CD/DVD Pricing.

jbrowning · 12-07-2009, 12:24 PM

I was wondering how you all come up with a price for a photo cd? I have a few motorcycle riders wanting to buy a cd with their pictures on it. Now some folks I have 12 good shots of and there are others that I have maybe 50 good shots of. How do I come up with a price on this? I am thinking the riders are going to think that the price of the CD is going to be the same for everyone. But I don't feel that would be fair to charge the rider that gets 12 photos the same price as the rider that have 50 photos. So I'm wondering how you all do this and do you make exceptions to the rule. Or maybe would they be priced like the following. I'm just to make this fair to everyone and no one thinks they are being short changed including myself. Right now I'm selling these digital files right to them for $5.00 each and they have been happy along with myself.

1-10 photos = $15.00
11-20 photos = $20.00

Thanks
Jim Browning

Last edited by jbrowning; 12-07-2009 at 02:14 PM.

MRRiley · 12-09-2009, 12:05 PM

Jim,

You are really shortchanging yourself. I've seen your shots and they are worth much more than the rates you mentioned.

I understand if your intent is not necessarily to make money off of these but you should at least fairly reimburse yourself for your time and materials. Naturally there is a balance to be found, because if you price yourself too low, you end up selling a lot but losing more money with each sale. Price yourself too high and you don't make enough to cover expenses (such as track entry fees, gas, lunch, hotels, etc, not to mention amoritizing your equipment investments) or PAY YOURSELF for your time (both behind the camera and in front of the computer).

I sent you a PM with a reply to your PM on this same issue but it's just a WAG. I'm struggling with figuring these issues for myself. I recently picked up Best Business Practices for Photographers (2nd Ed). The author spoke at a couple of events at FotoWeekDC and I was very impressed.

Mike

jbrowning · 12-12-2009, 10:39 AM

Thanks Mike, I have sent you a pm.

Thanks
Jim

FullertonImages · 12-15-2009, 03:27 PM

Way too low. If everyone is currently paying $5 per image and is happy, why would you sell 10 to a cd for $15?? You time is worht money, especialy if you're delievering quality images. Plus there's thewhole part about devaluing photography. It's important for professionals and the industry at large the people to continue to understand that quality images have value and are worth it. The fact that your images are good makes it kind of worse, because people start to associate your level of quality with your prices. Then Joe Professional tries to get hired for a job and people think, 'why is he charging $200 for a CD, I've gotten stuff like this for $15 before'. Butthe most important fact remains that your time is valuable, and it's worth it to them to suport what you do at a fair cost if they like as much as they seem to.

jbrowning · 12-16-2009, 06:06 PM

Originally posted by GeneralBenson

Way too low. If everyone is currently paying $5 per image and is happy, why would you sell 10 to a cd for $15?? You time is worht money, especialy if you're delievering quality images. Plus there's thewhole part about devaluing photography. It's important for professionals and the industry at large the people to continue to understand that quality images have value and are worth it. The fact that your images are good makes it kind of worse, because people start to associate your level of quality with your prices. Then Joe Professional tries to get hired for a job and people think, 'why is he charging $200 for a CD, I've gotten stuff like this for $15 before'. Butthe most important fact remains that your time is valuable, and it's worth it to them to suport what you do at a fair cost if they like as much as they seem to.

Hello GeneralBenson the 1-10 on a cd for $15.00 was just an example. I'm trying to figure out how people figure their cd prices. As far as being a Pro I'm no where close to it. I am a hobbyist or maybe a amateur as are the other photographers who are photographing these races. And that is the same thing with the racers. I don't see a "Pro Photographer" ever coming and photographing these races because he or she wouldn't get the prices he/she would get photographing a AMA "Pro" Race. Sorry I'm not addressing the value of my time at this time.

Thank you very much
Jim

ll_coffee_lP · 12-16-2009, 08:46 PM

My wife and I do family photos, babies, toddlers, etc. Here's our pricing scheme based off a 1 hour session netting about 30 images that will be in a gallery.

CD/DVD (lightscribed with an image and given to customer in a disc tin)
$150 for images suitable for the web (i.e. printable OK up to 4x6) - these are meant for email and social network sites.
$300 for full rez images (jpegs) - includes a release indicating that our business owns the rights to the images, however we have given our customers permission to make prints. We also strongly encourage them to still get prints through us so that we can properly size them and because we get prints done on professional archival photo paper.

- we also offer a $50 reduction on our discs for any print orders of $100 in tiers (i.e $200 in prints = $100 off)

We consider this inexpensive as well and will likely be raising our prices in the Spring. $300 may sound fairly cheap as well, but truthfully...if all they want is a disc of images and we don't have to hassle with the printer (shipping, etc.) I'm fine with that. Our print orders normally fall in this range anyway for a family session ($200 - $500).

