Onsite Event photography

<p>Hello,<br>

I am in the process of starting an onsite event photography service. I am using a Sony SnapLab 1800 dye sub, a cannon rebel EOS and a Nuvatron lighting system. I am currently still learning the system and creating a marketing strategy for my business ie. website, cards and brochures. I would like to do corporate events, weddings, school events and any think I haven't thought of. Can someone please tell me a going hourly rate for a service of this kind. Also should I offer a black and white price and a color price?</p>

<p>Thanks<br>

Gretchen</p>

<p>Gretchen - w/ your printer, your print costs are exactly the same, so why change prices? <br>

AND, what I can tell you from personal experience with shoot & print on-site: you do NOT HAVE TIME for post-production. Shoot and print. There's your workflow. No more. Do nothing to add steps in there.</p>

<p>Thanks Maria, any thought on an hourly going rate ?</p>

<p>The hourly rate for the services would depend on how many people are on your crew. If you've got one person posing, one person shooting, one person handling printing, one person cashiering, and another person lining up prospects ... let's say you don't want them all working at minimum wage, and that you've got to cover everything from spare equipment to liability insurance for what they're all doing, plus transportation and setup/teardown time. Not to mention rolling in your marketing and admin time, which is not billiable. Will you need to be taking credit cards dozens of times an hour, or planning a cash busisness (hint: people don't carry much cash to weddings and whatnot). <br /><br />In that scenario, probably something like $500/hour + consumables. Or... are you charing $25 per print? That changes everything. Are you delivering prints in mats, bagged, etc? Will you be printing everything, and just taking money from the people who want to pay ... or will you be billing the event organizers per print, or for unlimited prints in the time you're working?<br /><br />First, you've got to settle on a business model. The specific dollars-per-hour are going to vary depending on whether and how you're charging for prints, and how many people it takes to produce each one and deliver it.</p>

<p>You might want to visit craiglist and see what sort of prices you'll find there. Then check with some established studios in your area and network with some local professional photographers....then re-think if this is something that you really want to do. For business mentoring check here: <a href="http://www.score.org/index.html">http://www.score.org/index.html</a> </p>

<p>Absolutely, offer a color and a B&W price. Good luck.</p>

<p>Thank Ya'll for all the responses. In response to Mike I am planning on doing both aspects. I would like to focus on event planners, schools and bride/grooms to pay a flat hourly rate. I don't think that anyone would want a service like mine at a wedding and then have their guest pay for it. In another sense if I get a situation to do a cash and carry situation ( i.e a mardi gras ball) yes i'm in New Orleans than the $ 25.00 dollar print price would be resonable I think. As far as packaging goes part of my service will depend on what the client wants. As far as maybe printing the logo on a cardboard frame or slip. Another thing that seems to be very popular that I'm doing is making magnets. I offer borders and text of different kinds. I'm just wondering about a price breakdown as far as others charge for events. I mean charging the client in a non cash and carry situation. <br>

In respone to David I have teamed up with a professinal photographer who has been very helpfull with the process, as well as teaching me more skills. He has warned me however that other professional photographers at events like weddings will probably not like an onsite photography setup. I guess I can kind of understand but in my opinion I am not trying to get the "money shots" that he should be going for. I will be stationary in one area where guests of the event will come to me and not the other way around. I really don't want to be in competition at an event with a hired photographer who is responisble for making the entire wedding album. I am trying to be a novelty item for guest that is better than the usual junk favors you get at weddings or corporate events.</p>

<p>Thank again for all of ya'lls help, please keep the opinions and ideas comming good or bad.</p>

<p><em>"I have teamed up with a professinal photographer who has been very helpfull with the process, as well as teaching me more skills. He has warned me however that other professional photographers at events like weddings will probably not like an onsite photography setup. I guess I can kind of understand but in my opinion I am not trying to get the "money shots" that he should be going for......." -Gretchen</em><br>

<em></em><br>

For photographers that bring the backdrops to the weddings, those are the "money shots". Again: You might want to visit craiglist and see what sort of prices you'll find there. Then check with some established studios in your area and network with some more local professional photographers....then re-think if this is something that you really want to do.</p>

<p>I did this for 4 years and could not keep up! After 4 years of shooting kids Christmas party along with 4 assistants 4 printer (not dye sub), it was still taking some 10 min to get the pictures out. So this year I said no more. <br>

I just did a paid shoot for a motorcycle event, some guy out of nowhere runs up and sets his camera up and starts shooting the bikes as they go by. He then runs in his truck, prints the pictures and RUNS them down for a 5.00 picture sale. It's getting crazy! Please don't take this wrong, it seems like your trying to be a live photo booth. I hope you have good luck but to me it seems like a run and gun operation and without a back up printer, it seems even more risky. v/r Buffdr</p>

<p>Thanks again for the responses I really appreciate them. I guess I was missing the point because I have never seen a wedding photgrapher really go around to the guests and take photos of them say sitting at the table, only family pics. So I suppose it could be a conflict. I would like to contribute that alot of these post I read ( not just mine)seem to conflict on on -site printing. As for a business aspect I suspect that this is going to be the way an aspect of photography is going to be. Much like going from film to digital and it's about evolving with the times, and keeping up with the latest trends. I feel like this will become a more popular trend than the usual ordering from the websites. That's just my opinion and I could be totally wrong. <br>

