Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/09/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>>I really don't understand why a photographer wants >>to be in the print selling business rather than in the photography >>business. >This doesn't make any sense to me. It makes a ton of sense to me, and I've even structured my pricing that way. It's easier if you look at the weddings used to be priced: 1) Brides shop around looking for a photographer. 2) Brides are somewhat cost-conscious once they get a feel for what the entire wedding will be costing them. 3.1) Joe Photographer has learned that he needs $x,xxxx per wedding to stay in business, but competes with other photographers based on price, by offering a not-quite-sufficient package at an "affordable" price, planning on making the rest up on reprints, additions to the album, etc. 3.2) Alternative: Joe requires a "creative fee" of some-fraction-of-$x,xxx, working a-la-carte so that the bride will purchase whatever images she wants later. This looks much cheaper to the bride than paying for everything all at once. 4) Bride later has more money, but it's not like she can go anywhere else once the wedding has taken place. On paper, what you're seeing is photographers charging cost of materials (or less) to show up on the wedding day, with something like a 1000% markup on reprints. That worked well, for a long time. Now though, brides scan images and create their own reprints, and photographers are seeing much less in the way of reprint orders. So the market is changing. What Eric is saying is that the fun/skill in wedding photography is in the photography itself, not the post-processing crap like carding negatives, dealing with relatives, etc. So charge for the hard/fun part, and let the client do the easy/boring part. Instead of pricing like above, figure out what you want to make from a wedding and charge that up-front. Give the client the negatives if you like, with enough rights to make copies for themselves and family members. Now you're in the position where you're making what you want, but you don't have to deal with all the messy follow-up work. Better pay, spend a greater percentage of time doing the work you like, and have happier clients. It could be argued that this is a better business model... - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html