Let me start off by saying that I love allowing my friends and peers from school to be in front of the camera and give modeling a shot. However, I am to the point now where multiple people - especially this week - have been cancelling on me despite already having plans for shoots. Mind you, they had cancelled the hours to a day before, but there was no way for me to reschedule someone else at that point for it would have been complete last minute.
Therefore, I have come to the thought of charging people for modeling for me. Not much - maybe $50 or so - but enough for it to be incentive not to cancel. They would pay me in advance to the shoot - since most of them I see in school - and we would schedule the date. For the first shoot, I would keep the money - or possibly half to be fair - whether they cancel or not. After the initial charge, so long as they would wish to do another shoot, they would still pay me the $50. This time, however, I would only keep $10 plus a dollar for every traveled mile and give them the rest of the money back, so long as they keep the date without cancellation. If cancelled, I would keep the money.
As I had said before, I hate to do this to people - especially friends of mine - but at this point it has become a waste of my time when I could have been working and making money, despite me not enjoying my job as much as I do photography.
Thanks for any input!
Although, I have not gotten to the point in my portrait work to even consider charging, I do see your point. If you are in demand, even though they are friends, you should be compensated for your time.
I would establish a cancellation policy, up front and have them agree to this in writing. State your rate schedule and retained compensation in the event of customer cancellation. If it were me, I would keep half of your session fee if they cancel less than 48 hours in advance. This keeps your cash flow up and could give you the opportunity to book other shoots.
Just my thoughts....Craig
Anyone who does not agree to a cancellation fee, should not be booked. Why should the the guy who spends large sums of money on his photography kit and who offers friends rates or freebies be treated with disrespect by those who commit nothing and bail, with no repercussions.
The question of how much or how little you hand back is a more philosophical one. This may not be obvious but the reality is that if you charge even $1, then you are a professional, at least in the mind of the customer, and even though you charge a peppercorn rate your clients will feel they deserve a professional job and that is a very different contract. They will feel you owe them a pro experience as well as a professional result and so now you'll find you have deadlines and contingencies to contend with. So, if it were me, I'd either return the whole booking fee, after the shoot, or I'd charge a useful fee, to compensate you for your profesionalism, time, kit, insurance and profit etc etc etc.
You may doubt the last point about micro fee, changing the whole experience to one of a client feeling you owe them a pro result and experience. I guarantee that most models/sitters will think of themselves as clients and you as the photographer working for them. However, if you doubt it I suggest you try it.
To help mitigate the mentioned problem have your terms drawn up and get a copy signed by the client. You should list your cancellation policy, what you offer and what is expluded, your rights to use the images and the clients limited rights under international copyright laws. You should mention how long editiing will take before they can expect delivery of the fininshed work and how many images they will get in draft and edited forms and anything else you want, such as your expenses for travel and "facilities fees" for shooting on private property or even in your studio etc.
To me a business is a business no matter who is hiring you.
If these people are coming up to you and asking you to take pictures, you need to decide how much your time is worth. How I have my business set up, I get X amount of dollars when they book their appointment and the rest at the end of the session (depending on what they are buying). In my cancellation policy it also states that the X amount is a retainer/holding fee and half is non refundable because I would be turning away other potential customers/clients.
Now for close friends and family, I do give discounts and some wiggle room when it comes to payments; but that would be completely up to you on how you want to do it.
The tricky part is figuring out how much your time is worth. One of the best pieces of advice that I have read is figure out an hourly rate and then decide how much time it would average you to do one shoot; including post production.
Best of luck