charging for photography

oh . my.. god

i wish, now that i am older and more comfortable with events in my life, that someone would have offered this to me.

I agree.
anyone with a camera should offer thier time to this.

hehe..
actually.. when noone is listening, or looking, I tell myself that I am a [size=7]national geographic photographer and everyone in the world wants me to take a picture of them[/size]

LOOK!!!!
at the bottom -
http://www.triciamitchell.com/Photos.html


thats MY work

on a singers WEB SITE!!!!

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

How did I miss this thread?

I think you are a very good photographer and I think that its great that people are wanting to pay you for your work. Do it to it!

I have really been a slacker lately on working on my own stuff and I still don't feel like I'm quite ready to lauch so I'm still not really charging much above and beyond my actual costs plus a little mark up for time.

One reason for this is simply because I want to create a little buzz by getting prints in people's hands. Your work has to be seen and talked about and referred and the best way to do that is by getting it out there. Make sure that you ask to use the work in your portfolio too!

If I were you I would calculate my prices by doubling whatever the lab charges you for prints. If an 8x10 is $5 - you charge $10.

Even if you are shooting digital, don't let the person see the photos until you have done cropping, editing, whatever. Then print up some small proofs on your computer (or better yet, have them printed at your lab) for them to order from.

Actually, I was thinking of printing them out myself.

Bad idea?

I do think it is a mistake, shewolf, on several levels:

Computer prints will end up costing you more money in the long run with the cost of ink cartridges, paper, and wear and tear on your computer. Nobody ever gets the print right the first time because the color balance and contrast do not appear the same on your screen as they do in a print.

Computer prints don't look as good as real prints.

Lab prints are not as expensive as you might think and they do most of the fixing up to make sure the print looks good.

You might as well make your name with top quality!

hm. good point.

thanks boom.

my un official mentor.

Shewolf, If I were to to compare you to the pros in the bottom photos from the singers website the two things I see is she has a blurry hand where she is strumming the guitar and in the other the light coming through her arm is a too bright, But other then that who could tell the differance.

i had a reallllllly hard time with that light.
She was on lake travis, and a beautiful full lake/green hills/ boats for a background could have made a wonderful picture.
A picture that would have fallen in line with her folk style music, but I couldnt control that reflection from the sun on the lake.

Most of my pictures, she looks like a big white ghost.
The one way I could tune it down was use sephia and b&w.

then a little photoshop , but not much.

Thanks though.

I thought they looked just as well as the others too.
Though, i think the others are too 'posed'

but thats just me. I hate posed pictures

Don't get me wrong though shewolf. I am looking specifically for the flaws in your photos. My friends went to art school and are now struggling artist. I am constantly asked what I think and I always look for the flaws first. "Search and Destroy" These two issues (Blurry action and uneven light) and you will already have already earned yourself a degree above just anybody with a digital camera.

Yea, I hear you about the posed pictures. You can control almost all the conditions under "posed" conditions. Your photographs are much more of a challenge then the others, as in light and motion.

I can see your going to get it though. This is childsplay compared to what you have already conquered.

I shot a wedding at Lake Travis once and I know the lighting is a total bitch! I think your photos are really good. You can dodge out some of those bright spots in photoshop, you know!

(I'm officially an unofficial mentor!)

I don't want to hijack your thread shewolf but I'm wondering if husker has contacted that group and learned anything. I don't quite get how it works. I'm going to talk to my friend at the Children's Cancer Association and see what she might know.

thanks. :-)

Actually, with that picture I did.

I took colors from her left arm to create her right arm because the color was just bleached out with the reflection.
I left a bit of the light there because, when I had gotten rid of it completely, it looked fake.
I wasnt really able to keep the natural flesh color with a sephia hue like that.