PBase

I am not a professional photographer by any means

My friend asked me to take portraits of her beloved Doggy...

She wants to compensate me for my time and efforts

What should I charge her?

It will take about 2-3 hours total including editing after the shoot.

I will put all the pics on a cd for her and she is going to order whatever prints she wants on her own.

What is a fair / reasonable fee for this?

sher811 wrote:I am not a professional photographer by any means

My friend asked me to take portraits of her beloved Doggy...

She wants to compensate me for my time and efforts

What should I charge her?

It will take about 2-3 hours total including editing after the shoot.

I will put all the pics on a cd for her and she is going to order whatever prints she wants on her own.

What is a fair / reasonable fee for this?

For a friend I'd just do it as a gift.

For an acquaintance or a co-worker I don't know well, that's another
matter.

its actually a "friend of a friend"

its my best friends stepmom...whom i have only met once before

i have only done photos for my friends for free before

so, what do you earn on your day job? do you see any reason that you are not worth at least that?

that's a good way to look at it...

i make 40$/hour teaching piano

well, there you go. my physical therepist charges $90/hr.

I like how you explained finally how close your "friend" was to you..lol. You see, this is a huge part of the conundrum of taking photos for people you know (and their friends, and their friends, etc.)

I always give family free pics or charge them just what my online printer charges - the work I do is free. CLOSE family that is... My best and very good friends get a discount (sometimes a freebie just because I want to give a gift ..). Aquaintences and people who know people who know me are charged exactly what I make on a shoot.

When I started out I didn't think I was worth much. A sitting fee for doing portraits was $25 (I groan when I think of it). My first wedding I only charged $200 .. then next $400. Then I realized I was foolish, foolish, foolish because I made NOTHING on it really after 20 hours of processing/posting/sizing photos. I decided my time and talent were worth being compensated. People expected a discount because they knew who I was. I soon realized that most of the work I got was from friends, acquaintences, or people who knew them. To always give discounts was to never charge a full price for work I thought was excellent and time consuming.

I recently offered to do wedding photos for a co-worker for $500 just because she hadn't found anyone yet and said she didn't think she could "afford" me (my usual rates are $1200 for wedding and reception). I offered it also with a small package of prints as a gift. She said she had to ask her fiance.. of course we've worked together for 3 weeks and she's not said a word to me about it. Another co-worker just asked her yesterday if she had a photographer and she said "no.. I'm looking for the cheapest one I can find"..

Well, you get what you pay for when Uncle Joe is your photographer just because he owns a digital camera and will do it for the fun of it.

My point is (I think I have one) that I finally learned to sum it up in a single thought that I would imagine posing to a client:

"Take what I make on a shoot, divide it between the hours I shoot, process, interact with client, get prints, deliver and I make about $2.50 an hour if I charge low rates.. would YOU work for that?"

Truth is, I believe I'm worth every penny I charge (and then some). And if you don't have faith in yourself, you've already been f**ked.

Jude: you make a very good point. thanks for taking the time to respond to my post.

I am starting to think I should just do it for free...but if she wants to "reward" me with monetary compensation...she can decide the amount.

(it might just end up being more than I would have suggested anyhow)

LOL

I dont want to do this professionally...I just want to do it for fun