[Matt Charlton]

Hi Folks,

Sue and I shot our first wedding at the weekend - it was a last minute job, basically I was delivering a training session at work to some of the staff about Folder management and windows explorer and somehow or other I got onto photography (as I invariably do these days). Anyway, turns out one of the ladies was getting married Saturday just gone and she wasn't overly happy with the number of shots she was getting from her photographer - I said I was wanting to get into weddings and she said I was more than welcome to take some of hers.

So Sue and I went to the wedding, took our shots and we're still processing them, I've ordered different sizes of a single print from photobox and colab to show people who might want to order them. Now we haven't charged them for the day (with it being a favor for both parties involved) and I don't want to charge a fortune for the prints with them already having paid out money for the other 'tog.

The prices I've paid ex p&p are as follows:

Photobox

6x4 - £0.10

7x5 - £0.20

8x6 - £0.99

10x8 - £1.99

16x12 - £7.99

Colab

6x4 - £1.02

7x5 - £1.52

8x6 - £2.14

10x8 - £2.94

16x12 - £6.87

Now I know that the colab printed stuff will be miles better quality than photobox, but you can't deny that for 6x4 prints they (photobox) are pretty unbeatable.

I could offer two pricing structures and state that one set is from the run of the mill online printer and the other is a professional lab - hence the difference in both quality (I hope) and price. I don't want to devalue the work we've done or the profession itself but being there and not being the main photographer getting the structured formal shots (ours are more candid and relaxed informal ones) I don't want to charge them a lot of money.

I'm just wondering what a decent markup would be for each print without taking the mickey with it being our first job and a favour (in effect). In future we'll have proper prices and packages worked out but I'm wanting to do this one as a thankyou for the experience. Would you sell them to the couple at cost?

There was the actual attendance on the day (we were fed and watered there from 11:20am till about 9pm - but we were there partly as guests too and spent a lot of time chatting to work collegues and things) and so far 8 or so hours of processing with quite a bit more to go. I'm not wanting to devalue the whole process and I know that people sometimes associate cost with quality - its just they gave us a brill oppertunity to try photography at a wedding with no pressure. Repeat/follow up business from this could be lucrative as it would form the basis of our portraiture/wedding portfolio.

Interesting that the colab 16x12 is cheaper than the photobox one too. I know that for reprints of our wedding photos the cheapest was around a fiver with a 16x12 being around £60.

I'd be very grateful if people could come forward with some ideas and suggestions.

Thank you very much in advance.

[Dabhand16]

There have been a couple of threads on this subject, but I'm blessed if I can find them.

You could check out some of the members web-sites to see if that helps. I'm sure someone with some experience in these matters will be along soon.

Ah! found one.

[Gary Bagshawe]

I would charge in these circumstances, £5.00 A5, £10.00 A4 and £20.00 A3 HTH

[Matt Charlton]

Thanks Graham and Gary

i guess the first thing to do is to wait for the prints to come from colab and photobox and do a comparison - if I feel the photobox prints are suitable for sale then I can mark them up as appropriate.

I guess doubling the cost price isn't a bad thing to do - with colabs prints anyway. I could offer a discounted rate to the couple but higher prices to their friends/family.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Matt Charlton

I guess doubling the cost price isn't a bad thing to do - with colabs prints anyway. I could offer a discounted rate to the couple but higher prices to their friends/family.

But surely the friends and family will talk to the couple and by charging different rates you could alienate potential future customers. My advice would be to go for some middle ground, that way everyone pays the same and overall you should recoup the same amount of money.