Haggling with a photographer
Discussion
If it "went well", you "enjoyed it" and you're likely to "want prints" it's an early suggestion of why the prints seem expensive, like the difference between eating at Harvester and Manoir aux Quat' Saisons- both dismiss your hunger but one does it so much more masterfully than t'other.
At what point did you see the photographer's price list? It's one thing if you've not really factored it in before the shoot but if it was downplayed/ concealed until after the shoot it sounds a bit underhand.
At what point did you see the photographer's price list? It's one thing if you've not really factored it in before the shoot but if it was downplayed/ concealed until after the shoot it sounds a bit underhand.
hornetrider said:
Arranged by my wife though you see...
Ah well, she can pay for it 
If it was one of those deals where the shoot is free, that explains the high print prices. I work the opposite way - I charge for the shoot, but give the images on disk so prints are effectively free and unlimited.
We had a professional shoot done of the kids about a year ago. Once we agreed to purchase 3 photos he offered to sell us all the rest on disk for another £150. Your bloke may do the same thing so i suggest a staged approach - but a couple and see if he offers to sell you the disk. If he doesnt you can always buy more.
I'm fairly open to deals when customers start spending. I wouldn't do a discount on one or two prints but a recent customer for instance is having 7 prints and a big multi-aperture frame, they're spending £815 and have mentioned additional prints as xmas presents for family so I'm doing them a special deal on those.
OP, I think if you're clearly appreciative of the work your presented with and you WANT to buy, then there's nothing wrong with asking.
ETA: what Funk said is correct.
OP, I think if you're clearly appreciative of the work your presented with and you WANT to buy, then there's nothing wrong with asking.
ETA: what Funk said is correct.
Gotta say that I'm not keen on the haggling after unless the prices were not known about up front. This isn't the case here as stated.
I play with photography but fit bathrooms/kitchens for a living. An estimate for the cost of the job is given up front. if this is agreed then there is nothing worse then the customer saying at the end, (and I have had this happen!), "love the job, over the moon with the detail and finish, but lets talk about the cost".
Haggle up front by all means. Afterward though is wrong in my opinion.
I play with photography but fit bathrooms/kitchens for a living. An estimate for the cost of the job is given up front. if this is agreed then there is nothing worse then the customer saying at the end, (and I have had this happen!), "love the job, over the moon with the detail and finish, but lets talk about the cost".
Haggle up front by all means. Afterward though is wrong in my opinion.
iiyama said:
Gotta say that I'm not keen on the haggling after unless the prices were not known about up front. This isn't the case here as stated.
I play with photography but fit bathrooms/kitchens for a living. An estimate for the cost of the job is given up front. if this is agreed then there is nothing worse then the customer saying at the end, (and I have had this happen!), "love the job, over the moon with the detail and finish, but lets talk about the cost".
Haggle up front by all means. Afterward though is wrong in my opinion.
Its different with photography though.I play with photography but fit bathrooms/kitchens for a living. An estimate for the cost of the job is given up front. if this is agreed then there is nothing worse then the customer saying at the end, (and I have had this happen!), "love the job, over the moon with the detail and finish, but lets talk about the cost".
Haggle up front by all means. Afterward though is wrong in my opinion.
Often the deal with a family portrait is that you spend a small amount upfront for the shoot, and then once you have seen the photo's you buy as many or as few as you want, maybe as prints, maybe on canvas, maybe on disc.
Two customers who initially book the same session may end up spending hugely different amounts once they have seen the photo's. This is the only time any haggling can realistically be done because the final price may not be known until this point.
OP haggling is fine IME, ask for a % discount, ask for some extra prints to be included, whatever you feel is reasonable. If you are spending £100's im sure the 'tog will be willing to strike a deal with you as "costs" of prints etc. to the photographer are negligible, you're are paying for his skill and talent and he will probably be willing to discount the price if you are willing to spend lots of money!
hornetrider said:
Is it the done thing? We had a family shoot this week which went well. Most enjoyable and I suspect we may want a few large pics/prints but his pricing is expensive. Very expensive.
I think it's pretty bad form to be honest. You knew his price list, you agreed to the shoot, and then your asking him to take a pay cut after you've done the photoshoot. Most photographers don't earn vast amounts and it all averages out over the year.Had one guy earlier this year haggling over a $10 photo, I remember the words "what size print do you send for that?" and "it's way over priced for a digital photo".
JDRoest said:
[snip]asking him to take a pay cut after you've done the photoshoot [/snip]
But you're not, are you. The way most, and by the sounds of it this, photographers work mean at this stage when the customer is viewing the photo's, the customer will have not paid for much if anything at all. Lets say the customer loved 10 of the shots at £50 per print. However the customers says his budget only stretched to buying 5 of the prints. I would imagine most photographers would be happy to do a deal whereby they could have all 10 prints that they liked for a total of say... £375. This way the customer feels he is getting a good deal, and has all the images they liked. And the photographer earns another £125 they may not have otherwise got, for the cost of few prints.
This sounds like the kind of situation the OP was in and i imagine is how most 'togs work, its how we do it in our studio.
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