may feel that the service you are providing is something you would not pay that much for, so why would anyone else. Plus, based on your screen name, I assume that you are female, and women often have difficulty with charging for services and how society often devalues woman's work.

In short, you may not feel good enough to charge a fair price to cover your time, expenses, and hours spent learning your profession and gaining experience. You may not "feel" like a professional yet, like your work will not live up to expectation, that you will not be as good as some other photographer who would charge the same (or even less). You may also be afraid of rejection if you loose a job because of your pricing.

Work on building your self confidence. While it may seem silly, practice telling your prices in front of a mirror, then with friends, until you feel confident you can tell a stranger straight up what your photographic services cost.

Generate a list of 10 things about your photography and business savvy and post them where you will see them several times a day (the bathroom mirror is a great place) and review them out loud. You can rate how true each statement feels (1, completely false, to 7, completely true) when you first write them out, put your ratings away for a couple of weeks, then re-rate and compare your ratings. My bet is that they will have moved toward the 7s.

Money is a complex issue. If you continue to experience ambivalence about your worth, you may want to work with a professional who can help you over come your issues so you can be a successful _professional_ photographer.

Good luck

[nickbedford]

Great advice Anne.

Remember, this is a business and if they are a proper business they know that they have to pay for professional services (whether you're not a seasoned professional or they think you have the know how to get them what they want).

The shoot that I was offered for a half a grand budget was based on my Flickr and blog postings only. As well, I'd only been doing photography for two to three months so you can imagine I was both flattered and nervous. In the end, they said they had a $500 budget for me so I charged them close to that.

I ended up with 205 photos from two hours of shooting that were all of this standard (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickbedford/tags/griffith/) and they were very happy with the photos. Note that I gave them full colour images, not black and whites.

The pay issue I admit I have a bit of experience in from other graphic design work, but the basic thing is, if you say $1,300, first of all you have to know that what you're charging isn't excessive. If you know you can provide them the photos they need then you have the right to charge what anyone else would.

Secondly, once they say yes and sign a contract (you must have one of these to protect yourself and also for their protection) they must legally follow through.

[Jim Bryant]

Great advice Anne! And from others too!

[Jen473]

Thank you Anne, you hit the nail on the head several times there.

Originally Posted by AnneWynne

You may feel that the service you are providing is something you would not pay that much for, so why would anyone else.

A big part of my problems is I AM a big cheap skate! I wouldn't pay what I charge for a photo shoot. The biggest reason I ventured into photography is because 1) I was never happy with school or the big box store studio pictures of my kids. I always thought "I could do better then that!" and 2) When I did find pics I like and saw their pricing I thought "Pfft! I ain't paying that for pictures! For that price they better be printing those pics with ink laced with gold!" LOL how little I knew then.

Originally Posted by AnneWynne

You may also be afraid of rejection if you loose a job because of your pricing.

I am scared they are just going to say no and walk away without even asking to haggle it out a bit. One the other hand, I don't want to give them the option to haggle upfront because then everyone and their uncle's brother's best friends cousin's roomate will think they can talk me down.

Originally Posted by AnneWynne

Work on building your self confidence. While it may seem silly, practice telling your prices in front of a mirror, then with friends, until you feel confident you can tell a stranger straight up what your photographic services cost.

Daily affirmations! Because I am good enough, smart enough and doggone it, people like my pictures!!