[lpac]

April 9, 2012 at 8:34 am

markclehane wrote:

This might be a little like the blind leading the blind as I’m in a similar situation myself. But I’ll give you my own opinions anyway.
I’d be very reluctant to give any shots to anyone printed on cheap tesco paper as you said. At least do your images the honour of being reproduced professionally on decent quality paper. Any jobs I’ve done, I’ve had them printed by Right Brain (formerly IOPhotoworks) in Cork and was amazed at the difference they make to the end product. Expensive? Yes, but worth in in the long run. Imagine in 2 or 3 years time what the customer will be saying about your work when their darling childs portrait is faded beyond recognition due to being printed by a cheap printer with cheap ink on cheap paper.
Also, if you start doing jobs for free (more or less), you’ll find it hard to start introducing decent charges for your time/skill. If your shots are up to scratch, why should you give them away? Start as you mean to go on I suppose really. I appreciate you’re not pro so can’t, or at least shouldn’t charge accordingly but you have to put some value on your work.
There have been many posts on this subject in the past so maybe that’s why you’re not getting much response yourself. Do a search here and see what turns up as there has been plenty advice given by pros on how to do all this properly.
Best of luck :wink:
Mark.

thanks everybody for the replies. regarding the cheap paper, it’s all i had at the time, just printed a few out to see what they turned out like colour wise etc and gave them to the parents, I told the parents that it was just cheap paper and that it may fade, that’s why I also emailed and gave them usb with all pics on so as they can do what they want with them, I know this isnt common practice with photographers, but as I know them well I don’t mind.
I have been looking online trying to find a local printers that I can use, came across GMS, they are based in clondalkin, so I am waiting on them to send me some info on pricing and products etc and then I will order some prints for those parents and see the difference.

I have a few shoots lined up now which I have said I will do free of charge but have told them I will have to charge for the printing. I will be glad to get the practice in. I had a lot more asking bt told them that I have everyone i need for my portfolio work but will start sessions in due course. I want to get insured etc, tax etc. I want to start it off right when I do start charging. Am meeting a pro photographer to ask all the questions of what I need etc to start off a business.

John17 wrote:

Personally i have issues with posts such as these & there has been a few quite recently.
I have no issue with charging anyone for a service but draw your own conclusions as
to what you should be charging. I think that it is unfair for a shall we say a non professional
to quote a price that a professional photographer would charge. I appreciate that in some
cases there would be little difference in quality of work but in these times I feel it’s a little crass
& I think that has been reflected in the replies.

john17 i appreciate what you are saying, but this is why I asked the question in the first place. Everybody has to start out somewhere and build their way up. I wanted to know what way did everybody else charge when starting out, how many freebies did they do before they started charging a small charge, what did they supply clients with for that charge etc. I thought this was a place for asking questions and getting advice. I also stated in my question that I do not want to charge anything yet as i am not a professional yet, and never said I would charge what a professional charges. I will build my way up, as everybody has to!!
I know there probably is people out there that go straight in charging full whack & i agree that they shouldn’t when there is photographers out there that have years of exp behind them to charge the prices they do.

[lpac]

April 8, 2012 at 11:16 am

anybody willing to help?? :?

[lpac]

March 20, 2012 at 5:15 pm

Hi mark, thank you :D

yes both parents and grandparents were absolutely thrilled with them as they said they could never get the 4 year old to sit for a photo, she doesnt like getting her photo taken but she sat for me no problem for at least 30mins doing several poses for me. I think it was the lovely ”BLING” i gave her that did the trick :lol:
as for the baby, he was 10 weeks old and very alert, so looking around everywhere.
I used natural light, as i do not have the slightest clue about flashes, reflectors etc , will eventually learn about it.
The colours are free actions i downloaded. Only learning about photoshop at the moment too, will get there slowly but surely, but i love the pastely/hazey effect