Help! What to Charge ?

voicelit

1st paying job. I photograph our local dogpark everyday and post on my SmugMug website : dotfut.com
Woaman asked me to photograph her dog , and make a holiday greeting card. I'm almost finished that project. Photo session at the park, photoshopping a door & wreath behind the door, getting the whole thing print ready fotr the greeting card. She offered me $200.00 for the project, I took $175.00 : it being my first job and the whole learning curve for - especially the photoshop , I'm actually using THE GIMP.
Now she would like me to do a whole 12 month calendar, you know : photo session, photoshop in some seasonal backdrop for each month.
Being just a beginner at this, any idea what a reasonable charge would be ?
Photo session, probably at the park again, 12 final photos, each one with some graphical work, the planning out of the whole resolution/dpi/etc stuff, plus some more learning curve stuff for me.
Any ideas would be greatly appreaciated. Oh, the dogpark is gonna pay for my SmugMug Pro account , neat - huh.

Marty
(dotfur.com)

Stillworks

voicelit wrote:

1st paying job. I photograph our local dogpark everyday and post on my SmugMug website : dotfut.com
Woaman asked me to photograph her dog , and make a holiday greeting card. I'm almost finished that project. Photo session at the park, photoshopping a door & wreath behind the door, getting the whole thing print ready fotr the greeting card. She offered me $200.00 for the project, I took $175.00 : it being my first job and the whole learning curve for - especially the photoshop , I'm actually using THE GIMP.
Now she would like me to do a whole 12 month calendar, you know : photo session, photoshop in some seasonal backdrop for each month.
Being just a beginner at this, any idea what a reasonable charge would be ?
Photo session, probably at the park again, 12 final photos, each one with some graphical work, the planning out of the whole resolution/dpi/etc stuff, plus some more learning curve stuff for me.
Any ideas would be greatly appreaciated. Oh, the dogpark is gonna pay for my SmugMug Pro account , neat - huh.

Marty
(dotfur.com)

Good for you Marty. I wish I could answer your question, but I'm new to this too and was looking for pricing suggestions myself when stumbling upon your post. That is great that the dog park is actually going to pay for your account:)

Best of luck to you with your learning curve and getting some help on pricing. We are actually going to be shooting the Grand Opening of Two Brothers Self Service Dog Wash this coming Saturday!! Looking to price packages out for that now.

Regards,
Sunny

Snowgirl

There are some excellent books available and I highly recommend "Best Business Practices for Photographers" by John Harrington and "Pricing Photography - The complete guide" by Michal Heron and David MacTavish.

They'll give any aspiring business - photography or not - an excellent basis for establishing prices based on sound business advice - not just numbers pulled out of the air.

so much "depends" on your individual circumstances; the market you're in; your experience level; the quality of your work; your business expenses.

The ONE thing they (and every sensible person I know) say is to INCLUDE a salary foryourself and a profit margin in your calculations. Too many people underprice themselves and have had the effect of lowering the overall prices everyone receives as a result.