How much do you spend?

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.... on a family photographer?

Including the session fee, prints, images on CD, etc. 

LynnJones

The photographer I use charges $150 for a session and that includes a cd with all images.  She gives a copyright release so you can take them wherever you want.  The sessions usually last around 1-2 hrs, depending on how Casey cooperates.

I print at mpix.com.  Their quality is great and I think a 5x7 is $.99. 

egsquared

We paid $125 per session for DD's 3, 6, 9 month and 1 yr pictures.  I think if we had only done one session it would have been $150.  The photographer comes to us and gives us a cd with all the images to print wherever we would like.  I would say there are about 200-300 images that we get. 

Ciconrad

$200 for the session fee and $1,200 for all digital images (about 100) on a disk and a keespake album of the same prints in 5x7 size.  It's expensive - so we do it once a year and for newborn pictures.  I love our photographer - she's amazing so I'd rather do them less often and have pictures I love, love, love. 

Jessica0624

LynnJones:

The photographer I use charges $150 for a session and that includes a cd with all images.  She gives a copyright release so you can take them wherever you want.  The sessions usually last around 1-2 hrs, depending on how Casey cooperates.

This

I print at mpix.com.  Their quality is great and I think a 5x7 is $.99. 

nicoleandadam

Ours charges $200 for the session and 15 of the images.  For an additional $100, we can get a copy of all the pictures on a CD with a copyright release so we can print them wherever we want.

amwadas

The last couple of times I paid $100 for a 1 one hour sitting fee which included 10 digital images on a CD. Additional images are $10 each so I usually spend around $180 or so.

sarcole530

For Bryce's one year pictures we spent a $45.00 sitting fee, then the price per photo. Our photographer charges $15.00 per 8x10, $10.00 per 5x7, $5.00 per 4x6, and $5.00 for 8 wallets.

Shayna0182

Geez, for what we've spent on pictures at Portrait Innovations, I could have had a photographer come to our house and do pics.  I think, we might look into that for his 2 year pictures.

katypresson

I have a family shoot scheduled for October - on location, at a local park.  She's charging me $75 for 30 minutes...which is a fall special.  Normally she charges $125 for the same thing.  Plus you get to choose a prints package or cd of images for $50.00. 

The $75 I'm paying includes the cd of images.  I also get copyright release so I can print anywhere.

aajfoster

Shayna0182:

Geez, for what we've spent on pictures at Portrait Innovations, I could have had a photographer come to our house and do pics.  I think, we might look into that for his 2 year pictures.

Check out craigslist - that is where we found our photographer. She was just starting out, so had intro prices ($100 for 2 hours for newborn, and a CD with all the pics and right to print them).  Now that she is established a bit more, prices are a bit higher, but we get a 20% discount for being a repeat customer. 

JULIENP

Shayna0182:

Geez, for what we've spent on pictures at Portrait Innovations, I could have had a photographer come to our house and do pics.  I think, we might look into that for his 2 year pictures.

 We got DD pictures taken at Portrait Innovations 3 times and all three times we have only spent $115.00. I think that's the minimum you can spend and still get a CD of ALL the pictures they have taken that day. I really like them. We will continue to go there.

Mike&Care

::lalalalaa:: I didn't read any of that! LOL. No offense to some of these posters, but hiring someone super cheap and getting a whole CD screams "I am just doing photography to make a little extra cash, I dont have a business and I dont pay taxes. I dont give a crap if I fail or not, because there is no loss to me!" yippeee.

Unless someone is really just starting out (FREE) then they should be charging a lot more for full copyright and all the pics on CD. If not, I doubt they are doing things legally. I dont know about you, but I wont buy food from a random man on the side of the road and I dont buy purses in back alleyways. It's not legal and its not right.

Also, quantity over quality. I would rather have 25 perfect photos then 200 meh, just okay ones, poorly edited.

With that said, I'd expect $150-250 sitting fee (doesnt include prints/digital files), then additonal packages ranging from 250 and up (some charge over 3K for packages).

When you deduct taxes, liability, insurance, overhead operating costs, marketing, equipment, time, etc. People that charge $100 are making way less than minimum wage. Sucks for them. They'll be out of business in no time.