Looking for ideas as to what to charge...

[JustinRyan215]

A few weeks back, an old friend called me and asked me if I could shoot the girls on the softball team that he coaches. He wants to give them a nice print at the end of the season.

I told him yeah, no problem, and took on the project. I am, by no means, making a living from my photography, and he does expect to pay me for my time, but the problem is, I don't know HOW MUCH to charge him. I have about eight hours into the project, and the cost of the prints is about 3$ a print for sixteen prints.

I really don't want to charge the guy a lot, since we really didn't work anything out in the beginning, and since this isn't my only source of income....any ideas?

[Marko]

I might double the cost of the prints.
For the time...that's up to you. Not sure what you make at your bodywork job but use that as a guideline perhaps. Maybe 3/4 of that wage.

Certainly not less than 25 dollars an hour imo.

[Iguanasan]

The sad thing is that he probably doesn't expect to pay anything other than the cost of the print. 8x10 school photos are something in the area of $12 to $15 each so I would think if you did $15 x 16 prints = 240 which is $192 for your time which is about $24 an hour. Certainly nothing less than that so I guess Marko's numbers are about right.

[Marko]

That's a BIG problem in photography today. Noobs think the camera does all the work..... noobs.

The camera is just like a set of drumsticks - any doofus can try to play with them, but without practise all they will create is noise.

[JustinRyan215]

He has said that he doesn't expect it to be super cheap...but we never discussed pricing.
You guys are both about where I was thinking, the shots best viewed in a 2x3 ratio. Since he wanted 8x10's, 8x12 prints fit the scene pretty well.
Marko, if I used the 3/4 of my hourly bodymans wage, I would probably be putting money out of MY pocket! LoL!

[Barefoot]

That's a BIG problem in photography today. Noobs think the camera does all the work..... noobs.

The camera is just like a set of drumsticks - any doofus can try to play with them, but without practise all they will create is noise.

Word.