How much do I charge?

pjames

One of my radio friends has asked me if I'd do unique outdoor publicity shots of his air staff to be used in marketing as well as their website. Although I have been shooting landscape for many years, I have only recently started shooting portraits in the last 6 months. I actually did his family portraits recently, and now he wants me to take it to this next level.

Since this is no longer for personal use, I need to come up with a different pricing structure, but I have no idea where to begin. His air staff is about 8 people. They had utilized another well known photographer here in the area before, but he said she is extremely expensive. So I don't want to price myself out of a gig either. Any suggestions on where to start and what i can command as a new portrait photographer?

gmjphotos

Check your area photographers - many have a blog/website and disclose their pricing structure. Then you can either undercut them (usually a practice that's frowned upon - yet, business is business) - or price the same, with value added propositions to overcome the competition.

I also agree with "richy" - the simple way of charge for time + general license is the "less administrative" effort.

All the best,

Mike

pjames

Thanks for your advice. I spent some time today searching a few area photographers websites...they just don't post commercial rates it seems. I do like the flat rate with release. Maybe this would help me come up with an answer...how many times more than my normal personal shoots should I charge for the set of commercially released photos?