So, You want to Shoot Events...
Q) Skip, I've been asked to shoot a family reunion. How do you figure out what to charge?
A) Great question. First, there are two primary components to the pricing: 1) shooting the event, and 2) delivering the images (corporate clients are typically looking for digital delivery and private clients are generally looking for prints of some type).
Another consideration is the scope of the job. From an event shoot, your clients are looking for as many good/usable/printable images as possible for the time you're hired. I try to to deliver at least one image for every minute I'm on the clock. That might sound easy, but try to do it on a regular basis and you'll soon find that it's real work.
Let's first look at shooting. I recommend having an established hourly rate and a daily rate. If the job spans multiple days or if the job lasts longer than 5 hours on a given day, charge the daily rate; otherwise, charge the hourly rate. All rates should include all basic post-processing. Also, I recommend charging the same regardless of the event you're shooting, whether it's a ribbon-cutting, an awards dinner, a family reunion, or a wedding. When you start having widely different rates for every different type of thing, you risk having people question the fairness of your pricing...
Now, let's consider delivery options. If it is a corporate event, I typically deliver a DVD containing both high-res and low-res images for editorial use and normal day-to-day marketing (they know if they want to use something beyond their normal usage, they are going to pay more). If it is a private function, they get either an online gallery, a DVD slideshow, or both. I use Proshow Gold to produce slideshows that will run on a PC or a DVD player hooked up to a TV--and I do NOT include the source images. The bottom line is this: I am going to deliver them a collection of images for them to choose to do whatever they want--prints, books, cards, slideshows, whatever.
One thing I have found is that NONE (and I really stress NONE) of my clients want to deal with printing photos; they leave that up to me. Nobody wants to be the one in the middle, having to deal with getting prints made for everyone who attended an event. If all they have to do is point people to a website that offers secure online ordering, everyone will be happy.
The primary key to making money at this is time management. You have to shoot a large volume of good, purchaseable images and you have to have them ready for purchase very, very quickly. This is not that difficult, once you get comfortable with the process. I use Photoshop actions to prepare my photos for a web gallery, and then I use Exposure Manager to make the images available for prints (you can either use their print services, or you can self-fulfill. Either way, I don't spend time really editing anything until after someone has paid for a print to be produced.). The thing is, all you have to do is prove that you have a collection of great images, and you can do that with a web-gallery or a digital slideshow. You do NOT have to spend hours hand-editing 100s or 1000s of images. You only spend time on the ones people are paying you for.
Ok, this may or may not be running long (depending on how useful it is...), so let's summarize. You charge an hourly or daily rate. You shoot. You batch process. You put together an online gallery and/or a digital slideshow. People see your photos and order them. You edit the ones ordered and your customers get their prints. You get paid. Everyone is happy.
So, what do you charge? It depends on what the market will bear. Will your market pay $50 an hour? $100? $150? $200? Will your market pay $750 a day? $1000? $1500? It all depends on where you are and what people will spend. It may take some negotiating and selling on your part--and that may be something you are comfortable with, or something you need to be learning.
A note of caution... There is one other key element in determining your rate, and that is, what are you worth? Sure, you can look at your competition and tell yourself that you can do better then them, but, you had better be able to back it up. Getting paid isn't a matter of what you can quote, it's a matter of what you can earn. You have got to be able to deliver the goods, consistently.
There are a few other things to take into consideration. Will you need any help, or will you be able to shoot everything yourself? Do you have all the equipment you need, or will you have to borrow/rent? The main thing is to make sure your pricing covers all the incidentals.
As for prints, what I recommend is for you is to find out what the local wedding/portrait photographers are charging for an 8x10, then divide by 3, then round it to something that you can live with. Then base your 4x6, 5x7, 11x14, etc off of that. Do charge almost as much for a 4x6 as a 5x7 because they take just as long to edit as the larger prints.
I do hope this is helpful and wish you the best of luck with your event. If you have any more questions, just let me know.
Skip
PS: For what it's worth, I spent years investigating and trying out various online sales services (including both photoreflect and smugmug) before finding Exposure Manager. If you want to find out more, please let me know.