So I have decided to see if anyone would want to have pictures done for the holidays. However, pricing has always confused me on what's too much and what's not nearly enough. Whatever client(s) I obtain from this will be the first one(s) to pay me for a photo shoot, so I could use whatever advice you guys have. Thanks :)
Good question and a difficult one to answer. Below is an answer I attempted on 500px a couple months ago.
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Pricing is an even more difficult item to quantify. Depending on your marketability based on the quality of your images and current level of popularity, you could perhaps garner a slightly higher premium for your images. But this is a very subjective approach to pricing. I would most likely do some work in a spreadsheet to determine pricing. Look at your average cost to produce your sellable images, then add an average amount to cover your costs associated with marketing and selling your work. If that amount seems to be within an acceptable market price range, then try adding a small amount over each image, 30% over cost and overhead, for you desired profit.
The photographer left for a while and the BS in Business Admin came out in me. LOL Hope this helps!
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Always a big question. A big factor (if you're realistic/humble/not crazy) is how does your work compare to others in your area? If it's not as good, some would say you can't charge as much.
Or charge whatever the hell you want and see what comes of it. But, I'd say an analysis of your area would be helpful. $100 in Nebraska isn't $100 in NYC.
And yes, there's math to be done that can also tell you what to charge. For now, since I'm not banking on replacing my salary with photography (yet), I'm simply coming up with an hourly rate and pricing out jobs by the time (ALL the time; driving, scouting, shooting, editing, etc) I'll spend on them (also being aware of other prices in the area).
Find a number and see if it makes sense to you?
I'm a commercial photographer so my pricing structure is probably a little different, but you can calculate your theoretical day rate by adding up all your expenses for the year and your desired annual salary, then divide that number by the number of billable days you expect to work for the year. The number you get is your cost of doing business, and a good ballpark estimate of what your day rate should be. Once you know what it "costs" you to spend a day shooting, you can break that down into packages for retail clients.
Like I said, I'm a commercial photographer so I've never really done retail pricing, but that's how I would do it.
Setting prices is a terrible ordeal. I one worked for a company that took photographs for airlines. The boss, who did the pricing, would charge one client $5 and the next one $500 for the same type of image. He had a feel of where the last dime was and what he could get by with charging. I never had his talent in that regard. Bottom line, you need to decide what your time is worth and structure prices so you get a fair and honest return.
When you take your car in for service what do they charge, $65 an hour? Are you worth less than a mechanic? The old ASMP (magazine photographers' group now turned media photographers' group) used to figure for every hour you spent shooting photos you spent two hours doing something allied.
So if you want to make $20 an hour (close to the national average) you need to charge $60 an hour. Plus expenses.