Camera Labs

Think of it this way, if you owned a grocery store would you give groceries away to all your friends?

If you know a friend is in a bad place and they can't afford it then don't charge them. But very rarely would I do something for free. I try not to shoot friends as much as I can.

...now in my situation where I'm paying a large amount of money to go to a photography school, I tell em they better pay me good.

You also need to be sure that you are offering a quality product and not ripping them off.

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com

Well, she agreed to £50 - and I offered her a refund if she decides she doesn't want any of the pics

First paid job! Hopefully the first of many.

Thanks again for all the advice chaps. Very much appreciated.

My advice will be, if you are going to charge money for your pics, they'd better be consistently great images. If you shoot for free people usually don't mind, but expect them to be much more critical of your work if money is involved.

I've never charged friends and relatives for photos. But if you find yourself being asked too often for these shootings, you should start charging a fair amount of money to compensate your time.

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Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 24-105mm f/4.0 L