How much to charge for birthday party?

[adricng]

Hi All,

Would like to seek some advice:

1) How much can i charge for a 2 hrs shoot during a birthday party.
2) What should i include beside giving CD of all pics taken?
3) Should i develope any pics for them and if needed, how mach pieces should i develope?

Appreciate all help. Thanks alot.

 

[Deadpoet]

Hi All,

Would like to seek some advice:

1) How much can i charge for a 2 hrs shoot during a dirthday party.
2) What should i include beside giving CD of all pics taken?
3) Should i develope any pics for them and if needed, how mach pieces should i develope?

Appreciate all help. Thanks alot.

How much is it worth to you?
Do you need the money, and if so, how much?
Do you want the job?
Is this your primary source of income and you will need repeat business?
Why do you want to take the job?

To me, simple US$5000/hour. That is shooting fees only. Take it or leave it.

 

[adricng]

How much is it worth to you?
Do you need the money, and if so, how much?
Do you want the job?
Is this your primary source of income and you will need repeat business?
Why do you want to take the job?

To me, simple US$5000/hour. That is shooting fees only. Take it or leave it.

Erm, US$5000/hour?!?! You are talking about US$10,000 for a 2 hrs shoot leh..... Are you sure anybody would pay this amount?

 

[Reportage]

Obama?

As long the user at least using Hasselblad system, US$5000 an hour is possible.

 

[m3lv1nh0]

(How much u think u r worth per hr) x no. of hours needed + (cost needed for prints/album, if any) + transportation cost

Also depends on budget of the client.

 

[munkey]

Why am I even bothering with threads like these. Let me cut short the verbosity and tell you, charge however much you are worth. If you bear semblance to a prostitute, then $50/ hour is acceptable.

 

[adricng]

Why am I even bothering with threads like these. Let me cut short the verbosity and tell you, charge however much you are worth. If you bear semblance to a prostitute, then $50/ hour is acceptable.

I do no mean to sound rude, but it's your choice to reply to this thread in the first place.

Anyway, thanks for all the reply by the rest. I am new to this "business" and was sincerely hoping that someone will guide me so that i can follow the usual market rate. I have no intension to underquote or bear any remblence to a prostitute. If such threads is irritating you, i apologise to you.

 

[photatographer]

I do no mean to sound rude, but it's your choice to reply to this thread in the first place.

Anyway, thanks for all the reply by the rest. I am new to this "business" and was sincerely hoping that someone will guide me so that i can follow the usual market rate. I have no intension to underquote or bear any remblence to a prostitute. If such threads is irritating you, i apologise to you.

I'm a web developer, there was once I charge $199 per project, people came. Then I charge $800 per project, people still come. Some projects I do are five figures now, people also come.

There will be business no matter how you charge but the customers will be different, with different expectations. It not only about the photos, its also about building a rapport with my customers. Its ok to take low paying jobs while building up your portfolio.

There was once I hired a wedding photographer for my friend to cover day time event as a wedding gift. It was around 6 hours, I paid only $350 plus CD and transport. My friend remarked that the photos are very well taken, better then some more professional photographers. But the photographer have clearly moved on, I doubt I can get him at that rate anymore...

I charge $150/hour if my web client wouldn't get someone more profressional to do the photography, your milage may vary (Note that I'm not a professional photographer, I'm a photatographer ).

 

[Deadpoet]

Erm, US$5000/hour?!?! You are talking about US$10,000 for a 2 hrs shoot leh..... Are you sure anybody would pay this amount?

Exactly.

And if some one is so blurr and pay that rate, I will even shoot an event.

 

[amateurshooter]

I think for a newbie, $200-$400 is a reasonable price to charge for CD delivery. Alot depends on your client budget and how "eager" you want to shoot especially if you just start out.

 

[photatographer]

Exactly.

And if some one is so blurr and pay that rate, I will even shoot an event.

You must be very skilled, the photos you take are amazing! I almost believed you on that US$5000 rate.

 

[catchlights]

did you ever take and event job before?

if yes, the time span and deliverable are about the same with other similar event, than charge your regular rate.

if you have not don't any, just set at a rate you are very comfortable with, bottom line is profitable.

do note you have to factor everything, eg, writing emails, travailing, actual shooting on site, time and effort on post production, go to the labs, print cost, cd cost, album cost, time to slot the album, time and cost of deliver the album, camera wear and tear, batteries, CF cards, computer deprecation, software cost etc.

so it seem you only shoot two hours, and only can charge for two hours, but you have to make sure the charge able to cover all the time spent. eg. pre, shoot and post.
and seem your customer only pay for the prints and album, so you have to make sure the selling price of this prints and album have to cover every items you have invested and used on creating this album.

All the expenese is real, and the cost is high. if you don't think you shouldn't charge all these and make your customer pay, by all means if you decide to "sponsor" your customer.

Good luck.

Hope this help.

 

[Anson]

Maybe you want to ask what is your client budget first...

