Haggling with a photographer

[hornetrider]

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.

Thoughts?!

[hornetrider]

Oh no very upfront in the shop/studio and all above board. Various style portraits/pribrs on display with pricing etc. Arranged by my wife though you see... I wasn't privvy to precise costs til after the shoot.

[hornetrider]

kman - you never negotiate on any pricing at all? Your statement is a little strange as it suggests everyone pays exactly the same for every good or service, which is clearly not the case.

Anyhoo, thanks for responses everyone. I should have included more info in my op. I believe the photo session will be charged at £25, however we have not paid any monies yet.

As I said we were very pleased with it, he was snapping away and got some great shots, natural and posed, directed us well etc, all very good.

There is no agreed price beforehand obviously, other than examples of his work are up in the studio with clear pricing labels. Clearly we could just buy the disc for £250, or any number of prints, settings etc which start at £125ea and heading north as far as I can tell.

When we pop back to review his processed shots and choose what we'd like I imagine we will want a few plus the disc so are ostensibly looking at a spend between 600-1000.

[hornetrider]

Simpo Two said:

Why not just buy the disc for £250 and make your own prints at Photobox etc?

You've not met my mrs have you?!

[hornetrider]

RobDickinson said:

To be fair he has got all he agreed too, a £25 session and the chance to see the images.

No agreement to buy prints seems to have been made.

Indeed. At the very least we'll be buying the images which is 250 or 175 if bought with at least one print.

So he's making a minimum of 275 for the hour or so we were there plus another probable hour or so cropping time. Hopefully that will help put food on his table

[hornetrider]

JDRoest said:

But it's not an hour. You are paying for his time to not have customers as well, you are paying for use of equipment, use of a studio, a bit of know how, and you're also paying for the 3-4 hours that he's not working whilst waiting for paying customers.

Strange post. Where you there? No? Ok. It was an hour. Less, even. As I said, then there's image editing time on top, perhaps another hour.

~140 per hour seems good to me, before prints. The other stuff you mentioned is the general running costs of any business.

[hornetrider]

Simpo Two said:

miniman said:

iiyama said:

So you agree to buy the car at sticker price and then negotiate?

Which bit of "there was no price agreed upfront" aren't you seeing?

hornetrider said:

There is no agreed price beforehand obviously, other than examples of his work are up in the studio with clear pricing labels.

I would take that to mean that if there is a 10x8 print marked at £50, then you would reasonably expect YOUR 10x8 print also to be £50. Does he not have a price list?

And would 20 x those prints be 1000? No negotiation? There's a price list at the Ford dealer too...

Anyhoo this thread seems to be going the way of many on PH these days. Thanks to all who contributed