Hope this helps.

c[_]

12-07-2009, 12:24 PM	#1
jbrowning Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Colorado Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 996	Formula for pricing CD/DVD. I was wondering how you all come up with a price for a photo cd? I have a few motorcycle riders wanting to buy a cd with their pictures on it. Now some folks I have 12 good shots of and there are others that I have maybe 50 good shots of. How do I come up with a price on this? I am thinking the riders are going to think that the price of the CD is going to be the same for everyone. But I don't feel that would be fair to charge the rider that gets 12 photos the same price as the rider that have 50 photos. So I'm wondering how you all do this and do you make exceptions to the rule. Or maybe would they be priced like the following. I'm just to make this fair to everyone and no one thinks they are being short changed including myself. Right now I'm selling these digital files right to them for $5.00 each and they have been happy along with myself. 1-10 photos = $15.00 11-20 photos = $20.00 Thanks Jim Browning Last edited by jbrowning; 12-07-2009 at 02:14 PM.

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12-09-2009, 12:05 PM	#2
MRRiley Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Sterling, VA, USA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 6,275	Jim, You are really shortchanging yourself. I've seen your shots and they are worth much more than the rates you mentioned. I understand if your intent is not necessarily to make money off of these but you should at least fairly reimburse yourself for your time and materials. Naturally there is a balance to be found, because if you price yourself too low, you end up selling a lot but losing more money with each sale. Price yourself too high and you don't make enough to cover expenses (such as track entry fees, gas, lunch, hotels, etc, not to mention amoritizing your equipment investments) or PAY YOURSELF for your time (both behind the camera and in front of the computer). I sent you a PM with a reply to your PM on this same issue but it's just a WAG. I'm struggling with figuring these issues for myself. I recently picked up Best Business Practices for Photographers (2nd Ed). The author spoke at a couple of events at FotoWeekDC and I was very impressed. Mike

12-12-2009, 10:39 AM	#3
jbrowning Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Colorado Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 996 Original Poster	Thanks Mike, I have sent you a pm. Thanks Jim

12-15-2009, 03:27 PM	#4
FullertonImages Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 883	Way too low. If everyone is currently paying $5 per image and is happy, why would you sell 10 to a cd for $15?? You time is worht money, especialy if you're delievering quality images. Plus there's thewhole part about devaluing photography. It's important for professionals and the industry at large the people to continue to understand that quality images have value and are worth it. The fact that your images are good makes it kind of worse, because people start to associate your level of quality with your prices. Then Joe Professional tries to get hired for a job and people think, 'why is he charging $200 for a CD, I've gotten stuff like this for $15 before'. Butthe most important fact remains that your time is valuable, and it's worth it to them to suport what you do at a fair cost if they like as much as they seem to.

12-16-2009, 06:06 PM	#5
jbrowning Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Colorado Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 996 Original Poster	Originally posted by GeneralBenson Way too low. If everyone is currently paying $5 per image and is happy, why would you sell 10 to a cd for $15?? You time is worht money, especialy if you're delievering quality images. Plus there's thewhole part about devaluing photography. It's important for professionals and the industry at large the people to continue to understand that quality images have value and are worth it. The fact that your images are good makes it kind of worse, because people start to associate your level of quality with your prices. Then Joe Professional tries to get hired for a job and people think, 'why is he charging $200 for a CD, I've gotten stuff like this for $15 before'. Butthe most important fact remains that your time is valuable, and it's worth it to them to suport what you do at a fair cost if they like as much as they seem to. Hello GeneralBenson the 1-10 on a cd for $15.00 was just an example. I'm trying to figure out how people figure their cd prices. As far as being a Pro I'm no where close to it. I am a hobbyist or maybe a amateur as are the other photographers who are photographing these races. And that is the same thing with the racers. I don't see a "Pro Photographer" ever coming and photographing these races because he or she wouldn't get the prices he/she would get photographing a AMA "Pro" Race. Sorry I'm not addressing the value of my time at this time. Thank you very much Jim

12-16-2009, 08:46 PM	#6
ll_coffee_lP Inactive Account Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 1,972	My wife and I do family photos, babies, toddlers, etc. Here's our pricing scheme based off a 1 hour session netting about 30 images that will be in a gallery. CD/DVD (lightscribed with an image and given to customer in a disc tin) $150 for images suitable for the web (i.e. printable OK up to 4x6) - these are meant for email and social network sites. $300 for full rez images (jpegs) - includes a release indicating that our business owns the rights to the images, however we have given our customers permission to make prints. We also strongly encourage them to still get prints through us so that we can properly size them and because we get prints done on professional archival photo paper. - we also offer a $50 reduction on our discs for any print orders of $100 in tiers (i.e $200 in prints = $100 off) We consider this inexpensive as well and will likely be raising our prices in the Spring. $300 may sound fairly cheap as well, but truthfully...if all they want is a disc of images and we don't have to hassle with the printer (shipping, etc.) I'm fine with that. Our print orders normally fall in this range anyway for a family session ($200 - $500). Hope this helps. c[_]