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eminbmore
member
Portrait photography pricing
eminbmore
member
(I'm RP'ing what I posted in the DD'd thread, because I think it's helpful for anyone thinking about booking a photographer!)
If you book a private photographer (as opposed to a portrait studio like Sears or The Picture People, etc.) to do photos for you, it's helpful to understand how and why they price the way they do.
Your photog will likely charge you a sitting fee - usually in the $200 range (although these days it seems like some people are choosing to forgo the sitting fee - in hopes that you'll buy prints later). That $200 is a sitting fee - which basically means you're paying to hold the time slot, to guarantee that the photog will come to your house, to pay for the hour(s) that there there and such. After you pay the sitting fee - unless you have agreed otherwise (which does happen, but is almost always agreed upon ahead of time) - the photog will want you to pay extra for files on disc and/or prints. This is how the photog will make any money - because if you divide the amount of the sitting fee by how many actual hours of work s/he put into the pictures, the hourly rate would be a pittance.
What people often forget is that beyond the actual time a photog spends with you in person, s/he spends HOURS on the photos afterwards - editing them (making the colors bright and crisp, making sure skin tones are correct, editing out blemishes or unsightly additions in the photo, and a bunch of other things). Editing is an incredibly long process (especially if you're any good ;-)) and is much harder and much more time consuming than the actual shoot itself.
You most likely had a different deal with your wedding photographer, because you paid a lot more upfront for your pictures. I'm guessing you spent thousand(s) on your wedding photog, as opposed to a couple hundred bucks? The wedding photog is charging you upfront for their time, as opposed to the portrait photographer - who charges you via print and file purchases at the end.
Before you shoot with any photographer, you should sign a contract - and review all of this information, to guarantee you both understand what will happen and what you are paying for.
I HTH someone! 
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Portrait photography pricing
Very good info!
I have to say I love looking at your siggy pics of Christopher, he's one of my fav babys on the bump. His expressions are priceless!
You can also try to find someone just getting started who may be able to give you a much better deal to get experience.
I paid $100 for a new graduate to take photos of my son. This price included photographer's time (2 hours), talent (Photoshop) and a disk of all of the high-res pictures.
Aww, thank you! He cracks me up daily, he makes the funniest faces
Yes, I agree with this too - there are good deals to be had out there!
However, it's also important to note that "new" might not always equal "cheap" (and cheap might not always equal new ;-)). Some newer photogs charge comparable rates to established ones because they don't want people to underestimate them.
I think you have to look at a true/professional photographer as an artist. We paid 200 sitting fee - one time for pictures to be taken every three months for the first year.
Our photographer is a published artist in which she published a lot of 'baby photo-art' books. She is well known in the northeast. We paid for her experience, her quality of work and time.
I will not even tell you what we spent on prints from his newborn set. I can say that the cost was more than some fine pieces we have collected - and we are collectors. Most likely for his 3 mo pictures we will not go as crazy with the prints we order lol
Sorry for the DD. This is all good info. Contract would/should have been signed in my case. I feel like I got pulled a bait and switch from what I was promised and what I was given...
here's a repost of why I dd'ed.
Sorry guys. I've never DD'ed. It wasn't because it was controversial or I didn't like the answers. There was no controversy in that post at all. LOL
I just don't want any online trail of me talking about the issues with photographer. I saw another girl on here posted about her photographer and one of a regular bump poster emailed her photographer and linked the post to her. The photographer then threatened legal action for posting on another forum about her. Anyway, thanks for all the advice, I just dont know who is lurking out there. You know what I mean?