Print Revenue?

DavidS · May 9, 2007

I am seriously considering shooting portraits, parties and events part time. I have looked at what the competition is charging, what my expenses would be and how much I would like to make. The unknown for me is how much money the print sales will generate, per event or portrait session. It would help in determining my hourly fee for events and my sitting fee for portraits, if I knew roughly how much money the prints will generate for each event or session. I realize it will vary from customer to customer and from photographer to photographer, but what are some averages or ranges?

What is the average or range for events?
What is the average or range for portraits?

I actually am not interested in your specific sales as much as the volume for common print types. A 4x6, 8x10 and 11x14 for example. I realize print prices vary from photographer to photographer.

If you feel comfortable sharing this with me I would be most appreciative.

bsvirginian · May 9, 2007

Hi David

I do a lot of what your'e asking and probably offer some advice. Why don't you e-mail me.
bob@bob-swanson.com
bsvirginian

sirsloop · May 10, 2007

why not post up for everyone to read?

jonh68 · May 11, 2007

It depends for me. I am just starting out myself. I was asked to shoot a ladies charity tennis tournament as one of the participants wanted some action shots and she said several of her friends would like some as well. I didn't charge anything upfront. I passed out my card and orders were placed. I made enough to make it worth my time, but that is something for each individual to decide. Since it was a charity event, I also sent in a picture to the paper with a little write up and got paid for that as well.

There other times I have a flat fee and I figure up the time it would take and what that is worth to me. They either get the pics and they can print them out or I will set the minimum price on smugmug and they can get great looking prints.

I would say it just depends on the type of event and what the customer wants. You can have a low upfront fee and charge for prints .

DavidS · May 12, 2007

Thanks Jon. I appreciate the response.

bham · May 16, 2007

I have a site with smugmug target just to event and event type of photography, high school, college, corporate, private, etc. I know we have only sold a very few of anything besides 4x6's. We charge a shooting fee for the time to cover the event and processing, and then charge for prints. The organization, group, etc pays the shooting fee for us to come, the individual attendees are the people usually buying the shots, occassionally the group, organization will want some also. The key is shooting multiple events for same group that have some of the same attendees who then get used to having a professional image taken and can count on being able to access it later. Repeat business from the attendees. Women are at least 80% of our print sales if not more.

DavidS · July 26, 2007

bham wrote:

I have a site with smugmug target just to event and event type of photography, high school, college, corporate, private, etc. I know we have only sold a very few of anything besides 4x6's. We charge a shooting fee for the time to cover the event and processing, and then charge for prints. The organization, group, etc pays the shooting fee for us to come, the individual attendees are the people usually buying the shots, occassionally the group, organization will want some also. The key is shooting multiple events for same group that have some of the same attendees who then get used to having a professional image taken and can count on being able to access it later. Repeat business from the attendees. Women are at least 80% of our print sales if not more.

How do you get your website out to the individuals at the event? Do you do any formal shots at these events (background, studio lights etc.), or are they all candids?

bham · July 26, 2007

DavidS wrote:

How do you get your website out to the individuals at the event? Do you do any formal shots at these events (background, studio lights etc.), or are they all candids?

Hand out business cards. For this we got like 5,000 cards done. In that bulk you can usually get a price under 200 or even under 150.

No all candids. We haven't gotten request for formal shots, but would if asked.

Print Revenue?

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