The problem with pricing.
One of the big conversations that is talked about amongst photographers is the dreaded pricing. Every seminar, convention, casual chat will have at one point talked about it. It’s always a strange conversation. There are a lot of photographers out there that won’t put up what they charge on their website or mention money when another photographer is talking to them. I think it boils down to not wanting other photographers knowing what you charge so you can undercut them, or if they are charging an arm and a leg, you won’t look at their website and wonder how they can justify charging that. Thats understandable, but doesn’t help you when trying to make an already difficult choice and you don’t know what you might be shelling out. You want information at your finger tips and not having to go chasing around for it. I’m always put off buying things that doesn’t have a price tag on it. There is that old saying, if you have to ask… then you can’t afford it. Well why not just stick the prices up and let the customer decide before they waste their time emailing or phoning you?
What we charge might look a lot for “just a picture”. but thats not all your paying for. In this digital age where everyone has cameras, scanners, and home “photo printers,” we hear this all the time: How do photographers charge £££ for an 8×10 when they cost just £1 at the supermarket? Simply put, the customer is not just paying for the actual photograph; they’re paying for time and expertise.
The average one-hour portrait session
First, let’s look at the actual work involved:
Travel to the session
Setup, preparation, talking to the client, etc.
Shoot the photos
Travel from the session
Load images onto a computer
Back up the files on an external drive
2 – 4 hours of processing time, including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, and backing up edited photographs.
Create clients webpage on your site and upload images to it.
Contact the client to let them know their images are available to view, answer questions, receive order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, post or hand deliver prints.
You can see how a one-hour session easily turns into an eight-hour day or more from start to finish. So when you see a photographer charging a £100 session fee for a one-hour photo shoot, the client is NOT paying them £100 per hour.
The eight-hour wedding
A wedding photographer typically meets with the bride and groom several times before and after the wedding. And it’s not uncommon to end up with 1,000 – 2,000 photos, much more than a portrait session. Many photographers spend 40-60 hours working on one eight-hour wedding if you look at the time that is truly involved. Again, when a wedding photographer charges £2,000 for eight hours of coverage, clients are NOT paying them £250 an hour!
The expertise and cost of doing business
Shooting professional photography is a skill acquired through years of experience. Even though some DSLR cameras can be bought for under £1,000, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most personal photographers take years to go from buying their first camera to making money with photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera, there is a mountain of other equipment and software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, etc. And don’t forget backdrops, props and insurance.
In addition to the financial investment, photographers actually have to have people skills to make subjects comfortable in front of the camera. Posing people to look their best is a skill by itself. You could argue that posing is a more important skill than actually knowing how to use the camera. A poorly exposed photo can be saved, but a badly posed photo cannot.
Professional, personal photographers are just that—professionals. No different than a mechanic, dentist, doctor, or electrician. But a personal photographer often becomes a friend, someone who documents a family for generations with professional, personal photographs of cherished memories.
Maybe it helps to look at it this way: A pair of scissors costs £1.50 at the supermarket. Still, most people will gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional hair dresser to cut their hair.
The added attention and quality that a personal photographer gives is worth every penny.
All this makes sense. There really is a TON of work that goes in to a great photography session. So, if a photographer is offering a full one hour session with a disc of all the images for £40, how much money do you think they are actually making (or even how much time are they spending making sure all your images look flippin’ awesome?)? The answer, of course, is none. They are actually paying to take take your pictures! That might seem nice to you, but really, lets face it. Photography is a business, and if we don’t make a profit, we can’t stay in business!
But then I see this other side of it. If we have all these photographers raising their prices and catering to high-end clients, what about those left in the middle? I know of lots of great people who are not particularly wealthy, but they still want great photos (hey, I am one of them!). These are people who recognize and enjoy great quality work, but simply cannot afford to go to a high-end studio. So what’s the options if your in the middle ground? You can either save up the money and go to the high-end studio and get a few exceptionally nice prints, or they can pay a small fee for an entire CD of so-so images. What if you want great photos and great service, and you want more than a couple of nice wall portraits? Where do you go?
I would LOVE to be one of those “high-end” photographers that makes a 6 figure income. But I am a LONG way off from that! But at the same time I feel I have some great clients who I thoroughly enjoy working with. I know that if I started charging much higher rates, I would probably lose all of them, and I don’t want that to happen!
I enjoy what I do and get a great buzz from a session with a good client. I don’t have to cater to the client who lives in a huge home, but I want a client who understands how much work and care I put into what I do for them. If they are only willing to pay £40 for it, then they don’t value it enough to come to me… and I am okay with that. Every business, photography or otherwise needs to do their homework on what to charge before they even think of opening to the public. Not by what the other photographers in their area charge, or by what someone at a seminar tells you to charge, but the actual numbers. The “I have” to make this much money per week/month/session to stay in business and be profitable” numbers. Those who are charging £40 for everything are essentially paying their clients to photograph them. The photographer will soon burn out and realize they either have to raise prices or they have to close the business. There is no way to legally stay afloat in a business if you are charging pennies. You must make a profit.. otherwise you might as well be sitting around watching Jeremy Kyle all day.
