What Price?

LiquidOps · March 18, 2005

Hello again,

I'm getting ready to sign up for a pro account, but am quite curious about the pricing thing. How do you determine what is best to charge for each size?

Is there a generic standard that pro's use? Is it just trial and error? Any experience and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steven

LiquidOps · March 20, 2005

LiquidOps wrote:

Hello again,

I'm getting ready to sign up for a pro account, but am quite curious about the pricing thing. How do you determine what is best to charge for each size?

Is there a generic standard that pro's use? Is it just trial and error? Any experience and comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Steven

help?

Mike Lane · March 20, 2005

LiquidOps wrote:

help?

My thought is that I would charge what I thought was a fair price. I know that's a bit nebulous (and I think maybe I am a bit too expensive). On the otherhand I have had people tell me that they think that my prices are cheap for what they get.

I guess I would say charge what you think the market will bear or the kind of price you would feel comfortable with charging. You've got to make a profit and people really do undersand that.

That's just me thinking out loud though. I don't think anyone has a set guideline of what to charge for a print.

Mike

winnjewett · March 20, 2005

Mike, there are a lot of factors that come into play when deciding how much to sell your print for. Your experience and the type of event / situation are the two main determining factors. What sort of photography are you doing? Are your clients hiring you to shoot photos? Do you shoot in a studio (expensive), or are you shooting events (cheap). Do you expect to sell a lot of photos?

If you are being hired to shoot photos, there are two major schools of thought: 1) charge a lot for the sit-in, and not a lot for prints 2) visa versa. Some believe that it is better to charge for the sit-in because some will tend to purchase one 5x7 and make copies thereby short changing you of what you deserve. But if you charge ahead of time, then you will already have been paid for your services. One way to combat the theft of your images is to print or place a sticker on the back of your prints stating that you own the copyright, and that this photograph may not be copied for any reason without express written permission. A lot of copy centers will not allow photographs to be copied if they have this on them.

I'm sorry I don't have any numbers for you. You might want to call local photographers and ask them what their rates are. One thing you don't want to do is undercut them. In a non-commodity market, price is often perceived as an indication of quality. If you charge just over what walmart charges, people will think that you are of the same quality, and will instead go to walmart. However, if your rates are in the middle ground of what high quality photographers charge, your perceived quality will be high.

I hope this helps.
-Winn

Matthew Saville · March 20, 2005

winnjewett wrote:

Mike, there are a lot of factors that come into play when deciding how much to sell your print for. Your experience and the type of event / situation are the two main determining factors. What sort of photography are you doing? Are your clients hiring you to shoot photos? Do you shoot in a studio (expensive), or are you shooting events (cheap). Do you expect to sell a lot of photos?

If you are being hired to shoot photos, there are two major schools of thought: 1) charge a lot for the sit-in, and not a lot for prints 2) visa versa. Some believe that it is better to charge for the sit-in because some will tend to purchase one 5x7 and make copies thereby short changing you of what you deserve. But if you charge ahead of time, then you will already have been paid for your services. One way to combat the theft of your images is to print or place a sticker on the back of your prints stating that you own the copyright, and that this photograph may not be copied for any reason without express written permission. A lot of copy centers will not allow photographs to be copied if they have this on them.

I'm sorry I don't have any numbers for you. You might want to call local photographers and ask them what their rates are. One thing you don't want to do is undercut them. In a non-commodity market, price is often perceived as an indication of quality. If you charge just over what walmart charges, people will think that you are of the same quality, and will instead go to walmart. However, if your rates are in the middle ground of what high quality photographers charge, your perceived quality will be high.

I hope this helps.
-Winn

Yep I can vouch for that. I've had a pro account for a while now and I can say that I didn't sell a single print even though my prices were much below what everyone else was charging. I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but people are about to lose their chance to get my prints cheap, cause I think I'm worth a lot more than what I charge. What would YOU pay for this 20x20"?

-matt-

What Price?

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