How to decide which way to charge for Portraits

[hypordk]

Okay here it goes. I work for a newspaper and have been taking photos for clients in exchange for the right to use the photos in my portfolio. One of my clients has asked me to come back around Thanksgiving and take pictures of the residents and their families. The Nursing home wants to then use the photos to send out holiday cards to the families as a thank you (so the nursing home will be paying for this). I will be able to then sell additional packages to the family members. The nursing home is not sure how many families will participate, but knows that they will have about 80 families for their Thanksgiving party.

So here is my problem...How do I decide how much to charge for a sitting fee. They are going to have families sign up in advance, so I can get a better number. But they want to know how much I am going to charge now.

Here is my idea, Charge a flat rate for 10 families and an up charge for each additional family unless they sign up 20 ahead of time and then give them a price break. Then I was going to set up a smugmug account and hand out a login and password to the family members and tell them that if they would like to purchase the photos for themselves/ or as gifts they can go online to my smugmug account and purchase from there.

What do you think?

[hypordk]

Oh yeah, and how many poses should I offer?

[jfrancho]

I do a similar thing for corporate Christmas parties. Each couple comes in and poses for a shot (I shoot tethered so I can see that all looks good). Then the Employer sends out a card and some prints as a thank you to the employees. The last one I did was $1000 for 120 couples, one pose, one 5x7 each couple.

[hypordk]

and you supplied the 5 X 7 print but not the card?

[jfrancho]

I supplied the 5x7, the client supplied the cards with address labels and postage, so all I did was stuff the envelopes. The client also supplied an awesome assistant for capturing the employee's name, verifying their address, and linking is with a filename. I'll actually be hiring her for future events - she was that good.

[hypordk]

So what would you charge for a slightly smaller get together. Flat rate for the 80 families without knowing if all will participate or charge by how many pre-sign up and charge for each additional that I shot that day?

[jfrancho]

I just figured out how long each picture would take, multiply that by the number of pictures, and charged my hourly sitting fee. Then add the price of the prints to the order.

[PhotoMike]

Originally Posted by hypordk

Then I was going to set up a smugmug account and hand out a login and password to the family members and tell them that if they would like to purchase the photos for themselves/ or as gifts they can go online to my smugmug account and purchase from there.

Just to play Devil's Advocate... what about those without access to the internet? I know it's in almost every home these days but you never can tell

[jfrancho]

Most of the employees at the last shoot did not have internet access.

[hypordk]

Originally Posted by PhotoMike

Just to play Devil's Advocate... what about those without access to the internet? I know it's in almost every home these days but you never can tell

Your right I always forget about that....ummm.... I guess I could put a small package together and tell them Check or Cash only.

[waple]

Originally Posted by jfrancho

I just figured out how long each picture would take, multiply that by the number of pictures, and charged my hourly sitting fee. Then add the price of the prints to the order.

So you supplied everyone with a "free" 5x7 which maybe cost 40 cents to print, and you sent that out. I'm assuming the families were then able to contact you to order extra prints if they wished, correct?

[jfrancho]

No, I added the price of the prints. Sitting fee + prints = invoice. Yes, I included an order sheet for additional orders.

[Mark McCall]

John,
Tell me to shut up if I'm off base.

I'm doing the match..... $1000 for 120 couples.
That sounds waaaaaay under market.

I'm thinking about how long it takes to shoot, edit (crop), print that many prints.

Am I understanding it right?

[jfrancho]

Maybe, I don't think you're off base asking. I underbid another offer of $1100 to get it. It led to three other parties, all over $1K. I checked my records, and it ended up being 82 couples that were photographed. The hardest part was administration. The pictures were just cookie cutter portraits. Editing time was zero - I shot jpeg for this event (actually, raw+jpeg, just in case something was wonky), and tethered to my laptop. All I did was use the crop tool in ROES, and no resampling/resizing, etc. I did have one image with the guy's fly open, so I did spend a few minutes fixing that one