 

[JT-Fied]

I do no mean to sound rude, but it's your choice to reply to this thread in the first place.

Anyway, thanks for all the reply by the rest. I am new to this "business" and was sincerely hoping that someone will guide me so that i can follow the usual market rate. I have no intension to underquote or bear any remblence to a prostitute. If such threads is irritating you, i apologise to you.

I agree with the sounding rude part. No one forced you to reply if it is a waste of your time so to speak. We are all here to learn. What's old to you may be new to some and if everyone goes around saying stuff like that then alot of newbies will not dare ask questions.

Anyway to answer the TS, is the bday for your friend?? Like what alot of photogs have said, it's how much do YOU think u r worth?? If you think you are worth $50 an hour then u will be always be a $50 per hour photog and ppl will hire u not for your skill but more coz u r a cheap steal! Diff ppl have diff perspective and if u feel u r good enuff to charge higher then do so and let your client decide for himself whether or not he still wans to use u.

But IMO u must always be confident that you can produce what is required of u. That way no one can fault you. Always do your best regardless of how much you are being paid becoz photography is our hobby n passion and if u r doing it just to earn some extra pocket money and not bothering about the outcome then i say it would be wiser to find a part time job at a fast food joint ba... (dun mean to sound rude on tht last part but that's all how i feel)

 

[jetfynn]

If it's for portfolio purposes, perhaps you can go low so as to get the experience.

Then again, charge according to what you are worth and also, the deliverables must be equivalent to your skills or better.

 

[cabbySHE]

When you are given/ offer a job like this...and being asked about your service charge, you ponder.... for you'd never charge before, otherwise you wouldn't have asked ?

Rationale approach is...

Have they seen your works before ? Thro' recommendation or referral ?

*Doing it for a friend/ colleaque/ relative....this will be usually charge on the cost of materials and transportation. Keep an account of all the money incurred plus receipts if any. The service will consider as an act of goodwill gesture. ( not sounding like too money face ) As I guess you are not company registered yet.

So, for the above...you can say, You'll let them know after all the expenses had been tally up. If they would want to pay you something extra, then its up to you.

* Referral job thro' friends.

Ask them, what's their budget...accept and/or reject politely. E.g. We budgetted it at $150/= for everything. Do ask what is "Everything" ?
Your reply can be...oh sorry, I charge by hourly rate, all other materials exclusive,
also..my minimum charge for such job will be $XYZ, and varies accordingly.

Definitely you must charge a profit margin, it is always better to mark a little bit higher than to make a lost, if you are talking business. Am I right fella ?
However, if you are an amatuer photographer, then it's up to you.

 

[flashbug]

Is this for exposure? I do for free to raise my portfolio because most pple wont be dumb enough to pay for a photographer unless they know their standards is ard somewhere.
Are they your friends? Sometimes it is difficult to tell your friend how much you want to charge or feel your time is worth.

Perhaps another alternative is tell them to sponsor for your rental of equipment, and that way you can get to play with better lens, flash unit and much more.
It is entirely up to you.

 

[cabbySHE]

If you really have no clue of how to charge, I would like to suggest, being a starter, after all the job is a birthday party and not big wedding reception at Ritz Carlton or something.
So, be a kuku, or sucker for one time sake, say $50/= or $80/=, mind you, this is not under cutting pricing, but for you to do some real accounting works.

The client agreed happily to your quote of $80/=, and you had done the job and delivered whatever as promised.
Now is the time to do some maths...
keep every little expenses recorded, also all the time involved in doing this assigment.( duration of shooting, upload to computer, processing, touch up, adjustment, travel to printer, make hard copies, travel back home, deliver to client, etc )

You should have now..total nos.of hours spent.( time cost )
total cost of all the printings,transportation, albums, CDs etc.( physical cost )
to go into details, some photographer may even include the wear n tear of their equipments, but as a starter, you can leave this to a side until later stage.

Minus the physical cost from the $80/= you've rec'd. What remains will be your time cost.

Let's assume that after minus the physical cost you left $30/=
and if your total time spent is say 10 hours, that means you are a $3/= per hour photographer. ( cheaper than a temp job )

Make adjustment to this pricing in your next assignment and also as you progress along.

I'd known of one portrait photographer charges S$2,000/= for one portrait sitting, and uses only two lights set up. There are client willing to pay that sum, but of course he has got his value.

 

[wrx_sti_22b]

Hi All,

Would like to seek some advice:

1) How much can i charge for a 2 hrs shoot during a birthday party.
2) What should i include beside giving CD of all pics taken?
3) Should i develope any pics for them and if needed, how mach pieces should i develope?

Appreciate all help. Thanks alot.

How professional are you? Are you able to take good pics? This person is your friend or not? All these are some of the factors. Adult or children's birthday party?

 

[trucatus]

Treat it as an event shoot. S$100 an hour average. (There are differs in charges but about market event rate).