I think part of the problem is people not taking a good accounting of the hours they work on a project. If you really sit down and do up the hours for a client, its not hard to justify the price point at all (with the exception of the quacks who do the five or six hours on-site and an hour of post and that’s it).

Once you account for hours of post work, hours of sorting and selecting, and then amortized value of equipment over time and expenses per year divided by jobs/year, you end up with a pretty rational view of what your work costs in sheer wage time.

Bear in mind, the above is without leaving room for artistic merit, that’s just the contractor pricing for your ‘work’ as a photographer (or any other profession).

I’ve never sold any of my photos and I have no idea what to tell the potential client. Do I charge by the photo? A flat fee?

Because I’m an amateur I’m nervous about asking for too much.

The point of the article is to get us all thinking about how we price and what we need to charge to make a living. People that are charging 6k and might not have great work is a whole different discussion Hopefully the market would weed them out, but again the goal here is to make sure we know why we are charging what we are and if that is enough to run a sustainable business.

Mark

I just met with a bride who said exactly this….that she found a $2000 photographer, and although she said my work was amazing, that’s who she went with. Some brides will only be shopping for price, and simply don’t care how amazing anyone’s images are.

I have to remind myself of that, and continue to book the types of clients who shop with their heart. There aren’t as many of those, but they are much more rewarding.