Must put my prices up!
Discussion
Mate...the quality of your work is stunning. You are clearly under selling yourself, and you know it. Why? Surely you must start as you mean to go on with regard to your pricing, otherwise when word of mouth business comes your way, they'll expect the same rates, and will not accept 'massive increases' in their eyes.
I found weddings so stressful I stopped doing them. You're obviously good at it, so charge for your experience.
All the best, and the above is IMHO only. Keep up the good work,
LB
I found weddings so stressful I stopped doing them. You're obviously good at it, so charge for your experience.
All the best, and the above is IMHO only. Keep up the good work,
LB
Thanks Luca. There are plenty of better wedding photographers better than me though (one or two lurk here!) I did of course charge for my time on the day and for processing afterwards, so I came away with rather more than £16.56 in all. Print sales were just an extra, as for the previous wedding (my first) they preferred the disc-only route.
PhotoBox commission and VAT take a big chunk. Another solution to boost margin is take the print order, buy them from Pixaco myself (cheaper, no commission, discount for bulk) and post them on.
So - consensus time. You've paid a guy a fair rate to come and take photos at your wedding. Then you have to buy prints. How much would you think is fair for 5x7, 9x6, 10x7 prints?
simpo two said:
So - consensus time. You've paid a guy a fair rate to come and take photos at your wedding. Then you have to buy prints. How much would you think is fair for 5x7, 9x6, 10x7 prints?
Err - never likely to be in that position
, but I'd imagine these would be reasonable prices 5x7 : 50p
9x6 : £2
10x7 : £5
I'm basing that on it's reasonably under the "print from print" price of most labs, so it would stop them just buying one of each and then copying it themselves.
J
Some wedding photogs charge a lot for reprints - in the region of £12 for 7x5 and £17 for 10x8 (source:
www.tinague.com/prices.html
www.wedded.co.uk/excluding.html
www.mjbrowne.co.uk/wedding_photgraphy_prices.htm
These reprint prices are in addition to the £2000+ being paid for the day.
Working from that, how much do you think you need to undercut them by? If at all? Remember that weddings cost an absolute fortune, and people will expect to pay a lot for reprints.
However the big thing to remember is that at those prices your last customer might not have bought 106 prints. But then if they had... Tasty earner.
www.tinague.com/prices.html
www.wedded.co.uk/excluding.html
www.mjbrowne.co.uk/wedding_photgraphy_prices.htm
These reprint prices are in addition to the £2000+ being paid for the day.
Working from that, how much do you think you need to undercut them by? If at all? Remember that weddings cost an absolute fortune, and people will expect to pay a lot for reprints.
However the big thing to remember is that at those prices your last customer might not have bought 106 prints. But then if they had... Tasty earner.
John,
your prices seem far too cheap. I don't know how much the 'digital age' has changed the service/pricing offerings for weddings but when we got married 7 years ago the copyright remained with the photograper so any form of copying or reprinting of images had to be done by the photographer. I know with digital, you and others offer the photos on a disk service but since that gives so many ways for the client to cut you out of the loop the price for the service seems very cheap to me.
The nearest comparison I have at present is photographers who do shots of the kids at nursery and/or school. The initial set of prints might be cheap but additional copies for the grandparents etc would be £15-£40 if we had them done.
I would have throught you should be charging aroiund £5 min for any reprint. Perhaps copies of the 'casual' shots would be cheaper than copies of the formal shots?
your prices seem far too cheap. I don't know how much the 'digital age' has changed the service/pricing offerings for weddings but when we got married 7 years ago the copyright remained with the photograper so any form of copying or reprinting of images had to be done by the photographer. I know with digital, you and others offer the photos on a disk service but since that gives so many ways for the client to cut you out of the loop the price for the service seems very cheap to me.
The nearest comparison I have at present is photographers who do shots of the kids at nursery and/or school. The initial set of prints might be cheap but additional copies for the grandparents etc would be £15-£40 if we had them done.
I would have throught you should be charging aroiund £5 min for any reprint. Perhaps copies of the 'casual' shots would be cheaper than copies of the formal shots?
cirks said:
I would have throught you should be charging aroiund £5 min for any reprint.
Problem as I see it is this: between the bride, the groom and the respective parents, someone will know that prints actually costs about 30p. So I feel that by saying '5x7 prints £5 each' they'll just file me under rip-off and look for another photographer - and I lose the main event for the sake of a few quid.
Similarly charging extra for formal shots, nice idea though it is, might look like blatant profiteering. (Furthermore, with PhotoBox Pro Galleries the prices you set apply to all albums and all sizes equally, which is not ideal)
So far I've only done two weddings on a professional basis so I feel I still need to build up my track record.
Go back to Ed Hasler's point. The actual cost of getting a print made is completely irrelavent (sp.). Its your skill and time that has produced the image. Just don't give them the CD and they have no choice but to use you. By giving them a CD, all parties know that copies will be made without using the photographer, regardless of copyright.
You've done 2 weddings, now consider changing your business model and pricing structure. And whenever someone mentions that a print only costs x pence to produce, tell them that's not what they are paying for.
You know you're worth it, so don't sell yourself short.