Also, David I feel i am missing an undertone that you are telling me to make sure this is what I want to do. Can you please explain? Have you done this and had a bad experience? Please share.</p>

<p><em>"David I feel i am missing an undertone that you are telling me to make sure this is what I want to do. Can you please explain? Have you done this and had a bad experience? Please share." -Gretchen</em><br>

<em></em><br>

Sure, it's an easy business to start up in but it's a difficult business to turn a profit and sustain. One of my first jobs working events was shooting high school reunions for a national chain. We charged the H.S. Reunion Committee zero dollars to shoot the event, this included candid coverage and portraits done at a backdrop of all the guests/couples and the company put all the images in a keepsake book. All for zero dollars. The company made their money by selling the prints to the individual guests at studio reprint prices. Shooting this way where you are shooting without an assured income/profit is often termed shooting "on spec" in that you are speculating a positive outcome. Traditionally, school portraits are also handled in a similar manner, you shoot all the kids, give the teachers free prints, give the school free class group images, and you make your money hoping that the parents will buy prints.....some companies also share a percentage of the sales directly back to the school so the school gets the service, gets the prints, and often gets a little money for hosting the event.</p>

<p>Here's the rub, this tended to work out pretty good in the days of film. Now that everyone has gone digital and most everyone has some sort of personal camera, people are much less reliant on pro-photo services. Most studios have seen a decline in print sales and many wedding photographers don't even bother to sell prints. Instead they often charge an upfront fee which they get prior to producing their product and simply burn a disk of images for their clients. And.........check out craiglist and you'll see people looking for an event photographer and their "pay" is the opportunity, personal fulfillment, and experience of shooting their event, in return they expect a disk of all the images along with a release of all rights to the images. You'll also see ads from shooters offering to shoot for free (to build a folio) or will shoot for dirt cheap. The cost of these adds? "Zero". Everyone is looking for cheap........even this forum, how much does my advice/feedback/experience cost you.........zero. How much will dissenting opinions cost......zero. The other way to make some good money is to find yourself an old, white-bearded, sober, fat guy, put him in a red suit, on a big chair surrounded by elves in the local mall and you'll have the parents & kids lined up cash-in-hand for their quick-print. You may also find a similar photo-op for your golden retriever at the large warehouse pet stores. Course in my area, the Bass Pro Shop is offering free shots with Santa, just to get you in the door.....I'll bet that they'd give you an hourly fee. </p>

<p><em>"I guess I was missing the point because I have never seen a wedding photographer really go around to the guests and take photos of them say sitting at the table, only family pics." </em><br>

<em></em><br>

We call them "table shots" often just the couples sitting at the table or the entire table group. They used to be frequent reprint sales after the event back in the old days and they used to be pretty much standard and you'd expect them at every wedding. Often, the mother of the brides or grooms will assume that these shots will be taken at their kid's wedding today.....based on the good ol' days. Times have changed, business models have changed. To really see some champs in "shooting on spec", take a cruise and watch how many photo-ops are created and taken advantage of. Many experienced cruisers will pay the huge upfront fee for all their photos but many will purchase ale carte. Good money but significant overhead as well. An area that you may not have considered is covering sports teams like little league, local ice skating tournaments, or the local recreation center teams. Here's a resource in Chicagoland: <a href="http://www.tintype.net/">http://www.tintype.net/</a></p>

<p>As I said, the start-up is easy, networking with vendors and generating good WOM takes many months/years. If you've got the passion to do a first rate job of it....go for it. If you're looking to do a little something on the side for a little extra income you can join the craiglist group and compete with them. Either way, you'll need alot of energy to do this at whatever level you desire. Good luck.</p>

<p>Here's another photo event that I came across while checking my email: <a href="http://www.wcthunderbolts.com/pressbox/press/index.html?article_id=572">http://www.wcthunderbolts.com/pressbox/press/index.html?article_id=572</a></p>

<p>Cost of photo........free with donation of nonperishable food.</p>

<p>David, your advice is not Zero, its priceless. Keep them coming!</p>

<p>David thanks so much for the advice, I agree with Anton. Just the fact that your even willing to offer an opinion to a novice like me says alot. The one good thing in my business model is that i'm in Louisiana and we usually fall a little behind the times. I'm sure in Chicago there are a dime a dozen offering this service but I checked out Craigslist and didn't see to much. I mean I see a few photogrphers advertising but not really offering on site. I am hoping to break into the convention business, and using my product for a marketing tool and custom favors for their attendees. I'm not opposed to doing cash and carry work but it's not really where I had my sights. Please keep your opinions coming I really appreciate it.</p>

<p>Thanks for the kind words about the value of my input Anton and Gretchen, it means a great deal to me. New Orleans might be a smidge or two behind Chicago in the way of craiglist but I fear that the writing is on the wall and it's just a matter of time. Nevertheless, passion and persistence can go a long way in succeeding in business, again, good luck.</p>

<p>BTW, Bob's nearby thread on shooting holiday events has some good, concrete marketing tips: <a href="../wedding-photography-forum/00VBGr">http://www.photo.net/wedding-photography-forum/00VBGr</a> Also, if you do a search here on event marketing, you'll see alot of good information.</p>