This post, an answer to a specific question from a photography student, has been moved from my photography instruction blog:

This is a very good resource you should read

http://www.ppa.com/pdfs/PPmag-05Benchmark.pdf

Here’s some nuts and bolts:

They say that 35% profit of gross sales is the target, after expenses, insurance, taxes, etc. (although most photographers actually pull in a smaller percentage). So to earn 18,000/year you’ll need $51,500 in sales. That’s about $4300/month or $1075/week. Figure out how many photo shoots you can do a week to make $1100, but remember that is for every week of the year. If you have slow weeks you’ll have to make more on other weeks to makeup for the loss.

Most people will only be able to afford to use you once a year, so you’re going to need to pull in a steady stream of new clientele, week after week. If you can average $550 in sales/session then you’ll need about 95 clients/year.

It’s a constant hustle to meet expenses and then be able to afford to pay yourself. As I said, other people are doing it and you can too, just know what you’re diving in to. Unfortunately, this economy makes any new business venture very risky. If after you’ve taken in all the information you decide you want to move ahead, I’ll gladly help all I can with resources, etc.

This information has been transferred from my teaching photography blog:

Blake: I have wondered how and where to sell pictures. Also, how does a photographer go about pricing their work and/or images?

It really depends on the kind of photography you want to sell. It sounds like you are interested in selling images you’ve already taken as opposed to being hired to shoot for a client. Stock Photography is the business of selling images that you have in your files. Most agencies have very strict criteria for submitting and want thousands of images before they’ll even consider you, but there are some that do not have a minimum. Also, each agency tends to specialize in certain kinds of photography.
Alamy is one that you could possibly break into (there are others) with a limited batch of images, but they too have strict technical requirements that must be met. Best to go to their site http://alamy.com/ to learn more.
Then, there’s microstock which is royalty free. Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microstock_photography to learn more about that aspect – it is more volume driven, i.e. an image is sold as many times as possible for a very low fee rather than selectively for a much higher rate. This may be the easiest, but not necessarily the best, way to get your work out there.
Most stock agencies set the price for you, but some do offer photographers some control. You may want to google “stock photography” and visit some of the sites to get a better idea.

Thank you for that information. My question, though, is more in relation to wedding and family occasion type photography. I’ve done two weddings and some pictures for people who wanted some family type photos done. I don’t have a clue what to charge people for this kind of work. Last week I did photos for a local musical group that will be using their pick of the photos on a poster and possibly on the label of their CD. What in the world am I supposed to charge for something like this?

Stock photography is one type of photography (as far as pricing structures), the wedding and family another, and the CD a third.
What follows are general descriptions. You’ll find small to large differences among photographers.
Portrait photographers generally charge a “sitting fee”, then charge additionally for prints or a CD (sometimes an option, but not usually given without a large fee to cover missed print sales).
Weddings are similar, but the term “sitting fee” is not used. Often photographers will specify how many hours they will shoot and may work in a certain number of prints or an entire wedding album (traditional method), but more and more are starting to hand over a CD or DVD of the images.
The photos for the music group would be considered commercial photography and are a different animal all together. For this type of work most commercial photographers charge by the hour or offer a day rate. Some add a “digital capture fee” on to that to cover editing time and expenses (this replaces the old film and processing charge) and/or a “creative fee”. This type of work is usually delivered as a CD or DVD, not as prints. Finally, usage limitations are put on the work. Professionals almost always retain copyrights to the images, but give the client certain rights to use the photos. Some might give very broad usage- OK to use for CD and poster for as long as you want, while others might specify that the client can only use the photo for the CD for X amount and the poster for X amount. Any use after that, or after the agreed upon time frame, would have to be renegotiated and the photographer would be further compensated.
So, how much exactly for each of these categories? I can’t give you a real number because the range of prices out there is so vast. You have people of different experience levels charging different amounts and even a wide range between the experienced professionals. The best way to determine your rate would be to call many of the professionals and see what they charge. Then, decide where you feel you fit in the range of prices.
A final thought. The competition for photography has always been very tight and now, with the economy and the number of amateurs entering the marketplace, it is even more competitive. A very real problem for the professionals attempting to make a living are those who are new that either give away services in return for a “photo credit” or work for extremely low pay. After months or a year of working this way those photographers always drop out of sight, only to be replaced by new ones. In the meantime, this brings down the fair price on photography that professionals need to earn a living. The actual prices charged for professional photography are indeed very high, but once the business expenses are taken away most photographers aren’t very highly paid. If you enter into this market please price your work accordingly.
I hope this answers your question. I know that you were hoping for more specific numbers, but I think it’s important that you find out from a number of photographers what and how they are pricing their work.

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