Comments on: Pricing Structure

By: tortilladesigns

tortilladesigns — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:56:43 +0000

Thanks, this is a great article. It is giving me a lot to think about.

By: louise

louise — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:06:45 +0000

I’d love to also know more about normal portrait session pricing, do you work it similar to the wedding ones?

By: Rabas

Rabas — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 19:38:56 +0000

Hello Travis. Just wanted to thank you for very useful and detailed post. I was looking for something like this for a long period of time on other resources but non of the topics were that simple, specific and practical like this one. It helped me a lot while developing my own pricing structure.

By: jacksonjibit

jacksonjibit — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 14:53:25 +0000

Hello Travis. This is the 1st time I stumbled into your blog. What a wonderful insight. My situation is the same as jenny. I have been taking wedding for quite sometimes but not always, with a local photographer. With these insights you gave, it will give me a clear picture on how to charge a client….. Thank you.

By: Travis Hill

Travis Hill — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:53:04 +0000

Thanks Sarah, we appreciate the compliment. Come back anytime, and feel free to ask us anything.

Travis

By: Sarah Valentine

Sarah Valentine — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:47:03 +0000

Thank You Everything; the whole concept of your web site is beautiful.

By: Travis Hill

Travis Hill — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:36:14 +0000

Hey Photographick,
Thanks for the comment! Please feel free to pass along the information!

By: Photographick Studios

Photographick Studios — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:32:58 +0000

Great advice, I just hope more and more photographers read and understand this article. It will make people understand the time photography takes before going bankrupt or haphazardly completing weddings just to keep their head above water.

Also in terms of timing, we constantly get e-mails from clients who have questions, it always makes the photography that much better but from contract to close we probably spend 4-5 hours on the phone or answering e-mails per client. I think a more realistic number is 400-45 hours but again that my be just me.

By: Travis Hill

Travis Hill — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:14:24 +0000

Jenny,
My suggestion is, don’t. Start out by working with another local photographer. Find out what it takes to shoot a wedding, then you and only you will be able to know what to charge.

By: Travis Hill

Travis Hill — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:11:28 +0000

Chris, great question! I have always been against offering full day coverage. I cannot tell you how many times I have made a extra $350 or $700 when a wedding runs a little late. It’s nice to walk away from a wedding with some extra cash you didn’t expect. This is just impossible to do if you offer a day rate.

As far as images for the album. Well, you don’t necessarily need “more” images to up-sell an album. That’s all in the design of the album.

I’m not saying it’s wrong to charge a day rate for a wedding, I’m just saying it doesn’t work for me.

Travis

By: Chris S.

Chris S. — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:58:48 +0000

Question… Why even bother with an hourly rate for a wedding day coverage? Isn’t it true that your post-processing will be similar if your shoot for 10 hours or if you shoot for 8?

Jerry Ghionis recommends just pricing yourself at a happy rate for a full day of coverage, thus giving you ample opportunity to get more photos to grow the album sale on the back end. Thoughts?

By: Kagiso Legotlo

Kagiso Legotlo — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:55:27 +0000

Great lesson and value for information.I will stick to my price’s.

By: jenny

jenny — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 02:41:10 +0000

how can I go about pricing a photo shoot if I’m not a professional photographer???? I have friends asking me to take photos of their wedding, family portraits and such but I’m not really clear on what to charge. I dont want to do it for free or undercharge but I also dont want to over charge them…any tips???? thanks!

By: Great Pricing Info | Zookbinders Blog

Great Pricing Info | Zookbinders Blog — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:34:43 +0000

[...] Hill recently wrote a wonderful article on his blog, The Perfect Pose, that really gets you thinking about what goes into a being wedding photographer and what you need [...]

By: Travis Hill

Travis Hill — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:11:33 +0000

Thats right Liz, I always say “No reason to reinvent the wheel” If it works great, then go with it!

By: Curtis Copeland

Curtis Copeland — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:32:16 +0000

Great insight into pricing. This seems to be an ongoing conundrum for us wedding and portrait photographers. Thanks for clarifying and inspiring! Curtis Wedding Photography Miami Fort Lauderdale

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:15:31 +0000

I implemented anchor pricing after reading an article about how menus are structure in a very specific way to make you buy what they want. It is a very effective technique. Another thing menus do is they never use dollar signs or leading dots and they never arrange their products in the order of lowest to highest or vice versa. I have used all of these techniques in my new pricing setup as far as displaying my packages.

Great article and I will be looking at it again I just know it. Thanks!

By: Travis Hill

Travis Hill — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:33:01 +0000

Glad to have helped Mike!

By: Travis Hill

Travis Hill — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 23:32:20 +0000

My biggest suggestion on destination weddings is “don’t do them for the price of the trip and a hotel room.”

I get offered that all the time, and I just think hmm so that would cost them around $1800. In return they would like a $6,000 package. That means I am actually paying $4,200 to shoot a wedding. Not a smart idea if you want to stay in business.

You also have to think about how much time you have to invest in a destination wedding. For instance you are talking 3 days minimum out of your studio. A nice little vacation but, it’s not really a vacation for you. Destination wedding are hard work, not fun in the sun.

I charge for travel, accommodations (3 days min), and a rental car if need be. I also charge them for the package they select. Then I tack on a destination wedding fee, since I will be away from my business for 3 days.

Travis

By: Linda

Linda — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:27:17 +0000

Hi, any suggestions for pricing for destination weddings?