How much is reasonable....................

to charge for photographs.

I often see photographers at agility shows charging a fortune for photos of peoples dogs, whilst going round the course. I often take my camera with me to the shows, and if weather is ok will take photos of my lot, plus friends dogs when around. A few people that I have taken photos for have said that they happily pay for the photo's I've taken.

A few people at our agility club have said that they would love a photo of their dog doing agility, so I have said that if I'm about I'll take some photos. Now up until now I have printed off the good ones and passed them on, but as I might take a few more from now on I am thinking of posting the photos somewhere so people can download the photos, but will offer to print them out if required at either A4 of the standard 6"x4" prints.

So my question to you guys, is what do you think is a fair price for me to charge for printing the photos, which will include minor editing. I'd be grateful if you could let me know what you'd think would be a fair price for good quality A4 print and 6x4 prints. I am not looking to make money, but don't want to be out of pocket myself.

Thanks

I often take pics and videos of my students dogs during training, [ and at competitions ], and I do tweaks where necessary, [ cropping, taking things out of the background that look messy, that sort of thing ], none of which costs me anything to do, and I will be putting each handlers pics and clips onto a disc each for them when there is enough footage of each to fill them, so they can print out their own pics but I email individual pics as well so they don`t have to wait for a big collection to be ready. I do go through video clips frame by frame for suitable stills to take off them too

I would just ask members to give me a disc each to put their own pics and vids on to for them so that it was minimal cost to everyone, none to me, [ except time but I enjoy doing it for them so that`s a bonus to me really ], and each person can then print out as many or as few as they like of their pics.

For any members who don`t have a PC or printer so need pics printing out for them, I`m going to start asking for a small donation at their discretion, the proceeds of which will go to a dog charity every year along with any other club fundraiser efforts

Thanks Patch,

My intention is to put them somewhere where people can download them as a rule, but a few people have said that they'd actually like a print done. The pictures in their full size mean I can only e-mail one pic at a time so will enable them to download if they wish.

As for the printing, I am not sure how much it costs for me to print, which is why I am asking what would be reasonable. I am not after making money, but at the same time I don't it so cheap that people want me to print them all the time!

There is also a difference, that you are doing it for your club members, I am doing it for friends and others at the club that know I have taken some good pics. Thanks for your comments though

Don`t know if its any help, depends on what sort of printer you have really, but to try to calculate costs of ink, my printer shows how many prints of the same type I can get from the ink in the printer, so for instance :

if putting in all new cartridges then printing off an A4 photo, the printer can show me how many more of the same I can print from that batch of ink.

So it would just be a case of adding up the ink cost, [ mines a four cartridge printer ], then dividing by how many prints could be done, [ say for instance the ink total was £25 and I could get 100 prints like the first one ], so that would be 25p a copy,

then divide the cost of photo paper by how many sheets in the pack,

add the print and paper costs and you`ll have a pretty accurate idea of costs per print for a good average of what to ask if you were doing prints for people at materials cost price

Edited to add, I tend to buy the CDs of photos whenever possible which some of the professional photographers offer, so that I can print my own as the individual costs to buy prints is rather extortionate in terms of how much they cost to actually print, but of course buying prints at a show also means paying for the photographers skill and the fact that they have to pay for a pitch, expensive equipment, have to camp or get a B&B, wages, and have no way of knowing how many people will buy so its understandable that they have to cover their costs by charging high per photo

I know the reported cost of my photo printer that does 6x4 photos, but that is very low, if you include postage or travel will beat most commercial printing places, and it produce as good photos. I have no idea on my A4 printer, as have generally not used it to print photos, and it doesn't tell me how many more prints I can get out of a cartridge unfortunately.

I understand why they professional photographers charge a fortune as they do have costs to cover, plus earn a living, but I still think £10-20 for a photo, and as yet I am waiting to see a really good one of Kahn or Zoe, is a bit steep. Thanks for your help.

Hi I-Mac.
I do a bit of photography. Firstly, you will find it cheaper to have one photograph proffessionally developed, i.e under £3 for a 10x8 or 12x10 print at somewhere like Jessops. For that size I would reccommend aorund £9-£12 for an unmounted print, but it depends how good you are!

I never give people the full size copy on disc, if they want copies I can get them done for them at a cheaper price than the original, I always provide a low res copy on cd if they want it to show their friends etc..
Dawn.