LB
You've done 2 weddings, now consider changing your business model and pricing structure. And whenever someone mentions that a print only costs x pence to produce, tell them that's not what they are paying for.
You know you're worth it, so don't sell yourself short.
LB
If they file you under rip off for charging a fiver, what are they going to say about the people charging £15?
If prints only cost 30p, then why are wedding photographers the world over charging 50 times as much? I think there is a balance to be struck - I'm not suggesting charge 15 quid but I think 4 or 5 pounds for an 8x5 is perfectly reasonable.
Remember they aren't paying for the cost of the materials, they are paying for the value of photo. If it were only materials I could but the mona lisa for £10.
If prints only cost 30p, then why are wedding photographers the world over charging 50 times as much? I think there is a balance to be struck - I'm not suggesting charge 15 quid but I think 4 or 5 pounds for an 8x5 is perfectly reasonable.
Remember they aren't paying for the cost of the materials, they are paying for the value of photo. If it were only materials I could but the mona lisa for £10.
simpo two said:
Problem as I see it is this: between the bride, the groom and the respective parents, someone will know that prints actually costs about 30p.
Valid point BUT for our wedding there was no comparison between a highstreet/online print quality and the far superior paper & colour provided by the photographer. The increased price wasn't therefore viewed as a rip-off (just expensive
) If you're doing it professionally, I suppose you could offer two services, the standard PhotoBox prints at a bit of a markup from your current prices (don't forget, the purchasers should still be paying for your skills) and a more 'up-market' print service where you get the photos printed on a better quality paper and perhaps provide frame mounts or other 'add-ons'? Could be the way to separate the formal and the informal shots?
People may realise that you can get your own photo printed online for 30p, but for most people the quality of their own shots will be a million miles away from yours, and for this reason they will not be expecting you to charge the same. I think most people realise that you are not just paying for the raw materials.
In fact, I would even suggest that increasing your prices would increase the perceived value in your work as "you get what you pay for".
If you see this sort of work increasing, then maybe the Printbutton service would be more useful - you can have different price plans for the same print sizes, and you only pay 5% commission rather than 10%.
In fact, I would even suggest that increasing your prices would increase the perceived value in your work as "you get what you pay for".
If you see this sort of work increasing, then maybe the Printbutton service would be more useful - you can have different price plans for the same print sizes, and you only pay 5% commission rather than 10%.
Unless you're talking 'curly sandwich' weddings () then most people are happy to pay good money for a decent photographer. I have some involvement with a top end wedding planning & design business and people will happily pay 5 figures plus for a top notch wedding photographer so depending where you see yourself you ought to be making anywhere from £1k upwards for an event.....
) then most people are happy to pay good money for a decent photographer. I have some involvement with a top end wedding planning & design business and people will happily pay 5 figures plus for a top notch wedding photographer so depending where you see yourself you ought to be making anywhere from £1k upwards for an event.....simpo two said:
I would have throught you should be charging aroiund £5 min for any reprint.
Problem as I see it is this: between the bride, the groom and the respective parents, someone will know that prints actually costs about 30p. So I feel that by saying '5x7 prints £5 each' they'll just file me under rip-off and look for another photographer - and I lose the main event for the sake of a few quid.
Similarly charging extra for formal shots, nice idea though it is, might look like blatant profiteering. (Furthermore, with PhotoBox Pro Galleries the prices you set apply to all albums and all sizes equally, which is not ideal)
So far I've only done two weddings on a professional basis so I feel I still need to build up my track record.
Whats the cheapest you've found
Use that as a guide
406tm said:
When my friend got married, she paid the Phtographer £350 for the day. He gave her 2 CD's of low res pics and an album with 25 pics in. If people wanted reprints, because the CD images were low res, they had to go to him. Ther images om the CD were 89k so no good for 8x5.
That's the way to do it.
Something for them to show off to family & friends (the album) and the lo-res pics to keep them coming back for re-prints. It's all those years of practice and the investmet in your kit they're paying for,as well as your time on the day.
As a guide, i paid for my sister's wedding album a few years back and it cost a hell of a lot more than £350. She asked me to do it but a wedding is a one-chance event and i didn't fancy taking it on. I'll stick to Motorsports
Excellent ideas folks; I will submit them to the next Simpo Business Meeting for full consideration. Clearly there are many ways to crack this particular nut!
Thanks all; I've already re-invested my £16.56 on a Sigma 20-40 f2.8 which arrived today. Lighter than I was expecting, and I can't see why it needs an 82mm filter as the front element is much smaller than that, and 20mm is not that wide. Not HSM but it focuses quickly. I now need to rig up a small spring loaded flag device on thr front so that when a nosy bridegroom gets too close, I can deploy it - ping! - and it will say 'Bigger than yours mate!''
Thanks all; I've already re-invested my £16.56 on a Sigma 20-40 f2.8 which arrived today. Lighter than I was expecting, and I can't see why it needs an 82mm filter as the front element is much smaller than that, and 20mm is not that wide. Not HSM but it focuses quickly. I now need to rig up a small spring loaded flag device on thr front so that when a nosy bridegroom gets too close, I can deploy it - ping! - and it will say 'Bigger than yours mate!''
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff