Newbie questions from Becca

I received an email from Becca. She asks a series of questions that have been asked by others and will probably garner some interest from the Wootness crew, so I told her I’d answer her email here. Put on your big girl panties, though, Becca, I’m going to say some things that might not be to your liking, but I’ll try to say them gently…

Hi Christine, I subscribe to your Wootness blog, and I have a question regarding packing and pricing — maybe your other readers are in the same boat. Someone once told me that photography is like prostitution: first you’re just fooling around, then you do it for your friends, then you do it for other people, then you do it for money. I guess you could say I fit somewhere between doing it for friends and doing it for money. I’m not a professional photographer. It’s mainly a hobby, but I also help at a studio for their weddings. I’ve been asked to do a few photo shoots for friends (weddings, senior portraits, family shoots, etc.). I don’t have any kind of pricing structure set up, so I usually end up quoting them a ridiculously low price and giving them a CD with 20 images or so when all is said and done. When you consider my travel time, time at the shoot and editing after, my hourly rate is embarrassingly low. At first my philosophy was that this was giving me good experience too, so it was okay that it wasn’t a huge money-maker for me. But now I’m ready to make this side work count. So — where do I start? Instead of giving a CD, what kind of packaging options would you suggest? And what is a reasonable price? I’m hoping to have my policies and pricing in place by January 1. My next step is talking to a CPA to figure out how to do this legally! Thanks for any advice you can give. I love your blog! -Becca

OK, where to start…

First of all…prostitution? That just made me laugh, considering the whole Passionate Patty series and all. 😉

I’m not a professional photographer. It’s mainly a hobby, but I also help at a studio for their weddings.

Oh dear. How do I say this nicely? This is not a fence you get to straddle. If you are accepting money for doing photography, then it’s not a hobby. If you feel you are not good enough to be called a professional, then stop accepting money and stay a hobbiest. When new photographers straddle this fence, this causes all kinds of problems. This is the mindset that new photographers use to justify selling their services at ridiculously low prices and slapping the files on a CD.

If you are helping a studio, and they are paying you as an independent contractor – they should issue you a 1099 at the end of the year if they paid you more than $600 during the year. If they paid you less than $600, you still need to track this income and report it to the IRS when you file your taxes on April 15th at 11:59 pm.

Furthermore – if the studio you are currently working for (sorry, there is no “help out” in this business) had you sign a non-compete contract, you will need to refer to this to determine if you can legally go into business on your own. You wouldn’t want to violate a contract and besides, it’s just bad karma to take all the skills someone else taught you and then compete against them. (Now, I happen to know that Becca lives 2 hours away from the studio she does weddings for, so this may not be an issue). Another thing to think about is what you are going to use for a wedding portfolio. If the studio you are working for gives you permission to use the files you shot while in their employ, then you’re fine. It’s a generally accepted practice to note “photography ©Becca for ABC Photography” in the credits so that there is no confusion. This is the proper good-karma way of things.

I don’t have any kind of pricing structure set up, so I usually end up quoting them a ridiculously low price and giving them a CD with 20 images or so when all is said and done. When you consider my travel time, time at the shoot and editing after, my hourly rate is embarrassingly low.

Aaaah, grasshopper. You have learned the first lesson. You must price yourself correctly. Low pricing is not correct. You must figure in all of your time, expenses and overhead. I have to give you some credit here for staying within a certain number of files. It’s discouraging to hear of photographers giving every single photo on disc and not retouching or culling down. You only want to present the absolute best images to your clients, so it sounds like you are following this philosophy well. Even if they are on a disk.

At first my philosophy was that this was giving me good experience too, so it was okay that it wasn’t a huge money-maker for me.

Wrong. You should never be paid to get experience. But if you’re a reader here, you know that.

Instead of giving a CD, what kind of packaging options would you suggest? And what is a reasonable price? I’m hoping to have my policies and pricing in place by January 1.

I’m going to tick you off now and give you an answer by not giving you an answer.

I can’t tell you what to price yourself. I can’t tell you what packages to put together. Packaging and pricing is an extremely personal thing and you would be wise to not ask for advice for pricing. What you need to do is figure out your costs and your overhead and what amount of profit you deem acceptable for your work and use that as a basis to figure your prices.

Everyone has a happy price. Figure out what yours is. That way, when you are doing photography work, you will be doing it gladly and not be angry that you don’t feel you are being paid what you are worth.

As far as packages go – that’s a whole different can of worms. Again, put together packages that make sense to YOU. Personally, packages don’t make sense to me and I don’t like the whole discount on larger packages to entice people to spend scads of dough philosophy. I price everything a la carte with bonus items for bigger purchases. That’s it. That works for me. Either that, or I shoot for an hourly fee that includes the files (weddings and events ONLY). Now – this may not work for anyone else in the whole world. But that doesn’t matter. It works for me. So figure out what works for you. And don’t be surprised if you go through some trial and error on this. It might take awhile for you to get things figured out. You may even want to put together one small basic package and then as you gain experience with your client base and market, start adding more packages in as you see a need for them. That’s a lot easier than putting together scads of packages and then changing them all when you discover they don’t work well for you.

And…. don’t totally scrap files on a CD. Sometimes that’s an appropriate way to do things. Don’t be forced into ditching them because other photographers talk smack about photographers who slap files on a disk. The REAL issue is when all the files are slapped on a a disk with no retouching or culling and said disk is as cheap as a case of redneck beer & a sack of pork rinds. Capice?

My next step is talking to a CPA to figure out how to do this legally!

High-Wootness-Five to you! Another good step is to visit your county clerk of courts and apply for a vendor’s license to get you started on paying your sales taxes and be all legal that way, too. Good luck, and if you’re ever in my neck of the woods, please stop by for a visit.