What would you charge?

joshhuntnm

I have been hanging out quite a bit this last year in the people/ wedding section. I was asked yesterday to submit a bid to shoot you sports team and individual shots. (We didn't talk about action shots, but I think that could be thrown in).

I have in mind to take the pics, fix any obvious problems in Lightroom and post them to Smugmug where parents can buy them.

What would you charge for
4 X 6
5 x 7
8 x 10

Any other advice about any other thing would be appreciated.

There is a post in the wedding section on "advice for new wedding photographers" If there is a similar thread here, feel free to point me to it.

Ann McRae

Hi Josh

I am not sure about a master list of posts, however here is my experience with youth T&I:

My area still expects hard copy in the standard folio with 4x6 individual and 5x7 team photo.

I do one neighborhoods soccer teams (10 or 12 teams, 10 - 18 players each, so somewhere > 100 kids) and their basketball teams (3 or 4 teams, 8 - 12 players).
For this community, I charge $10 per kid to supply the photography, prints and folios.
Actual hard costs are about $1.25 per kid - I get the pro pricing for the folios so they are about 70 cents.

For posed photos, I need about 30 minutes per team. With the soccer kids, I set a schedule - one evening, one morning shoot. I have the contact person get me team lists ahead of time, schedule the teams into 1/2 hr slots, and show up at the shoot with camera, lots of battery power, the 24 - 105mm (team) on the 20d and the 135mm(individual) on the 1d.
Coach gets team list, crosses of any that are absent and lines kids up in order, and we go.

I edit in lightroom, post my choices and offer additional prints/trader cards, etc. I then print, collate and deliver the products in the folios.
http://canadian-ann.smugmug.com/gallery/5048703_ahMNk#303476602_a8DiZ

With the basketball teams, I actually have the kids shoot layups as their individuals. I shoot from a ladder and this works great. This year I have lights and hope to go indoors for these!
http://canadian-ann.smugmug.com/gallery/3767913_VkBF8#224890098_oSfGQ
Action (shooting a ball) for soccer is tougher if the kids aren't skilled - they tend to keep eyes on the ball and your shots are shite.

For any team that books me on their own (1 team, max 20 kids) my rate is $15 a player. Or a game wroth of action shots on cd for $250 for the team.

I think you need to check what the parents expect in terms of product - whether they are willing to go on line to buy, whether you can make $ on spec, etc.

HTH, send other questions my way if you like.

ann

joshhuntnm wrote:

I have been hanging out quite a bit this last year in the people/ wedding section. I was asked yesterday to submit a bid to shoot you sports team and individual shots. (We didn't talk about action shots, but I think that could be thrown in).

I have in mind to take the pics, fix any obvious problems in Lightroom and post them to Smugmug where parents can buy them.

What would you charge for
4 X 6
5 x 7
8 x 10

Any other advice about any other thing would be appreciated.

There is a post in the wedding section on "advice for new wedding photographers" If there is a similar thread here, feel free to point me to it.

johng

Team and Individual (T&I) is usually done with package pricing. In fact I would strongly encourage it over allowing them to order over your web site. If you rely on web based sales you'll lose a lot of income. Long term, it's other items (trading cards, memory mates, etc) that parents buy but short term I would suggest creating several packages. For those that buy packages let those families know additional prints can be ordered from your website. Prices will vary by area but I suggest offering a $15 package a $20 package and a $30 package with a la carte options to boot. The key is to entice the buying of more than 1 photo so you make a profit.

jonh68

I post shots on my website because I freelance for the newspaper and these are extra shots of players. It's extra money to me. If I were asked by a team to shoot, I want my money up front and I wouldn't do it on spec. The rate would be based on your area and but make it worth your time.

At the end of the year, I did sell a CD to one HS team. The coach took the cd's to their year end banquet and sold 9 cd's to parents. There are various ways you can do business. If you produce quality work, and more importantly, conduct yourself professionally, you can make some decent money.