How Much Would You Pay For a Portrait Sitting, and Is $125 *Really* Too Much?

Dear Don, you are generalizing.

Well, not really. An old rule of thumb says
that a hard-working, productive engineer averages
3 hours of productive work per 9 hour workday.

Creativity takes time !

But it WAS in response to:

"My employers have been paying me for 37 hours a week for the past thirty years. Hope they don't read your post, Steve, or some bright spark in Payroll will come chasing me for a big refund! "

Being a full time portraitist really boils down to charging a whole lot more than we've mentioned so far.

Look around your neighborhood, and estimate how much it would cost to live next door to yourself !

Figure that a full time, efficient, and hard working 'fine art portraitist' can do 40 portraits a year. Can you afford to pay that much for a picture of yourself ? If you will net $50,000, annually, you have to clear $1250 per portrait job.

Understand, too, that you are usually 'carrying' the client for some period of time.

A studio portraitist can charge far less, but needs to do far more. At five a week, it still adds up.

df cardwell said:

Figure that a full time, efficient, and hard working 'fine art portraitist' can do 40 portraits a year. Can you afford to pay that much for a picture of yourself ? If you will net $50,000, annually, you have to clear $1250 per portrait job.

Click to expand...

That's a very sound way of looking at it from a standpoint of making a living off it. Refreshing numbers, and thanks for bringing things into perspective!

For me, it's more about just covering my expenses and build a portfolio for myself - not the client. But I'm just starting out doing portraits, you know, coming over the hurdle of anxiety and fear of not creating work that satisfies, doubting my abilities. If I ever get around to doing more, I want to make sure I know what I'm doing, and come up with enough creative ideas to make it worthwhile.
So currently I don't charge anything, I just pay people a symbolic sum to sit for me and give them a print afterward. All in an effort to just get better at it.

This is very educational for me, and it is good knowledge to consider in the future if I ever feel the urge.
How can you get someone to pay $1,500 for a portrait? That is the real question. I think the work has to be top notch, and I think a reputation for consistently producing great work has to be earned from client respect and referral. I think there's a breaking point where people will really start questioning how much real genuine creative and artistic quality is worth. Something more than a 'Cheese' portrait.

- Thomas

the other problem with charging very little for a sitting and portrait
is that as someone who is self employed and doesn't have an employer
take taxes out of his/her paycheck at the end of the week,
roughly 48¢ / dollar is tax for the self employed ( at least in the usa ), so if you charge
$150 for a portrait sitting &C, you are only really making between 75 and 80$
at the end of the day. a lot of people who are not self employed, have no idea
that one needs to BILL twice the amount that one wants to make.
it will take a lot of 150$ portrait sittings to clear a few thousand dollars a month ...

Thomas Bertilsson said:

That's a very sound way of looking at it from a standpoint of making a living off it. Refreshing numbers, and thanks for bringing things into perspective!

For me, it's more about just covering my expenses and build a portfolio for myself - not the client. But I'm just starting out doing portraits, you know, coming over the hurdle of anxiety and fear of not creating work that satisfies, doubting my abilities. If I ever get around to doing more, I want to make sure I know what I'm doing, and come up with enough creative ideas to make it worthwhile.
So currently I don't charge anything, I just pay people a symbolic sum to sit for me and give them a print afterward. All in an effort to just get better at it.

This is very educational for me, and it is good knowledge to consider in the future if I ever feel the urge.
How can you get someone to pay $1,500 for a portrait? That is the real question. I think the work has to be top notch, and I think a reputation for consistently producing great work has to be earned from client respect and referral. I think there's a breaking point where people will really start questioning how much real genuine creative and artistic quality is worth. Something more than a 'Cheese' portrait.

- Thomas

Click to expand...

Thomas... your work would be well worth being paid for, but the question isn't "how to get someone to pay $1500 for a portrait", the real question to ask is... how much do you value your talent and time as a photographer. If someone starts bargaining with me... or asking for wallets, I refer them to Sears, JCPenny, Picture Place, etc. There are plenty of places to get cheap pix.

You make great pictures, and if someone wants you to make their portrait, they should pay. Don't spend too much time and energy on free portrait sittings. If you don't value your own time, you'll have a hard time convincing folks to pay a lot for your very unique services.

Although, I've had a slow summer work wise, which is hard, I still won't offer discounts... not worth it. It's hard to be the breadwinner on portraits, and if I had to be the family breadwinner, I would have one of those pesky cubicle jobs!!

At any rate... here's a goal... I would like to do 10 to 12 jobs a year, and make $3,000 to $5,000 on each job. I'm not there, and I will have to raise my sitting fee considerably if I want to see those numbers, and when my kids are a little older, and I can devote myself to it in a more full time manner... I hope to get there....

How can you get someone to pay $1,500 for a portrait? That is the real question. I think the work has to be top notch, and I think a reputation for consistently producing great work has to be earned from client respect and referral.

Thomas, that's it, yep.

You know how your heart sort of lifts when you see one of Bill's pictures ?

That's all you have to do with a portrait. Suzanne and Nicole can do it,
and it seems that all you have to do is tether the camera to your heart.
It IS a worthwhile trip to take,

To get good price on portrait photog need
(important prereq.)
to live in rich area, or around it.
reach people have to know him
reach guy must be in real need for his portrait
that rich guy have to be ready to part with $1000
that rich guy must be one who knows to value things
...

I used to charge close to what you're asking, but someone asked my wife what my sitting fee was, and she quoted a much, much higher figure. They booked me. And, since then I've just started using that higher figure. Know what? I am shooting more, and selling more prints to people with deeper pockets. I wouldn't say photography is about gimmickry, but I would say it's about perceived value. Also, regarding digital, if a job really calls for digital (largely based on how the photos will be used, how they'll be seen), I'll do it that way, now. I find those jobs to be quick, painless, and extremely profitable (like, a headshot for a website only or maybe an interior or a product). On the other hand if the client tells me he's hanging this portrait on the wall, I can easily make the case that film and real prints (silver, alt) and quality framing are the path to take.

I am thinking about only offering matted and framed prints in the future. It adds to my workflow, but it results in a finished piece that will have higher perceived value than a print in an envelope. And, it allows me to totally control the product from concept to client wall. It always blows my mind that a print that I've sold for $100 becomes a $200 job for the custom frame shop. Seriously. Take a print to a high quality custom framer, pick a nice wood frame, pick a couple of mats and non-reflective glass, and don't be surprised that the framer makes more money than you do. Something's wrong there.

My wife quoting that higher rate was one of the best things that ever happened.

Neal