Session Fee: $30
Average Portrait Order: let's say $200
So, I just made a decent amount of cash, right? $230 for about an hour's worth of work? That rocks!!
Hmm...keep reading. Here's what's involved, time-wise, per session.
- Booking the session: Half an hour (after discussing session dates, clothing, locations, packages, etc)
- Preparing for the session: Selecting drops and props, setting up, selecting poses.....about an hour
- Shooting the session: anywhere from an hour to an hour and half on average, sometimes longer
- Editing the session: We sort through all the images taken and pull out roughly 20-25 of the session's best images to edit. At around of 5 minutes per image (since we do retouch, color correct, etc), plus the time to sort them, that's about two and a half hours.
- Viewing and sales session: about an hour
- Uploading sneak peeks/galleries to the website: half an hour
So, for a single session, we've already invested a minimum of 6.5 hours of our time and talent. Now, let's do the math.
With the session fee and order, the client has paid $230. I order my prints from a professional lab, where they are carefully corrected (if needed, which is rare), printed, mounted and shipped (usually using FedEx). On average, let's say I spend $75 to place the order. Out of that $230, I now have $155 left. That may still seem like a good bit of money, but let's not forget the time invested in these portraits. We'll put aside about 30% for us to pocket, since the rest needs to go towards running a business...website, marketing, equipment, props, drops, classes (yes, I take classes from nationally recognized photographers in order to better myself and my work) etc. So, of that $155, only $46.50 of that will actually go towards something non-business related, like helping with household expenses or maybe an occasional evening out.
So now you might be thinking....why do it all then? Well, a couple of reasons. I truly love what I do. Yes, like any other job, it drives me up the wall at times, but I can't imagine doing anything else. Two, it allows me to be flexible with my time with my family. When my children were younger and I worked outside the home, I often felt that other people were raising my kids. It was not a feeling I cared for. Three, I love sharing what I do with others. There is no better feeling for me than for a client to email me or send me a thank you note saying how much they loved their images or that Grandma cried when she opened the gift that held an image of her grandchildren.
I hope this has given you a bit of insight on what goes on behind the scenes of a portrait session. We're not all shoot-and-burners (we'll be posting a series on those next week), who hand over a disc of images and wish you the best as we drive off into the sunset. At our studio, we actually take the time and care to help our clients, who often times come to be considered friends. We want to make sure that you are taken care of and satisfied with everything from beginning to end. And with the way customer service is in a lot of places these days, wouldn't you agree that you, your time, and your images worth more than just a plastic disc?
