wedding print prices.

redmonkee

redmonkee

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PHILIP
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Hi all

I shot my first wedding last week and am currently editing all the pics before posting on my site.

Now I shot the wedding for free as they were friends of a friend with the agreement that they buy any prints they like from my site.

Now the question I have is what prices to charge for prints?

I currently sell sports images at the following prices http://www.philcarverphotography.com/page11245.html

Do you think this is too cheap for wedding shots?
 
I don't think this is too cheap, you look like you're sensible enough to watermark them. How much "costs" if any do you need to recover?
 
redmonkee said:
Now I shot the wedding for free as they were friends of a friend with the agreement that they buy any prints they like from my site.

Now the question I have is what prices to charge for prints?
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Whatever you charge for them will probably be too expensive!

If you didn't agree the price with them beforehand, and they got the wedding shot for free, I suspect they will expect Photobox type prices too ie 30p/50p ish :puke:
 
Would it not make sense just to keep the prices the same as on your website?

Increase the prices and your friend may feel you are trying to take advantage. If she thinks they are too high you can point out that's what you charge everyone else.
 
Hi guys just want to dig up this thread as I am seeing the happy couple tonight with a view to them ordering prints and maybe a coffee table book.

Now I put the prints on my website at my usual rate I charge for the sports pics, but what should I charge if they want me to design them a coffee table book.

I showed them the books by Apple using Iphoto and they seemed impressed and I know for a 100 page book this will cost about £120 so how much do you think would be a reasonable price to charge them?
 
redmonkee said:
Hi guys just want to dig up this thread as I am seeing the happy couple tonight with a view to them ordering prints and maybe a coffee table book.

Now I put the prints on my website at my usual rate I charge for the sports pics, but what should I charge if they want me to design them a coffee table book.

I showed them the books by Apple using Iphoto and they seemed impressed and I know for a 100 page book this will cost about £120 so how much do you think would be a reasonable price to charge them?
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The book costs £120. The time putting it together costs too. So if it takes two hours to lay out a book it's 2 hours x your hourly rate. Let's say £100 for sake of argument. Then the time to take it to them and show it - maybe short travelling distance, so add on a hour for there and back and a cuppa. So that's another £50.

If you're going to proof it first before they agree to a layout then the time adds up further.

So a £120 book becomes easily £270 and that's without any mark-up on the book, and that's at £50 an hour.
 
Can't see any pictures anywhere, but a £500 bill on a 'free' wedding seems a bit steep to me.

ETA: 50 7x5 prints would cost them £350, and you want £500 for an album? I think you're in danger of putting a rather sour taste in their mouths TBH. Caveat here is that I haven't seen any pics, and I don't know how upfront you were about the chargeable items BEFORE the wedding...
 
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DDP said:
.....a £500 bill on a 'free' wedding seems a bit steep to me.
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I understand they may (almost certainly will) be shocked at that figure, but they can take it or leave it.

Just because the wedding was shot for free, doesn't mean the photographer has to fulfil any new requests at a cut price.

Trouble is, situations like this can leave a bitter taste.... with the client because they feel they are being ripped off..... and with the photographer because they feel they are being taken advantage of.

I am amazed that couples are booking photographers.... and photographers are accepting bookings.... without prices for extras being established at the outset :shrug:

Edited to add: DDP added to his post while I was typing so looks like I copied!!!
 
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Likewise, I'm surprised (and disappointed, for all parties) that this wasn't agreed upfront.

I'm not saying the value of what redmonkee has done isn't in line with the prices that are being banded about, I'm just saying that there's a very good chance that the client will be somewhat taken aback. And they'll now looking at numbers that are similar (or more!) than some wedding photographers would have charged in the first place.

Again, I will stress I'm not knocking the work that's been done (I haven't seen it) but if you set out your stall as a free wedding photographer my personal view is that you can't later hold them to ransom and expect anything more than £400 for everything; disk, album, and perhaps some prints too.

If the OP can, then good on him, but it's not a pleasant way to conduct business IMO.

Are they having hi res images on disk too?
 
The problem with you showing them the Apple stuff is that they can find the actual price within a couple of clicks, so you would then need to justify the extra when they bring it up.
 
Hi guys sorry I forgot to add the link to my wedding shots.

Here they are
http://www.philcarverphotography.com/portfolio211350.html

I see what you mean about charging this much for a 'free' wedding but the 'free refers to my time taking the pictures. Any editing and designing surely has to be charged as the idea they have for the coffee table book means it'll be quite a big job as they want a mix of my pics plus their honeymoon pics.

Also like I have stated the agreement was that they would pay for any prints off my site, the only reason the coffee table book has been mentioned is because I told them I uses to design albums for a living and they asked me to price one up for them.
 
I would give the option of a few different books at different prices rather than hitting them with a figure of £500, do a bit of research into the different books at different price ranges but making sure that you cover your own cost also.
 
using the apple book templates from iphoto you aren't really designing anything, all the designs are done for you, you're just placing the photo's into the placeholders on the themes.

It's something they could do themselves right? I mean iphoto book generation is pretty foolproof - aren't they going to think well how much is it to get a dvd of all the photos and do it themselves?
 
redmonkee said:
...Any editing and designing surely has to be charged...
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In theory yes, absolutely. It just would have been better for everyone if it was agreed upfront, but hey, it wasn't and I promise not to mention it again ;)

I've compared Apple books with Blurb books and if I was you I would go with Blurb. The quality is fine and you'll get change from £50. Selling one of those for £200 ish seems more realistic to me, and I would consider a print package where the B&G sees an economy of scale. Test the water with them and gauge how many prints they want; they might want a small print of every image, and I think that's where your current print prices will end up a bit excessive.

IMO there needs to be some middle ground between the prices you've mentioned and the prices that are fair for the B&G, but you know the relationship and agreement better than anyone, so only you can answer the question really :)

ETA: I've been trying to put myself in the shoes of someone that's got a 'free' wedding photographer, and I have no idea what their expectations are of the final bill, I've assumed (rightly or wrongly) that the final bill sort of has to be lower than the final bill from a 'paid' wedding photographer. I may be wrong; if they're over the moon with the pics and knew they had to get their wallets out at some point, then they might be quite happy to pay decent money.
 
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Hi guys I met the couple last night and they mentioned that they want the following:

A formal album
This will be an album bought for them by family members and will be filled with prints bought at the prices set on my website.

Coffee table book
Here they want me to design a book combining my pics as well as those taken at the wedding by guests and also some of their honeymoon photos. Obviously this is going to involve a lot of work on my part so i want to charge a decent amount.
I mentioned the iphoto books but I also mentioned another company that offer much higher quality products (that company being Loxley) I'm now thinking of going for the Infinity Coffee table book.
This has a maximum of 60 pages and are hinged so they lay flat and really do look excellent. The cost of this book would be around £100 but would require me to design every page template.

They also mentioned buying a DVD with all the images on but if I sell one of these it would have to have a decent price on it as once this is sold I wont sell any further prints from my site
 
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