Hi Igor,
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer in such detail. You've
given me quite a bit to think about, here. Given that I'm
brand-spanking-new at this, I'm hesitant to dive in with too much
ambition. As I mentioned in my reply to John, I envisioned a kind of
"picture mill" situation to make things as efficient as possible.
Though, I agree that having an a la carte option would certainly be an
attractive selling point. In doing that, I could drum up a lot of
word-of-mouth if I did a good job of it. What makes me hesitate,
though, is that if I botch the whole exercise because of disorganization
due to a lack of experience, or some other unforeseen disaster, then I
have horrible word-of-mouth to deal with -- the impact of which is
magnitudes greater than good word-of-mouth.
Since this would be my first shoot, I'm inclined to focus on getting
parents and coaches saying, "Hey ... this guy does good work at a
reasonable price," and then let market forces take over once my name
gets established. Of course, including a business card, and maybe a
flier in each set soliciting inquiries for individual sessions would be
a good way to go about getting my name out and drumming up more business.
In any event, you've definitely given me food for thought as I go about
establishing my credentials. And, again, I very much appreciate your
thoughtful input. It'll be good to keep in mind for future endeavors.
Many thanks,
Walt
On 9/9/2010 12:50 PM, Igor Roshchin wrote:
Walter,
First, a disclaimer.
I don't think my opinion would be a representative one on this matter
either from a typical photographer's point of view, or from the potential
clients': I don't fit the typical profile.
So, take it with a grain of salt.
What to charge - is a hard question.
In any case, - read this:
http://www.danheller.com/biz-prints.html#5
It may or may not be directly applicable to your case, but
very reasonable arguments are listed there.
I think that Walmart "sports pacakge"
(3 8x10", 4 5x7', 2 4x6" and 8 wallet prints) is a marketing ploy.
I wouldn't see what's special about such a set, and why would one
want it.
Personally, I'd rather offer photos priced "a la carte",
with discounts for multiple (mix and match) photos from the same
client/order
You can choose between two models (typical for event photographers
for this sort of public events):
1. "Cheap and dirty" or
2. "Great but more expensive"
or some sort of combination between the two.
(From your description, I suspect your clients will gravitate to the
former one, but you need some flavor of the latter to attract the
attention)
Here is what I mean:
1. Once you shoot all your photos, you don't do much of selection
(I still would remove obvious misses.), upload them to the
website, and let the clients choose and order.
Then you adjust the chosen photos before sending them to the printer
(photo lab)
2. You do careful selection and adjustment of your shots
(can be a big drag in case of 1000+ photos). Then you post
the resulting photos to the web for the clients to choose and order.
Practically (depending on demand and number of images), -
you might to do a hybrid between the two: develop just a bunch of
selected photos - to show a representative gallery, but
then dump all photos with just a minimum selection (as in 1.),
clearly indicating that they are yet undeveloped.
This would save a lot of time and energy, especially in case of small
number of sales.
If you are using LR, you might consider this plugin:
http://lr.theturninggate.net/html-galleries/ttg-client-response-gallery/
(or something similar from the same site) that will help in the
ordering process.
One of those templates can even be coupled with an online direct-printing
services. I didn't find it useful for myself - you really need
a constant flow of customers to justify using that printing service
(Fotomoto or FoxyCart).
HTH,
Igor
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