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I offered to shot a wedding last weekend for an old neighbor at no charge. I gave out business cards in hopes that it will drum up some future business. Then I get a call yesterday; a gentleman in the wedding party would like to buy all the images I took and have them put on a DVD so he could make a wedding album for them. I just offered to shoot it and Photoshop it as a gift and for experience in doing weddings. My question is this what is a fair price to charge the guy there are over 900 photos and will probably take up three DVD’s. I figured $400 that’s about four hours of work @ $100 an hour. This seems fair to me, anyone with experience please shed some light.

Thanks

James

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Kung-Fu Flavor

Canon 50D
17-40mm f4L
Canon f4L 70-200mm
50mm f1.8

Hmm, I wouldn't give him full res crops to be honest. If you sell him a dvd with all the images, then what happens if the bride and groom and friends want reprints down the line? They don't have to go to you, and pay for the prints, they get to go to this guy and god forbid get the full res files. Bit of a tough one.

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I've upped my Iso, now up yours.
Nikon D700, Nikon D80, Micro Nikkor 105 f2.8 AI-S,Nikon 85mm 1.8D, Nikon 50mm 1.8D, Nikon 35mm F2D, Nikon 16-35 f4 VR, Nikon 24-70mm F2.8 AF-S, Nikon 70-200VRII, Nikon 70-300mm VR, 300mm f2.8 AI IF ED, SB-800, SB-900. Noiseware pro,NIK Dfine, Nik Colour Effex, Nik Sharpener Pro

it's up to you. if you think that your work is worth that then by all means, but if it's shoddy work and you charged for it- it might be career suicide.

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WHO I AM BLOG, WHAT I DO BLOG
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900 photos = 1 DVD.

Jpeg, minimum 800 x 600; maximum size is your call.

You don't need to give out high res images and therefore you don't need to charge the earth and have to adjust your prices accordingly. Photography, as you'll learn, charges not by the time you took images for or how long you processed them for, but by how efficiently you turnaround your work. Ultimately for many, you'll end up charging less than you initially wanted.

I echo many of the sentiments already given to you.

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Nikonian

http://www.edtangphotography.com
http://journeysintophotography.blogspot.com/

I usually photograph a wedding and then that night I upload all of them online, very low-res. Then direct people to go to my site and an instant word of mouth and a portfolio work showroom.

Of course the the two newly-weds get high-res photos, I also give them to both their parents (nowadays mostly the parents are paying of their child's wedding). Recently we started using that iMovie app on the mac to make some cool videos, timed to some music makes a powerful way of showing off your work. It will leave a lasting impression on you and your business.

Keep me posted!

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Assistant News Photojournalist
Nikon and Canon Systems
A variety of f/2.8 lenses from 10.5 to 400mm
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Hi Kungfuflavor,

I think there are two perspectives to consider here:

The photo-shoot and the post-processing is your gift to the bride and groom.

Simply putting these images onto the DVD media, doesn't take 4 hours.

If part of your gift to the couple was the full-rez images and all the rights pertaining to them, it might be ethically questionable whether these images are yours to sell to this guest at the party.

On the other hand, if you retain the rights, the post processing of the images is a gift to the couple and the question is whether it's "fair" to ask a guest for payment for this effort?

So, before even contemplating what is a fair price for your efforts/time/talent, the question about what exactly you are selling to this guest should perhaps be cleart first?

Good luck

Cheers!