PROFIT ON A PICTURE BASIS

[keblerelf11]

I am by no means in the business of photography but I had a neighbor of ours last night ask me if I could take some portraits of their child that has some disabilities. Their last two experiences at a photographer were disasterous, and seeing the child is very comfortable with me, and we would do it in their house, yard, etc. they think it might be better. Now I don't have any fancy lights, just an external flash, and lots of time behind the camera with natural lighting. They saw my pictures of my kids and other shots, and thought I did great work. They want to pay me the going rate to do this so I can make a profit on it, but my problem is, I don't know what the going rate is. So that is where I am asking for help. I will send the pictures out to MPIX to be printed as I have had a great experience with them so far. So for instance, an 8x10 picture to be printed there is $3.00 How much does a photographer mark up this to make a profit. Is it just a standard mark up like $5, or is it a percentage like 15% or so. I love doing this kind of stuff, but to make it a profession is well off down the road. But if I could get some help on this matter, I would greatly appreciate it. If you don't feel comfortable posting the data, PM me, or email me, I will keep it all confidential. Thanks for your help.

[jfrancho]

I'm not a "pro" either, but I get jobs from time to time. My "ala carte" price on 8x10 is $16, for portraits. That is after the minimum $150 2 hour sitting fee. My personal thoughts on the "neighbor deal" is to do it for them for the cost of prints x 3. Be sure to explain to them (I'm sure they know how much a pro studio would charge) this is a private "neighbor deal" for them. Otherwise, you could ask what lab they used, and call them for their price. Then name your price accordingly. It really depends on the neighborhood. I'd pretty much do this for any of my neighbors for cost, but I'm in a very tight little city area, and we all get along very well.

[keblerelf11]

Our area is a very tight too, and we get along with them wonderfully. We have baby sat for their kids, and them ours. I was thinking of just thinking of charging them the cost of the pictures plus some personal time to process and all. I know the two studios they used, and know their pricing. but what I couldn't figure out is what their margin was. I don't think they will order a lot of pictures, maybe an 8x10 and a couple of 5x7's for the grand parents, so it will not be a huge order. I just want to give them a great product, but they insist on paying me the going rate. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate your honesty and thoughts on the matter.

[jfrancho]

Margins are a hard thing to figure out. In most of my retail experience, it's 3x the standard cost. That doesn't necessarily mean 3x the actual cost. Sometimes I used a sliding scale, for instance thing that cost me a $1 or less were 5x cost, but things that were >$100 were 1.7x. Sometimes I just matched or undercut the competition which could be as little as 1.2x or even a loss. Loss leaders get a little complicated, and aren't applicable to this situation, though. Before you run out and quote $3 for an 8x10, consider using premium paper with a durable finish (like Kodak Ultra-E with lustre coating) - that can run almost $6 + shipping.

[keblerelf11]

Thanks Jfrancho,
I understand margins pretty well as it is part of my profession, but I never claim to know anything other then what my profession deals with, and that is petroleum, so that is why the picture thing threw me. I was just giving a for instance on the price for an 8x10, and I would use as high of quality pictures that they wanted me to use. Thank you so much for your recommendations, they have been greatly helpful. If they give me permission, I will post the "fruits" of my labor when I get the photoshoot done.

[UnivModels]

What do you charge a neighbor? Our rate for photography is $150/hr - 2 hrs. typically required (don't forget - travel, setup, clean up, & post production). As for prints my lab basically charges me $15/1st print (8x10) - color, and then there's the shipping, handling, etc.

For love you might just want to charge for the prints, say $20-25 for 1st print & $9-12 for add'l

[grsphoto]

As a photographer you should charge based on how much you think you skill and talent is worth, not how much the paper your image is printed on costs. It isn't the paper they are interested in, it is the image on the paper.

My 8x10 price is $35.

For friends I have two prices, full price or gratis.

Glenn

[Rense]

I don't know nothing about margins and prices in the part of the world keblerelf11 is living.
But may I suggest this idea:
- charge your neighbours the minimal cost of printing for this first shoot.
-if the results are good, have an agreement that if they hire you more, your price will be the printing costs and a surplus based on fairness. By this I mean you keblerelf11 will decide how much the surplus is based on the quality of your photo.