Your biggest mistake is allowing the client to run the show.

Make it clear they will be shown 20 shots of which they can choose a print.

$100 is not enough.  If you were only charging $10 you can gaurantee some clients would whine if you bumped it to $15.

So never under charge.

500 shots is way too many.  60 edited shots is way too many.

As to last minute rushes at Xmas well sorry but you need to ensure clients book in advance and stick to it. 

Tell them they will have the images in xx days (5 minimum)

Rant? Why you are the one making a rod for your own back!

If you let clients call the shots with out taking in to account your needs (workwise) you will only make for whining greedy clients and and a miserable work life.

 I stopped doing weddings in 2013.  I did one wedding every other weekend and was a home health nurse during the week.  How many stock photos could you do in the time in takes you to process a family photo session?  It took a couple of years to build my port, but now I spend about the same amount of time on stock, make about the same amount of money every month, and my stress level has gone down considerably!   

Teddy, can you be my voice! I get pushed around a lot. People want me to insert animals and things (sparkles, fairy wings etc) and I do it - no extra cost. So I make less than minimum wage in the end. I have no one to blame but myself.

I could put all that time into microstock and make more in the long run - not immediately.

Anyka, glad to hear you are doing well with maternity and newborns! SEO is so important.

I think if I raise my prices it would have to be a lot for me to keep doing it - like $175 an hour but people will be totally confused (and angry) so I think I might make an announcement that I am taking time off and then come back in a year and charge more... I just can't keep doing it the way I am ...

Do you use the photos from your family photography sessions in stock? Or could you?

Oh gosh no! I don't want the liability. I've seen my own work in things it shouldn't be in and can't fight it...

But I meant with the consent of your customers, model releases and stuff.. You feel shy to raise your fee putting so many efforts into the photoshoots and processing, then maybe you could agree with some of your clients for certain images to be used in stock...

Teddy, can you be my voice! I get pushed around a lot. People want me to insert animals and things (sparkles, fairy wings etc) and I do it - no extra cost. So I make less than minimum wage in the end. I have no one to blame but myself.

I could put all that time into microstock and make more in the long run - not immediately.

Anyka, glad to hear you are doing well with maternity and newborns! SEO is so important.

I think if I raise my prices it would have to be a lot for me to keep doing it - like $175 an hour but people will be totally confused (and angry) so I think I might make an announcement that I am taking time off and then come back in a year and charge more... I just can't keep doing it the way I am ...

Learn to be assertive be honest and up front and draw up a list of things you will do and will not do.  State your price and don't worry if they walk away.  You will always have other customers come along who will pay the asking price.

An accountant I know who advises new business start ups points out to all new business people "it is easy to under price yourself but extremely difficult to raise prices once you set the bar too low".

When he started his own practice he worked stupid hours had lots of customers and made little money.

He raised his costs and had customers threaten to leave some did but as he put it they came back in the end because he did a good job.

Let these clients demand sparkles and unicorns but at the end of the day they have to pay for it.  So create an add on price list for edits.

i.e. To add special items like unicorns and fairys $50. Then detail briefly it includes 3-4 hours processing time to do this. or what you need to add such items.

If you type up a price list then detail what is standard and what is extra then there are no arguments.

The client is clear up front what they get.

Oh and you will not make more in microstock. MS is a chisellers paradise I use it as an additional revenue stream only.

Taking time out for a year is not an option, in my view it is your way of avoiding conflict.  So be tough (not aggressive) bite that bullet and you will change your relationship with your clients.

500 shots in 1 hour?  You should better take a video 

I had a wedding and portrait studio for 22 years. Closed in 2002 when I read the digital handwriting on the wall. I was still tracked down by clients wanting family portraits. Not often, but enough that I had to come up with a price and plan.

First problem, no sales room. How to show proofs (or "previews", as we used to call them.) And, I REALLY didn't want to go though all that production work. And, I didn't want to go to their homes multiple times to give, explain, sell, and deliver.
Sell the digital files? Just didn't seem right. A bad print of my file would be a bad reflection on me.

