what to charge photo edit & album?

[gale_zucker1]

<p>This is my first post on this forum- I'm not usually a wedding photographer, I do commercial & editorial work, and have no retail pricing structure.<br>

An acquaintance who was married last winter in the Carribean, and has all rights to the 1800 images shot at the event, wants to hire me to edit and create a high end wedding album for her (leather, embossed, gilded edges, flush mount).<br>

The images look really well shot so I'm ok in that department but I have no idea how to price this . Obviously I don't want to undercut anyone who offers this as part of their wedding packages, and I want to, of course, be paid well for my services.<br>

I appreciate any thought son the pricing, and any resources for the albums!</p>

<p>Thanks,<br>

Gale Zucker</p>

[john_deerfield]

<p>Well this is very tough. A high quality album depending on number of pages and cover materials can easily <em>cost</em> over $1,000. Most quality album vendors will require you register with them in advance. Most will require sample images to be sent for print confirmation- meaning they want to be sure what they do in print is what you were expecting prior to ever printing and binding an album. So that will cost time and money. Alternatively, you could use your own lab for prints and send them to the album manufacturer for binding, but even that methods has it's ups and downs. Let me ask you this, I am a wedding photographer, what should I charge one of my brides for some commercial work she needs done? There is a whole workflow/experience issue. Best possible scenario? Design the album but work with a local wedding photographer who has the contacts and experience getting a quality album back. Look through their samples to find an album the bride likes and then the photographer can give you an idea as to what the cost of that album would be and their fee to get it made off of your design.</p>

[swede_spoltore]

<p>I would research albums that you can purchase, determine the cost and than double it for that portion of the job. As for your editing, you could charge by the hour after you determine what you want or you could advise the customer of a flat editing fee based on a certain amount of images and album pages. (maybe $25-$50 per hour depending on your skill level or about a flat editing fee of $250-$400 plus cost of album)</p>

[savagesax]

Check out Leather Craftsmen, Capri, less expensive is Topflight, along with several others. Both album companies have beautiful book covers in several assorted colors.

 

I charge according to the price of the album and then I triple that cost, plus shipping and taxes, if taxes are applicable.

 

For labor figure out your per hour rate. We have some cool software that almost designs the album for you. We can knock out an album in an hour or 2.

 

If you do the designing yourself my guess is plan on about 20 to 40 hours, which includes retouching, double exposures, vignettes, converting some images to B&W, assorted sizing, cropping, and all of the other goodies that the B&G want and like.

 

I believe most companies will offer to create the albums for you and it's not that expensive. If this is your first time designing an album you may want to consider having them do it for you and save yourself a lot of stress. They will email you the page layout.

 

1800 images drastically needs to be cut way down. I can't tell you how many images you need, because of the amount of pages vary. Some clients may order 2 albums divided into 2 parts, the ceremony and the reception. Perhaps the best thing to do is ask the B&G to pick their favorite images and then you can create the album(s) accordingly.

 

Try to avoid too much design input from your client. Let them know your are the artist. The more they contribute to the actual design the more they will change their minds causing you unnecessary delays and headaches. I would show the couple the final computer layout of the album pages before ordering the album; needless to say get signatures for the final approval. If for some unforeseen reason they don't like the delivered album you have the signatures of approveal to protect yourself, therefore you won't be out several hundred dollars.

[aimee_pieters]

<p>However you charge, put a limit on the amount of changes you do that are part of your initial price. You can really get hurt if your client can't make up their mind and keeps making changes. You can either charge by the hour or allow them one round of changes and go from there.....-Aimee </p>

[gale_zucker1]

<p>Thanks for all of the advice- very helpful!<br>

Have any of you used ZookBooks? ( despite the same last name I'm not related to the company's owner. Nor to Monty). They were recommended to me by a colleague and look good- but I haven't seen their name come up in album recommendations.</p>

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