Ask And Ye Shall Receive

Just the other day, a colleague of mine called to ask for some advice. He'd photographed a group portrait, and one of the people in the group portrait needed a headshot, and wanted their headshot isolated out from the others in that group photo, for their own use.

Separate use for separate company, distinct from the company that hired my colleague for the group photo. How did we talk through the pricing?

(Continued after the Jump)

First, my colleague was using a large chip camera - a EOS 1Ds Mark III, so cropping in was no problem. Second, he wasn't obstructed by other people in the picture, and could easily be isolated. So, what to charge?

Well, I first asked him what he'd charge for the portrait for PR purposes, and the number that came up was about $800, all in. Ok, so the argument goes - when you're shooting something, there's a chance that the final photo won't be exactly like you want. With an existing image (i.e. stock), you know exactly what you're getting, guaranteed, so the price for that stock shot should reasonably be concluded to be higher because there is no risk, and you are getting exactly what you want. So, we determined that relative to $800, a figure of $975 is fair, not to mention the fact that the subject doesn't have to be inconvenienced by the timing and efforts involved on their part for the portrait. Further, I was of the opinion that a figure over $1,000, relatively speaking, would be a barrier this client would not get past.

So, did the client agree, when we cited the above information as a justification for our pricing?

Yup. $975 - check is in the mail.

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