What to charge for a birthday party?

doema

Total new guy here. (new at charging for my photography work)

I have some people interested in me coming out to shoot a birthday party. I have no idea how to price this service.

Initially I was thinking to charge a small upfront fee for coming out to the event and for my time and then having them purchase the prints from my smugmug site. However I am concerned that there is no guarantee they will buy prints so if my upfront fee is too low, the job will not be worth it.

How do you guys (and girls) price a small event like a birthday party? I am open to any ideas.

Thanks! :bow

SavedByZero

How long is the party first of all. Are these friends or work associates?? What is their financial position?? How many kids will be attending?? Do they want portraits taken with a clown or donkey or something like that??

After that figure out an hourly rate that would make it worth your time and be fair to them (more so if they are friends) and I wouldn't even bother with making prints just sell them a CD with the RAW or JPEG images for a fee ($25-$50).

I have no idea of what the profit margin is with Smugmug but I think you might just come out better selling the couple the CD and let them do all the cropping and emailing out other images to other parents of their kids at the party.

Get in and get out quick for this type of an event is my opinion.

Mr. 2H2O

SBZ has good points.

First, meet with them to find out expectations just like he suggested. Its always better to be clear up front and you make a great reputation for yourself.

Have in your head what you will charge per hour at the event in case they want to know some relative pricing during your meeting. I am a big fan of charging up front.

If all they want is nice looking photos to print at 4x6, I would follow SBZ suggestion and have a fee for JPG on a disk - you can crunch them down to 1024 pixels (largest dimension) and give them freedom to print for personal use.

Always, always, always have a signed contract up front so everybody knows expectations. It doesn't have to be some big deal, legalese, but your clients need to know what you will be providing and you need to know that they agree to your fee and deliverables. This is also your chance to convey and spell out usage rights for your photos that you take on their behalf.

- Mike

ShepsMom

SavedByZero wrote:

After that figure out an hourly rate that would make it worth your time and be fair to them (more so if they are friends) and I wouldn't even bother with making prints just sell them a CD with the RAW or JPEG images for a fee ($25-$50).

I have no idea of what the profit margin is with Smugmug but I think you might just come out better selling the couple the CD and let them do all the cropping and emailing out other images to other parents of their kids at the party.

Get in and get out quick for this type of an event is my opinion.

:nono Unless you don't care and just want a quick buck


I would charge an affordable to them hourly rate and sell photos through a gallery. If you give them RAW images, what are they gonna do with that??

If you upload them to your site, you'd have more exposure to you as a photographer and make some money at the same time.

If this is just a one time deal and you have no intention in doing any type of business in this field, then just sell them cd and forget about the whole thing.

dogwood

I would encourage everyone here NOT to charge an hourly rate. Charge a flat fee if you must-- but our work as photographers is rarely based on an hourly rate.

For example, it takes time to prep your gear (format cards, recharge batteries, make sure everything works and is ready, etc) for an event like this. If you're only charging by the hour for the event, who pays you for prep time? Then of course it takes time, software, and storage to download and edit everything after the event.

If you charge only for your time shooting the event, you're not getting paid for all you do before and after the event. My point is that each job is different and I'd encourage you to charge by the job-- not by the hour.

MJRPHOTO

dogwood wrote:

I would encourage everyone here NOT to charge an hourly rate. Charge a flat fee if you must-- but our work as photographers is rarely based on an hourly rate.

For example, it takes time to prep your gear (format cards, recharge batteries, make sure everything works and is ready, etc) for an event like this. If you're only charging by the hour for the event, who pays you for prep time? Then of course it takes time, software, and storage to download and edit everything after the event.

If you charge only for your time shooting the event, you're not getting paid for all you do before and after the event. My point is that each job is different and I'd encourage you to charge by the job-- not by the hour.

This is very good advice.

SavedByZero

ShepsMom wrote:

:nono Unless you don't care and just want a quick buck


I would charge an affordable to them hourly rate and sell photos through a gallery. If you give them RAW images, what are they gonna do with that??

If you upload them to your site, you'd have more exposure to you as a photographer and make some money at the same time.

If this is just a one time deal and you have no intention in doing any type of business in this field, then just sell them cd and forget about the whole thing.

It's a birthday party mom, how much money in prints could you make unless the parents are all loaded and DON'T bring their own camers to the party to take pics?? I'm gonna guess this isn't a Sweet 16 party too.

I was saying if you can make more money selling them a CD of JPEG images (never did I say raw images uncropped or unphotochoped either) instead of what ever you might make in profit off of smugmug prints then do that. Since I don't have a Smugmug account I have no idea of how many prints it would take to make $50 profit.

He would still own the images and display them as he likes to show his work to future clients to gain more business. And after shooting weddings for a few years, selling the negatives to couples was something most wanted to do and cut down on my expenses and time spent months after a wedding making prints.

So it's an option for him and everyone to choose. Which ever way makes more profit and requries less time in the process to acomplish is a win. For some jobs selling a CD would be a greater selling point to a client then others. Killboy.Com sells their images for $5 each burned on a CD and when I go to the Gap that's how I buy my pics so I can make my own prints.

SavedByZero

dogwood wrote:

I would encourage everyone here NOT to charge an hourly rate. Charge a flat fee if you must-- but our work as photographers is rarely based on an hourly rate.

For example, it takes time to prep your gear (format cards, recharge batteries, make sure everything works and is ready, etc) for an event like this. If you're only charging by the hour for the event, who pays you for prep time? Then of course it takes time, software, and storage to download and edit everything after the event.

If you charge only for your time shooting the event, you're not getting paid for all you do before and after the event. My point is that each job is different and I'd encourage you to charge by the job-- not by the hour.

When I shot weddings I figured an average wedding takes about 40-50 hours of work to do and priced it off of that. From the very first visit to the couple, phone calls, travel time to buy supplies, travel time to wedding, the wedding it's self, (then) taking film to the lab, getting prints and labeling them, putting the proof book together, delivering it and future meeting to put the final book together and the time to order all that crap.

Think like a Laywer at a firm does with their billable hours. They don't do anything for you for free even if it's makeing photocopies in the office. Everything has a time and cost value that you get billed for. So yeah just pricing yourself to shoot 4-5 hours at a wedding is going to make you come up short, way short everytime.

bham

At least $100. Longer than 3 hours charge more. You don't necessarily have to stay the whole party. If its 4 hours long hit the busiest 2 hours usually those in middle, people usually still arriving in first hour, people leaving in the last hour.

If you figure 2.5 hours shooting, 2.5 hours post processing, uploading etc, then thats $100/5 hours = $20 an hour. More time less $ per hour. If you total time is 10 hours, its at $10 per hour. Compare this rate to what you make at your day job. Rarely does the person wanting the service consider your total time, just the time they see you.

SavedByZero

bham wrote:

Rarely does the person wanting the service consider your total time, just the time they see you.

Yeah's that's why you just tell them the rate for a set amount of hours you agreed upon and also give them an optional $$ figure for every hour after and beyond the contracted time amount. I picked that up from the wedding DJs who were asked to stay longer because the reception wasn't ending when they figured. Time is money.

bham

Yeah and another thing you may want to charge a higher $ on the overtime hours. Especially if you calculating your shooting fee on time shooting. For example you may offer them 2 hrs - $100, 5hrs - $200, but then if they only go with the 2 hrs, its $50 a hour overtime. This way they are more likely to go with the $200 fee unless they are just sure that the lower time is enough. Another lesson learned from other wedding vendors.