Amateur / semi-pro trying to price services

[steamboatscott]

I know this subject has been discussed before, but not really from an amateur or semi-pro/part-time perspective.

I'm an amateur photographer really getting into the hobby, and that involves getting as much experience as possible and getting more and more equipment. I currently enjoy my primary career and have no plans to become a full time photographer. However, I have found that friends, family, and other referrals consider my photographs as good or better than certain comparable full time professionals in the area, and thus I have started offering my services for a fee in an attempt to fund all the nice expensive equipment I already own or wish to own, while also continuing to gain more and more experience. My challenge is setting a price point.

I know the traditional model is to charge for the "creative session" and also markup the print prices, but since I'm doing this only as a part time venture and "not for profit", I'd rather not deal with the sales tax issue etc. I have currently settled on $200 for a 45 - 90 minute creative session and post-processing work, with all prints ordered at wholesale prices (ie. 4x6 for $0.39, 5x7 for $1.64, so comparable to one hour photo locations, but using mpix.com for professional printing) and $50 extra for release of full resolution digital files.

My question is, am I under/over priced, and does anyone have any alternate suggestions for my pricing approach (example shots below to demonstrate my abilities/quality)? I have read all the advice about new photographers under pricing themselves, but since I don't desire to make this my primary career, I'm less worried about this. As much as I wanted the digital images when I was shopping for photographers, I hesitate about giving them away purely because I know people will likely end up printing them at Wal-Mart and not only get terrible print quality, but never go for the higher end products like canvas wraps and large prints that make the photos really stand out (even though I'm selling them at little to no markup because I just want to see people get them for their own enjoyment).

So, my question is....Is there a compromise?










More examples at www.capturedbyscott.com

[cphoniball]

I wouldn't offer the prints at base price. That's effectively like saying "pay me $200 for the shoot, and then I'll edit the pictures and give you the digital files". If you're going to do that, you might as well not even bother with offering the prints, and just give your customers the files (I don't advocate this).

The principles that guide a full time photographer should guide you as well. Yea, maybe you don't need/want to charge $45 for a 8x10, but you shouldn't underprice yourself. You're still spending the same amount of time per shoot that a full-time photographer would, and if I were you, I'd like to be getting paid for my time.

[Photoboothguy]

I'm in the same boat as you. I have no plans on making photography a full-time career. Right now, my only goal is to make enough to support my hobby That, and the wife says I can't spend any more money on photography until I make money on photography.

Your pricing structure looks good, but I would avoid the prints. Dealing with customers sometimes takes longer than the actual work, and prints would just add more work. For you, I'd either charge more for the prints (enough to cover your time) or just give them the digitals and encourage them to order from Mpix.

I'm actually going to do the latter (still working on the website). My pricing is going to be about $50/hour for events/portraits, $1000 flat rate for weddings...this fee includes a set of editted digital images. For the weddings, I plan on including a photo album as well from mypublisher.com or equivalent. I don't want to mess with prints, and EVERY customer I've talked to wants the digitals...might as well give them what they want.

This may seem cheap, but I'm just doing it for fun and a little extra spending money.

[steamboatscott]

One clarification is that I'm using zenfolio.com to do proofing and print ordering, so it will be a painless process.

[kaightie]

I took alook at your sight and i must say you do great work. I think if you have gone through so much trouble to make a website and creat a zenfolio you are doing this more than just on the side for fun. I think you are under charging your self because you have great talent and can make so much more.