WTF "$20 for a 4x6 is ridiculous" or is it..........

Recently I had a client say to me "$20 for 4x6! Thats ridiculous!" Which got me thinking that it's not the cost thats ridiculous, but rather the clients understanding of why they’re $20. Lets consider the facts below and then ask “what’s ridiculous”.

Personally, $4 gas, 20% unemployment & Boy Bands is what’s “ridiculous” to me.

Photography is a business, and in business you make an investment at start up that at some point you intend (hope, pray, cry & fight) to recover & grow into a healthy profit.

Yeah Capitalism!!!

Also, small business owners don’t get benefits like health insurance, tax withholdings, retirement or paid vacations like a company employee unless we ad that cost to our products & services, which sadly most don’t.

On a shoot, when you pay a “sitting” or “creative” fee that cost generally only covers:

The photographers time (years of knowledge & skill in action) Equipment ( $2-10,000 in gear)

Assistant: sometimes a second, skilled hand is required. It is for me:)

Post production (copying & archiving files, culling & editing, color correcting & resizing previews as well as posting to online galleries on a computer that cost on average $5-7000.00)

Add to this a website, cost of travel, promotional materials, phone calls, emails & meetings just to get you in a session.......

Is the picture getting clearer?

Next, you want to buy these images & have them look as awesome in print as they do on the screen, me too-

Enter the cost of printing.

To get your prints looking awesome takes more than just shooting them them & flopping that file over to a lab. The select images are edited (sometimes for hours) to get them to perfection with software and skills that cost money. The expense of that equipment is paid for with the sales of prints & products.

In the era of digital where clients think you can just shoot, shoot shoot, the reality is that the cost of production isn’t any less expensive than film and in many cases, cost more because of the equipment necessary to work on those images. A dark room set up maybe cost a few hundred dollars back in the day- A decent Apple cost thousands (and only lasts for 3-5 years) this is also true for the SLR Camera bodies of today that should actually be called “semi disposable”.

photography especially good photography is not inexpensive, just like a Mercedes cost more than a Kia. A skilled photographer invests a great deal of their life & funds honing their style & acquiring the quality equipment necessary to capture images that set them apart from the crowd. On average we have more money in gear & skill than most folks have in their shiny new car and were constantly reinvesting.

That and many other unmentioned things are why it is indeed $20 for a 4x6 $65 for and 8x10 and beyond...... I’m not afraid to charge for my good hard work creating an image you’re going to look back on for years & more importantly, what it costs to do this for a living because I respect my industry-Now it’s your turn:)