Re-working my prices and packages

[filemanager]

So this past year, I've been doing photo sessions for $150, for 1 hour, and they get the CD with the high-res images on it.

Now I've decided to re-price and do things a little differently for the New Year and going forward.

I thought to myself "What if their monitors aren't calibrated and the pictures don't look right?"

So then that led me to "I'll give them the CD + 4x6 prints"

Which led me to "Should the images on the CD still be high-res, or should I make them low-res just for email or something, and have them order prints, and give them the option to get the high-res images for a cost? And if so what would that cost be?"

ahh I'm confusing myself!!!

[nickbedford]

I think the idea of the low res and providing prints (you order the prints through a high quality lab) is a much better idea.

A) It ensures you are making the markup via prints (them not using the hi-res to print) and
B) It gives the clients some files that are already good for sharing on Facebook and emailing and the like.

What you may want to do is drop your price and then tack on prints based on what the client wants. Maybe you could provide a CD of 720x720px images (these are 1:1 on Facebook and perfect for emailing) for $125 then prints on top of that?

You could also look into providing photo book ordering (you design the photo book and liaise with the client). Throw a decent markup on the book cost.

Some ideas.

[filemanager]

Thanks for your reply!

I think the low-res CD and prints is the way to go, the more I think about it..

I found a high-quality pro lab (within Canada, woo hoo!) I can work with. The cost of 80 prints, plus pretty packaging, plus shipping is about $35. So I'm factoring that additional cost into my pricing as well. There's no guarantees people will order additional prints either... hm..

I think I'll have to makeup a product list too, prints, photobooks, etc.

I wonder if my current clients will freak out when they don't get the high-res CD anymore. =\

If they request the high-res files, what would one charge for that? I always hear ridiculuos amounts like $1500 for the high-res CD, or "$750 per file" I heard once - it's crazy! I couldn't charge that!

I try to think of things like, "If I was having pictures done, what would I be willing to pay".. but it's hard since I have the ability to take my own pictures. lol

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by filemanager

Thanks for your reply!

I think the low-res CD and prints is the way to go, the more I think about it..

I found a high-quality pro lab (within Canada, woo hoo!) I can work with. The cost of 80 prints, plus pretty packaging, plus shipping is about $35. So I'm factoring that additional cost into my pricing as well. There's no guarantees people will order additional prints either... hm..

I think I'll have to makeup a product list too, prints, photobooks, etc.

I wonder if my current clients will freak out when they don't get the high-res CD anymore. =\

If they request the high-res files, what would one charge for that? I always hear ridiculuos amounts like $1500 for the high-res CD, or "$750 per file" I heard once - it's crazy! I couldn't charge that!

I try to think of things like, "If I was having pictures done, what would I be willing to pay".. but it's hard since I have the ability to take my own pictures. lol

If you're just starting out, 2x the price of the largest print you expect to sell is a great starting point for high-res files. If you're more established, 4x is a good point.

If you're firmly established with a solid client base, the sky is the limit for digital files. For my portrait work a high-res CD is $1250.00 a la carte, but is discounted 10% with purchase of my smallest package, up to 50% with the largest.

[filemanager]

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

If you're just starting out, 2x the price of the largest print you expect to sell is a great starting point for high-res files. If you're more established, 4x is a good point.

Would that be for each file, or for the whole CD?

Originally Posted by Jim Poor

For my portrait work a high-res CD is $1250.00 a la carte, but is discounted 10% with purchase of my smallest package, up to 50% with the largest.

Do you sell a lot of CDs? Personally I just can't imagine paying that much for a CD (a la carte, I mean)

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by filemanager

Would that be for each file, or for the whole CD?

Per file.

Do you sell a lot of CDs? Personally I just can't imagine paying that much for a CD (a la carte, I mean)

My packages are set to encourage purchasing of "collections" and discourage purchasing of only a CD. On the portrait side, I sold quite a few discs last year, most of them were at 50% off with purchase of my highest package.

The folks that want a disc for $100 are simply not my target market for portraits, but $150 will get you disc from my dog sports events, and I sold many many of those.

[gturner]

We pack lunches for our kids. Peanut butter on brown bread and some fruit.
Playing sport and staying active is the other half of the equation. We do something with them every day and it makes a massive difference.

Thirsty? Water in the taps buddy.

[Jim Poor]

Originally Posted by gturner

We pack lunches for our kids. Peanut butter on brown bread and some fruit.
Playing sport and staying active is the other half of the equation. We do something with them every day and it makes a massive difference.

Thirsty? Water in the taps buddy.

I think you missed. Doesn't this go in that other thread?

[andyw]

Originally Posted by filemanager

If they request the high-res files, what would one charge for that? I always hear ridiculuos amounts like $1500 for the high-res CD, or "$750 per file" I heard once - it's crazy! I couldn't charge that!

I try to think of things like, "If I was having pictures done, what would I be willing to pay".. but it's hard since I have the ability to take my own pictures. lol

Why can't you charge that?


I looked at your site and your prices and you are seriously undercharging.

You are charging c$150 (less than £100) for what would be at least 5-6 hours work overall. (getting customer, session, editing, putting together cd, posting etc etc).
So you are looking at around C$25 per hour.

I can only assume you are not doing this as a full time business or it is a "spin off" of your existing business.


As to cd or prints - PRINTS everytime with the cd (lo-res for web use) as an added product.
It customers insist on hi-res digital images then, as Jim said, you should be charging at a very very bare minimum the equivalent of the price of a large print per file.

[filemanager]

Originally Posted by andyw

Why can't you charge that?

I guess maybe I'm just not confident enough yet? I like Jim's idea of charging per-file if they want the high-res, but in addition to that I might add a "entire session on CD" price for a bit cheaper if they want all the images.

Originally Posted by andyw

I looked at your site and your prices and you are seriously undercharging.

Yeah, I realized that once I started getting really busy! I don't want to overcharge either though =\ I did some research of other photographer's prices around my area, and it's all over the map!

Originally Posted by andyw

I can only assume you are not doing this as a full time business or it is a "spin off" of your existing business.

You're right, right now it's not full-time, but I'm hoping to move it to full-time this coming year.

Originally Posted by andyw

As to cd or prints - PRINTS everytime with the cd (lo-res for web use) as an added product.
It customers insist on hi-res digital images then, as Jim said, you should be charging at a very very bare minimum the equivalent of the price of a large print per file.

That`s what I'm planning to do

Thanks so much for your response, it was really helpful!!!