Comments on: Don’t base your photography prices on time!

By: PP

PP — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:25:24 +0000

Not pricing on time has recently been discussed over at A Photo Editor’s site. Interesting article and discussion to be found here:

http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2010/07/27/real-world-estimates-pricing-photography-for-image-libraries/

By: PP

PP — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:34:52 +0000

Hi Deirdre,

Although the licencing model is aimed at commercial and advertising shooters strangely enough social, wedding and portrait shooters tend to already price for the use of the image.

That’s the bottom line. The image usage attracts $x so more use is $x + $y

You are doing a session for a fixed creative fee and your “usage” is the print which is (I assume) given over for personal use only. So you’re pretty much there already in as far as this model applies to the portrait market.

I am *not* a social shooter so I really can’t comment on what is good or bad in your arena (same goes for weddings too) but the whole principle of the “end product” holding the value and *not* the time it took you to create it can be applied to all forms of photography businesses.

In commercial and advertising photography we control usage buy way of a licence. In portraits and weddings this is by way of the product, the prints or album.

Just as a commercial client will return to licence extra uses or more time, or additional media placements then your clients *should* return to purchase extra prints.

I’d say carry on doing what you’re doing. You don’t give over a CD (which would be like shooting unlimited use or “RF” in stock) so you control your usage via your print sales.

I think you have the perfect model already.

Best

By: Deirdre

Deirdre — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:43:01 +0000

What would you recommend for portrait shooters in terms of pricing their time? i charge a creative fee and separately for prints. i do not offer these on cds….

By: thephotographybiz.com » 5 stock and photography business do’s and dont’s for 2010

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 18:17:45 +0000

[...] http://www.thephotographybiz.com/photography-business/dont-charge-out-your-photography-on-time/ [...]

By: PP

PP — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 11:31:22 +0000

Hi Paul,

Yes, its the best way to charge so you are not digging ever bigger holes by giving more and more for less and less. It also shows the client that you charge based on the worth of the image to them, not just how long it took you to shoot.

By: Paul Dymond

Paul Dymond — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:27:55 +0000

It is so fantastic to see a post about charging per image. I’ve been charging this way for the last few years and ever since I made the switch I have seen my income skyrocket and my workload plummet! It’s fantastic – now all I have to do is convince the other photographers in town that it’s worth their while too.

By: thephotographybiz.com » Assignment Photography: How to charge and price up assignments - part four

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:43:48 +0000

[...] The first thing to rule out is charging on time. Charging for your time is not going to make you rich, and it’s very unlikely even to make you a living wage. Charging for your product is what you are aiming for. If you want to know why charging time is bad business for photographers read this post here. [...]

By: 11thStudio

11thStudio — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:38:57 +0000

Good article, thanks – i wish more people understood it’s more than just point and click!

By: PP

PP — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:23:54 +0000

Hi Noni,

Many thanks – glad you’re enjoying the site. Yes, I blocked about 60 domains yesterday – I’m trying to filter the adsense down to just the stuff that will be of interest to readers.

Obviously as you kindly pointed out – “free image” ads aren’t :) There are loads of them – and adsense is country specific too so it may take a time before I get a good set of stuff popping up.

I’m doing this in between assignments and stock shoots so its a case of getting there eventually..!

By: Noni

Noni — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 22:10:52 +0000

Hi PP,
with Adsense you can only block individual domain names. I wish there was a way to filter by keywords.

Adsense is useful, though, for keeping your blog in top search results so consider what’s worse – loss of publicity or competition from micro’s and nano’s.

Thanks for your articles, by the way ;)