When to start charging?

[brendajburrell]

I consider myself wholly an amateur, but I donated my time recently to photograph an event put on by a charitable organization my mother belongs to, and gave them the photos for free. The photos were so well-liked that this has led to another "booking" for a similar organization in another town this coming weekend, and they have already indicated they want to invite me to photograph one or more state-wide events in a few months.

Yikes!

They don't plan to use the images for advertising; it's more of a "preserving memories" kind of approach. Nonetheless, I guess I'm a little concerned that there is an expectation that I since I did it for free once, that I will continue to do so, and I kind of want to discourage that mentality. Given your experiences with "going pro", what criteria should I use to assess whether or not I should charge for time/images/both, and if so, how much do you think would be appropriate to charge?

Thank you all for your insight - I really appreciate it!

Brenda

I would start charging now.

A simple, "When is a good time to sign a contract for my work is good for you?" would suffice.

[andyw]

You start charging as soon as someone says they want you to be the one taking the photos.

If you are good enough for them to ask then you are good enough to get paid.

[candleman]

working for free... uugh

I've never had a negative coment from a paing client. The troublesome people are always the ones you try to do a favour for.
In all the times i've done free shoots, only one of them has worked out well for me.

Here's a good (funny) explaination of how it usually goes.
"It's like twitter. Except we charge people to use it."

1. work for free under the guise of future work or good exposure
2. they come back asking for something else for free, because thay will give you more work or good exposure
3. they come back again with said promised work... but expect it for free like last time.
4. they complain you aren't meeting their expectations, ask for more of the deleted stuff, when you give them more they complain that they are lower quality than the rest. and so on, and so on.

Good paying clients refer more good paying clients,
cheap-o crappy clients refer more cheap-o crappy clients.
That's why you should never work for free or for cheap.. it will only burn you.

[Jim Bryant]

Listen to the others. As soon as you feel your photography good enough start charging. That way friends won't still be taking advantage of you.

[ardentphotog]

That was so spot on!

[Naois]

Originally Posted by andyw

You start charging as soon as someone says they want you to be the one taking the photos.

If you are good enough for them to ask then you are good enough to get paid.

+1

If you are asked to do the shoot, you charge them.

[thaoimage]

Originally Posted by candleman

working for free... uugh

I've never had a negative coment from a paing client. The troublesome people are always the ones you try to do a favour for.
In all the times i've done free shoots, only one of them has worked out well for me.

Here's a good (funny) explaination of how it usually goes.
"It's like twitter. Except we charge people to use it."

1. work for free under the guise of future work or good exposure
2. they come back asking for something else for free, because thay will give you more work or good exposure
3. they come back again with said promised work... but expect it for free like last time.
4. they complain you aren't meeting their expectations, ask for more of the deleted stuff, when you give them more they complain that they are lower quality than the rest. and so on, and so on.

Good paying clients refer more good paying clients,
cheap-o crappy clients refer more cheap-o crappy clients.
That's why you should never work for free or for cheap.. it will only burn you.

Agree with everything Candleman said here. I learned a valuable lesson with all the free stuff. Now I stick to paid customers only. It's not worth your time post processing free stuff unless it's something that you can benefit from.

[brendajburrell]

Thank you for the advice, everyone - it has been very helpful I appreciate you taking the time to reply!

Brenda

[FullAperture]

Shooting once for exposure in a certain field or because you believe in the cause --cool! Once they seek you out, they can pay. You'll waste your time and energy. Did it before. Haven't done it again, for free.