I would like to know how you are pricing images and then pricing images on CDs and DVDs. In the "old" days you would never give clients negatives. Now clients almost expect to get a CD. How do you handle that?

Usually the general rule is to charge 2-3X whatever the ammount your spending is. Also, I NEVER give disks with any of my photography. I offer professional print services to my customers and to sell a disk to them so they can go get my pictures printed at wal-mart only hurts me as a photographer when other people see the quality of the prints. Thus...I never sell cds unless they're spending a ton of money and it's a wedding.

I am with Matt. I do not sell my images on CD or DVD. Many photographers do. I will sell a digital file at full resolution for $50 an image.

It is up to you how you do your business model. I have heard many times that I ought to do a session for $100 and hand over a disk. I have no idea why I would want to do that. That would be the only money I would receive.

Granted that is $100 in hand and you don't have to fuss with the photos later. So, it does work for some. I have seen photos done even cheaper, a very decent photographer at lure courses does photos for $2 per image. I am guessing that the person is also a competitor and friends with everyone. I can't imagine why else they would be so cheap!

Yeah, I sell myself short on prices, but that's because the people around here don't want to pay high dollar for shoots. I make my money on individual prints and photo packages though with the rule I told you. I just charge 3x the amount of what I spend on prints. My sitting fee is only $20 (just the animal) and I charge more for more than 2 at a time if its just a regular shoot. For the holidays I come up with packages that range from $25-100 that gives just a few prints, or postcards. I can combine all my orders into one before any holiday and make 95% of the money that comes into my hands.

You really just have to see how well it goes in you area. If you have alot of customers and you're good at what you do you can raise your prices. I just started doing this 8 months ago, so I'm still building up my name/business so that's why I sell myself short. You have to do that to get started. It's also really good to be creative when you do your shoots. Try to do something different as far as backdrops go that sets you apart from everyone else. It's a good idea to do as many themes as you can. I do a team theme for the local college, christmas, easter, spring, summer, fall, halloween, and I'm thinking about starting birthdays.

The other lucrative thing in pet photography are pet shows. I don't really know how to get into that scene to really do any yet, but it's nice if you can handle all the stress of doing one and keep your costs to a minimum.

The other thing about selling negs which one needs to be wary of is that folks actually print them. Seriously, if they are printing your work - and it is not matched to whatever printer they are calibrated to, there may be serious problems.

I am not saying that I do not offer negs (actually, I do so as part and course), but I do worry that when I send my stuff to folks that it is being sent to everyone that they know...if it does not look good, I don't look good.

I prefer to sell small representations of the prints (no larger than 4x6) with the idea that all larger prints come through me.

James

I provided on CD a low res copy of each photo purchased with my signature on the bottom and link to my website. People post them on the net and it's basically free advertising. Word of mouth is a powerful tool and also, almost everyone wants to share photos of their dogs online with friends.

There *might* be a growing expectation of high res images to be supplied on disc but I don't do it. I liken it to shooting film and supplying negatives. If I miss out on "business" because of it so be it. (the only exception I would make is publishers where there would already be an agreement in place/price negotiated).

I could have sold many cds for peanuts I guess if I really wanted to. Then I would totally lose control of my imagery as people print them off cheaply on home printers and botch the colour/clarity or worse still run off and get them done at other labs. Believe me I have seen it. From me they get prints, done by a professional lab and I also supply small web versions to those print buyers who need them for websites.

For me its a passion/hobby first therefore I don't feel I have to play by other's rules/expectations.
Anything else (monetary compensation etc) is a bonus. The day I lose the passion is the day I quit.