Advice on charging

rainyrun

Hi all I have been asked to do debs photos in July. I will be going to girls house and taking photos with her and her guest and her family. There will likely be friends around and there parents may ask me to do their photos too. Just a bit of background, photography is a big interest for me. At the moment I am mainly the "family photographer" however I have charged for doing photo work before. I have gradually being compiling equipment and I have studio equipment,7d camera, off camera flash etc. lately more people are asking me to do work ie the debs and I need advice charging.. Thanks

AnCatDubh

a couple of similar threads running at the moment.

here's my contribution to another one - it may contain some useful information for you

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=84305914&postcount=3

Corkbah

rainyrun wrote: »

Hi all I have been asked to do debs photos in July. I will be going to girls house and taking photos with her and her guest and her family. There will likely be friends around and there parents may ask me to do their photos too. Just a bit of background, photography is a big interest for me. At the moment I am mainly the "family photographer" however I have charged for doing photo work before. I have gradually being compiling equipment and I have studio equipment,7d camera, off camera flash etc. lately more people are asking me to do work ie the debs and I need advice charging.. Thanks

firstly .... are you declaring the extra income to revenue ?
Secondly .... you can charge what you feel is a fair price to do the job ... pick a number !!
Thirdly ... remember that the more you do this kind of work the more you will have to increase your fee ....and an increased fee usually results in getting less work.

Things to take into consideration:
- The cost of your equipment

- The time you spent learning how to pose pictures and exposing the picture properly

- Travel to and from the place (even if it is a few mins walk, you still have to transport you and your equipment there

- Camera equipment insurance (if you don't have public liability and someone trips and receives an injury due to you or your equipment ... it'll be you paying out !! and those claims are quite often in the thousands !!!)

- Depreciation of your equipment ...every time you use your camera/lens/lighting gear means it is closer to its expected shelf life ...so its worth less in re-sale value.

- Your experience - similar to the time you spent learning ....but practical experience (i.e.. your expertise) allows you to value your own self worth ...how much is your time worth to you ??

- Costs !! - the costs involved in doing the job, do you need fresh batteries? do you need to use a specific lens, would the job be better done by using a specific pre-set filter for post processing ?

- post processing tools - assuming you purchase legit software and licences you also need to know how to do this, its similar to your photographic experience mentioned above but is also a separate entity simply because you can post process independently or in camera

Meh ..... I could go on and on ..but I won't.

Ps. have serious thoughts about ensuring you are tax compliant with revenue because you can be audited if discovered and revenue will assume you have been working as a photographer every day off you had from your main job unless you can prove otherwise....oh and revenue can go back and bill you for previous years (cant remember if its previous 4yrs or 7yrs ...or longer)...if you don't believe me ask revenue yourself.

Corkbah

AnCatDubh wrote: »

a couple of similar threads running at the moment.

the reason being is that people want nice photos but don't want to pay a professional or think that a DSLR automatically takes great pics....and unfortunately , anyone out there with a DSLR is willing to take photos for someone if they can make money from it !!

unfortunately ... lots of the time.... the person taking the photos knows very little about posing/lighting and creative lighting techniques, so the person hiring comes away with a bad concept of photographers.

Professional photographers are often blamed for amateurs masquerading as professionals, well... not even masquerading.... sometimes, amateurs mistaken for professionals (by the consumer), there is very little regulation in the industry and even less quality assurance.

Being a professional photographer is a lot more than simply taking a photo, many people do not know or simply do not care about this, a professional photographer usually has to do his/her own accounts, advertising, marketing, sales, present themselves in a friendly and professional manner, conduct themselves in a friendly and professional manner, be social - both online and offline, avoid controversy and bickering, cant discuss a client behind their back, cant hold a grudge or get annoyed while on or off the job, must keep upto date with all the latest techniques and equipment as well as post processing techniques and tools, must be available to clients on a whim and must treat the client with respect without getting walked on, must be consistent in producing images of quality and a service of quality.

I wont keep going but that list is endless.

pullandbang

rainyrun wrote: »

and I need advice charging.. Thanks

€60 an hour plus prints

pixbyjohn

pullandbang wrote: »

€60 an hour plus prints

+1 for the nice simple and to the point answer

pullandbang

pixbyjohn wrote: »

+1 for the nice simple and to the point answer

Some people tend to over complicate things. Simple question, simple answer...

sheesh

you seeem to have alot of good equipment
so €60/hr sounds good

enough so that you are getting something in but not so much that no one will ever again ask you to take photographs of them :eek:

bring business cards so that everyone can contact you afterwards.

have you figured out how much work will you do post processing and how you will deliver the prints?

Jonnykitedude

80 quid for a family shoot with 10x8, 12x8 and 12x16 prints. 100 quid if I go to them so pretty much what Denis is saying is bang on!

pullandbang

Jonnykitedude wrote: »

80 quid for a family shoot with 10x8, 12x8 and 12x16 prints. 100 quid if I go to them so pretty much what Denis is saying is bang on!

You know I'm beginning to not like 12 x 8 even though it's the native ratio out of my camera. Now that I'm printing my own stuff I can do a single 8 x 10 on an A4 page but a single 12 x 8 is a bugger. It's too big to go on A4 sheets and it's lost on an A3. Not too bad if you're doing two of them because I can get two onto an A3+ sheet. Just another little detail to factor in to your costings.