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My first community festival photos left me confused about pricing
I just finished my first paid photography job for a small community festival. I spent the whole day taking pictures and edited fifty shots for them. They paid me $200 flat for everything. I was so happy to get my first real money from freelancing. But now I'm looking online and see other photographers charge per hour or per image. I never wrote down my hours, so I have no clue if $200 was good for ten hours of work. How do you guys figure out what to charge when you're just starting? It's a big step for me, but I want to get better at pricing for next time.
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aaronw592mo ago
Oh "so happy to get my first real money" until you go online and ruin your own mood, classic photographer move. You basically worked for pizza and beer money for a ten hour day, which is a right of passage honestly. Now you get to join the rest of us in staring at a calculator wondering if you should charge per hour or per image while secretly hoping clients just offer you a decent number first. Welcome to the confusing part, the shooting pictures was the easy job.
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thomas.river2mo ago
How much do you NEED to make per hour? Once you know that, you can build a fair price around it.
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tarar381mo ago
That feeling is so real, getting that first check is awesome until you start comparing. Honestly, most of us have totally been there with that exact pricing confusion. Figuring out your rate is the hardest part after you learn how to take a good photo. What helped me was tracking every single hour on my next job, even just for myself, so I knew what that flat fee really meant. It gets less confusing, but that first time is always a learning experience.
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