I've got an order in for a baptism I shot a few months ago, around 230 photos and I was just wondering what you guys charge for your prints? Size is 7.5" x 5". Is it a multiple of what it costs you to have the prints made, or do you just add a certain amount on top of the total cost? I've made print orders before but feel my profit over the cost of the print itself was too low. (Print itself cost me 0.20p, and I charged 0.30p per print ).
I personally charge for the shoot/edits not the prints themselves. If asked about prints, I have a place I recommend to people.
See, I've done a search on line, and see people asking £8 for a 8x10 wedding photo in the UK. Obviously I think that's a bit much, so I then spoke to someone who I play bf3 with, and they were charged 3 euros per print for their wedding shots, and this price was because he was a friend of the photographer. So then there's me. I told the client it would be 350 euros for 232 prints. The line went dead. I then rang her back, and acted as if oh the line got cut. So anyway, she said 'that sounds like a lot', I said it's not just the cost of the prints, that is the total cost of the prints, and my price per print is 1 euro 50. That's right ONE EURO FIFTY. IMHO that's effing peanuts. Anyway, I said, I spoke to a friend and he told me he paid 3 euros a print. Anyway, so she says, 'for my wedding, I paid 1 EURO per print. (bull but ok). I said fine, ONE EURO it is. Anyway. I will make sure to have a proper contract/pricing plan from now on. I used to charge 250 euros for a baptism, and all the photos on a cd for the customer to print to their hearts content. Now for the last two baptism's, I've charged 150 euros, but in this case I've told the customer to let me know what prints she wants, and THEN tell her the cost after she has chosen what and how many photos. I SHOULD have said from before hand, that a watermarked low res album will be given on CD and that after that my price per print is x much. These are a selection of the photos to give you an idea; https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.453001048084599.119792.439422249442479&type=1 As I said, for about 5 baptisms before my last two, I've charged 250 euros and the full res shots on a cd. For my last two I charged 150 euros; one was for my sisters friend's brother, and the other was purely because I had my sister and mother telling me 250 euros was too much. So for the latter one, I decided, well seeing as I used to charge 250 a year ago, let me see what other photographers who shoot weddings/baptisms charge per print? I mean surely they can't only make 20p profit per print? That was what I was going to offer. I was going to pay 20 p per print and ask for 30p per print. Then I decided I was going to look around and see what every other event photographer is asking. I mean you go to a club and get your photo taken, they charge 5 euros for one of those here .
In personal experience you charge as much as you can get away with, some people charge £5 for an 8x10 or £10 when you can actually get it printed for less then 50p http://www.dscolourlabs.co.uk/online_photo_printing.cfm So just put the price in at what you want to sell it for or what you think you can get for it.
I do weddings. I have a fixed rate of 750euro, that includes the following: - I follow around all day, from the first cup of coffee to the last dance; - all original unedited pictures (raws, usually 3000); - a few unedited videos; - my personal selection of pictures edited in detail (usually 200+); - all pictures edited that they want in the album. Album and prints is up to them. But I do recommend places. I feel this is a honest offer as they can decide how many prints they want and for what price. I think its important to detail what you are going to provide and to what cost in advance. I would not be happy if you only quote your rate after the event has taken place. That is putting people in a tight spot, and they will never be happy then which does no good to your business. For weddings, I meet with the couple well in advance and discuss taste, style, etc and offcours my rate and what I will provide for that rate. I also bring pictures of previous weddings to better discuss my style of photography. I then meet again with them about 4-6 weeks before the wedding to visit the church, venue and the locations for photoshoot. If I know the area I will prepare some location suggestions as well. At that time, we also go through the planning (script) of the hole day and discuss the time for the photoshoot. I request a copy of the script so I can manage the day better. At that time I usually take some shots of them to get them used to me and being models, I will use those to discuss the level of editing they prefer. For any other smaller event, I charge 250euro for a 3 hour job.
