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pricing business portraits


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<p>I've done literally thousands of personal portraits—engagement, bridal, families, individuals, graduates, etc.—but I have done very few business or exec portraits and those that I have done have generally been for friends, for free. A doctor friend recently asked me to take some photos of his new partner that they will use for publicity purposes. He expects me to charge him and I will. I don't have a question about what to charge for the shoot itself, that is, what to charge for an hour of shooting. Let's just say I'll charge $N for that. But the question is, what is the rest of the package here? I'm not sure how to structure it.</p>

<p>With personal portraits, I charge $P for the shoot, and then I charge separately for prints. I may give the client a small credit towards prints. And I'll post low-res copies of photos on Facebook for no charge.</p>

<p>With the business portrait, however, the low-res, web-ready photo is part of what they will want, and giving it away seems a mistake. They may also want high-res photos, which I generally do NOT give personal clients any more.</p>

<p>Just trying to think this through in a way that makes sense and is in line with common practice. Any advice you can offer would be appreciated.</p>

<p>Will</p>

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<p>Irrelevant correction: Did some rough math here. If we're counting "frames" or shots, then okay, but if we're counting individual subjects, then "thousands (plural) of personal portraits" may be a bit hyperbolic. Let me revise that to "I stopped counting several years ago."</p>

<p>Anyway, my question wasn't about personal portraits but about business or executive portraits. After you take the pictures, what do you provide to your clients and how do you price it? Are prints included in the fee for the one-hour shoot? Do you charge for digital files? Do you charge more for high-res files than web-resolution files?</p>

<p>Will</p>

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<p>We offer professional head/shoulder portraits and do them frequently. We have one "package"- 10 h/s on 1 portrait background, high-res cd, $200. Note that our studio is open 8-5 M-F regardless of having sessions scheduled or not, so it is only a matter of a photographer hopping up, turning on the lights, shooting it (10-15 minutes tops), downloading it, culling it (our choices, not the clients) down to 10 shots, doing global adjustments (if needed), and burning on a disk (all of this is usually available while the client waits, or they pick it up the next day).</p>

<p>Note though that we don't have to set-up, tear down, come in at some odd time, or do anything else inconvenient. If we did, we would charge more. ;-) For us, it is a cost-covering easy process for a quick $200. This is the only thing we offer on cd (generally). We charge more for basic retouching (I think $10 per image for a quick 3 minute "production" retouch).</p>

<p>Hope that gives you an idea. It is a good thing for us, and high on the profit-margin list.</p>

<p>Jen</p>

<p>Edit: I reread your second post, and there is no way we would spend 1 hour with someone on this. Really, it is 15 minutes tops. We frequently get Realtors, Doctors, lawyers, etc that just need a professional portrait to put on the webpage or listing sign, or they need it for a press release or something similar. It is a burn-and-turn approach (to borrow a restaurant term), but the client appreciates that because they generally don't want to be here any longer than 15 minutes either. The actual portrait is shot using our "standard" set-up (main to fill at 2 to 1, bg light, soft rim light, hair light) that is never torn down in a camera room with canvas backgrounds hanging. It really is a very efficient process for us. </p>

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<p>I don't have an 8-5 studio. Studio is in back of my home. I'm always happy to set things up—backdrops, lights—to take studio portraits, and I'm pretty quick at it now. But the portrait I'll be doing next week will be taken at the doctor's office. I'm going to bring lights, umbrellas, and stands but I'm hoping I'll be able to do a good job without having to knock out a wall. ;-)</p>

<p>Anyway, thanks for the detailed response, Jen. Gives me an idea how I can structure my own package and fees.</p>

<p>Will</p>

 

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<p>We would probably price that job as a location commercial job, which is a location fee and an hourly fee with the images given on cd, high res (note that commercial work is the only other thing where we provide images on cd). These days, it is almost impossible not to give that kind of image on cd, simply given the multiple uses the images are intended for. We price per hour and don't limit the images. We do enough to get the job done properly. We quote each job independently, depending on work involved- an awards dinner is different than a shoot of a submarine stored dry on a barge while you float down the river, which is different than 10 shots of a store front at the mall. Good luck with your job, though. My only advice now is to make your money up-front, because I don't see the need the prints in most of our commercial work, only a disk for websites, catalogs, legal records, press photos, and promotional pieces. We've also successfully separated our commercial and portrait business into two different styles (pricing structure and if we provide digital copies or not). When we are "cold called" about commercial work, 99% of the time it is for a cd of images, only. That being, I would look at defining the two (commercial and portrait) as much as you can as you move forward with more commercial work. Good luck!</p>
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<p>Burger all the way- with an ice cold brew, too. ;-)</p>

<p>I always enjoy reading about others' business stratagies, so I always try to share ours. It may not fit every market or every photographer, but you never know when it may spark an idea that applies to your own business. </p>

<p>Have fun on the shoot- location and commercial are very enjoyable to me.</p>

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  • 8 months later...
<p>I know this is an old thread, but I just ran across it and found the strategy very informative. Would either of you care to fill in some numbers regarding what you actually charge for location, hour, etc? I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska, which is probably a somewhat cheaper market than Dallas. Where are you, Jen?</p>
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