What to Charge and How Many Pictures to Edit

jaime

Hi all,

I began taking pictures for family and friends this past August, so almost a year now. In that time, I've done 9 or so sessions (ranging from family to weddings to maternity) and have another 2 or 3 sessions booked. I have two questions:

1. How do you determine what to charge?
2. For a photo shoot lasting an hour, how many pictures do you take, edit, and/or give to the client?

I know this of course depends on how good the pictures are. I put some up every so often on http://jmschrdr.tumblr.com if you'd like to reference something. I spend a lot of time editing in CS6 and Lightroom 4. Because I have become such a perfectionist I'm trying to calculating how much I'm getting per hour out of the session plus editing time, and it boils down to not much. At the same time I love doing this, so I struggle with charging more.

Any thoughts? What do you all charge, if you do? Thanks!

Moose

@jaime - Once you've mastered 5 to 10 weddings for free, I would charge a premium for the next client. My advice is to not be cheap. With wedding photography in particular, the bride never wants to choose the cheapest photographer.

Ideally, I would adjust your pricing to be 10 to 20% higher than the competition in your local area. As you do more and more weddings, I would increase that percentage.

As far as what to charge, it all depends on what you're offering to the client and your geographical location. I would Google some of the photographers in your area, see the packages that they offer and come up with one that works best with you and your workflow.

All the best and happy shooting!