How to charge for prints?


ahmad0420

New Member
Mar 6, 2010
657
1
0
32
Yishun
www.shadefotoworks.com
Searched the forum before starting this thread, most of it are asking for charges tips for taking photos itself, not delivering prints.

So I got this customer who wish to have a 5R prints of his photo. Question is, how much should I charge him if I do the printing at those machines? Since there's different pricing on different places, how much should I mark-up from the actual price of printing from the machine?

Let's say, printing 5R cost me $1.50. My idea was to charge them $4/print for 5 photos or less and $2.50/print for more than 5 photos. Is that an acceptable price? Or too cheap/expensive?

Thanks in advance!
 

Last edited:
Searched the forum before starting this thread, most of it are asking for charges tips for taking photos itself, not delivering prints.

So I got this customer who wish to have a 5R prints of his photo. Question is, how much should I charge him if I do the printing at those machines? Since there's different pricing on different places, how much should I mark-up from the actual price of printing from the machine?

Let's say, printing 5R cost me $1.50. My idea was to charge them $4/print for 5 photos or less and $2.50/print for more than 5 photos. Is that an acceptable price? Or too cheap/expensive?

Thanks in advance!


That will depends on whether is prints you only revenue? Did you already charge the client a fee to deliver X number of images on soft copy?
 

The shoot was pro-bono. But he is requesting for prints for some of the photos. FYI, it's a car shoot photo. So yes, I only earn from the prints.
 

The shoot was pro-bono. But he is requesting for prints for some of the photos. FYI, it's a car shoot photo. So yes, I only earn from the prints.

If print are your only revenue, you got to play your card right. Do you intend to make a profit or just to cover your expense inccur for the shoot?

I would think $10/pic for qty 1-5, $3/pic for qty onward. Since it is a car shoot, I doubt the client will want a big amount of prints.

Pro-bono means doing it for free if I am not wrong, so not sure how come you decided to charge now.
 

Thanks for the input.

I intend to make a profit, measurable amount, not just to cover expense, but at the same time not to ring the bell of the customer. There's only 30 photos to choose from.

This shoot itself is free exclusively for his car, as I volunteered for it, but I want to charge for print, since I did not volunteer for giving him free prints in the first place.

So those kind of rates you gave me are reasonable enough?
 

Cost of print plus cost of your transport plus cost your time plus profit is the total price you should sell.

As a professional photog, I felt selling 5r at $30ea is losing money if client just get a few prints. As it is time to print, cost to have to get to the client and no profit left.

My print price is $30 for 5R and $70 for 8R for normal photo print which makes mr about $5-10 if I don't count my time. That just give you some idea on how much a professional will charge and how much profit they made.


Hart
 

whether the service is free, pro bono, or paid, your print price suppose to have decent mark up, it should cover your efforts, time, cost of material, QC and also profit.
so $10 for a piece of 5R is not expensive.

a 16R are you referring to 16"x20"? if yes, are you sure $15 able to cover your efforts, time, cost of material, QC and also profit? anyway I'm looking at the selling price of $50-ish. if clients complain expensive, should advise them to order the print themselves.

hope this help.
 

Haha thanks guys, I'm not really sure if I can use the word "professional" for my service, although I already have a few clients.

The thing is now I'm not printing from my own, but from a photo lab, where I merely insert the disc and print.
 

Last edited:
one way to look at it is, if this is to promote you, you could just charge at the print cost but put your contact details on it so it act as cheap advertising if you hope to get more work from there.

But feel free to charge what you are comfortable... and most importantly at a price that your client would buy... hahaha...

Hart
 

oh dear, after reading Hart's post, I realize that I still selling so cheap.

:sweat::sweat::sweat: but then you guys have a lot more volume that I am... it is always an equation of higher charge lower volume and lower charge higher volume so at the end, it is still the same...

Regards,

Hart
 

From help from you guys here, I've decide to charge $9/5R for less than 6 photos, and $4/5R for more than 5 for a start. I also charged him $27 for the 16" by 20" print.
 

Just had a quick look on your website...

your work is pretty good.. are you sure those charge justify your effort? not trying to interfere but just want to let you think a bit.

Hart
 

Haha thanks man. Yea I know my price for print is abit of the unrealistic side. My main concern is how the customer will think if I charge at normal professional level, since they have never engage any professional service, and they know I'm just starting out for about a few months.

Is it still okay to charge around the price you state?
 

Just to confirm with you guys, called the print centre to ask for quote of 16R. Told me its "three five". Is it most probably $3.50 each or $35?
 

its up to you really... you can charge what you think you could sell it for.

Hart
 

how can be $3.50?
IIRC KT is charging around $7 for a 12"x18", that is the lowest I can find in SG.

Okay, then I guess need to re-quote my customer about the 16R.

I was recommended to Shalom Colorlab at bras basah for their service. Any experience? Or maybe suggestions for other photo labs?