Second problem, I could no longer accept credit cards.

So, I decided to take a radical approach; because I was "through with portraits", and did not want to spend lots of time and effort for a unknown (possibly small) sale. Basically I set my own terms that I would be comfortable with. My personal goal: continue to produce a quality family portrait, spend as little time in sales/production as possible, keep expenses to a minimum, and know beforehand how much I would make.

My solution? Charge $XXX.xx at the time of the portrait. Never move the tripod, take only one arrangement BUT make enough exposures so that I was assured of having a good, natural expression of everyone, and then combine the best expressions for a single "perfect portrait". Then, make one beautiful 11x14 print on my Epson printer, mat it to fit a 16x20 frame. Then, they get a (single) stunning, perfect portrait and the digital negative so everyone could make their own prints AND pass it on for generations.
I knew it probably wouldn't work, but those were the terms I could live with, so I didn't care if no one would agree to it.
Knowing all the downsides of * established portrait traditions, I was prepared for rejection when I got my first inquiry from a long time client.

No different poses to choose from? YOU pick the best one? 
Did I get disappointment, anger, and rejection?
Nope.
I got people that were SO happy that they didn't have to make any decisions!
And no high pressure sales pitch!
And no "add-on's", putting them over budget.
They loved it!

Now for the payment. "Can I put it on my credit card"?
 So sorry,(gulp) I can't take them any more.
"OK. Will you take a check?"
 SURE!

Now, to be honest, I don't do many family portraits now; mainly because there's not much of a call for them - or any other portraits - in this age of phone photos and cloud storage.
But, when I do, I know beforehand what I'm going to make, and feel personally satisfied that all their family members and future generations will have this moment of everyone looking their best to cherish and value forever.

And, I've kept my professional pride. (and made some extra money).

Thank you for the links. People in Buffalo charge $200-$400 for 1 hour (usually 20 -40 files)

Jamie, thank you for sharing your experience.

I could live with only doing 1 family photo and that's that! (I don't take checks though)

Maybe I should consider something like this. People expect so many photos and it wears me down. If I only had to deal with 1 final version, I could see the light!

Client does not care about this. They see only "per hour". And often you can hear that "oh you want such money for a button click!" :-)

Client does not care about this. They see only "per hour". And often you can hear that "oh you want such money for a button click!" :-)

If it was $10 an hour they'd say the same.
The hagglers, arguers, and "that muchers!" are rarely good clients in my experience. Sensible people realise that they're paying for a service that's a lot more than a click!


Luxury services (and professional family photos have to come into that category these days surely?) are never going to be cheap.

Quote from: skyfish on March 17, 2016, 09:50

Client does not care about this. They see only "per hour". And often you can hear that "oh you want such money for a button click!" :-)

Which brings up a good point. In design, I hardly ever work on an hourly basis or quote my hourly fee for exactly the same reason. I give a price per job (which I base on my hourly fee). The psychology of it seems to work better. As soon as people hear $100 per hour, or whatever the hourly rate, they compare it to what they themselves make. No matter that the comparison is irrelevant. In their mind, you aren't worth it.

So maybe dispense of an hourly rate (if you charge that way), and come up with package prices. For example, $300 gets you this, this and this. For $400 you get this, this and this, AND this extra. Etc. etc.

Excellent advice.

Cathy, I do "packages" like this on my website:

$100 = 1 hour of shooting and 20-30 edited images - I always give way more
$60 = 30 minutes of shooting with 10-15 edited images - I always give them way more

It isn't like I'm charging $100 an hour to edit - $100 covers EVERYTHING so that is where I make no money.

I also do graphic and website design and never do "hourly". I like the client to know right away how much a flyer or basic one page website will be.

Am I presenting this the wrong way to clients? It seems like that is how others do it.
Even though I say $100 for 1 hour of shooting, I'm not really making $100 per hour off the entire job.