Printing for someone else, how much $$?

Hi,

I am likely to get a wet printing job from a local pro. He is know shooting digital, but would like to get some oder negs printed traditionnaly.

He wants 11x14 prints and probably not much dodge/burn or other tweaking. He's still not sure if he wants fiber (more job) or RC paper (easier).

He told me to give him a quote for the price, but I have no idea...

My question is how much should I ask for it? I am not a master printer, but he likes the way I am printing my own negs....

Thanks for the advice!

Kris

How about computing the raw materials cost, adding $20/hr for your service, and at least doubling that? The first one or two prints might be done "at cost", you know, as an incentive...

A more rewarding thing in the long term might be for you to get him to pay you to teach him how to do it over a session or two. Then you can learn a lot from teaching and help spread the religion.

I print for photographers and charge 25.00 for RC and 45.00 for fiber. - Jim

It's simple. You just look at a few pro lab websites in your area and see what they are charging. If you try and charge more than they do, you are unlikely to get repeat business cos you'd be expensive. Charge a little less as its just an adhoc thing for one person not a regular business. That way it will seem like a fair price to the customer and would be a fair price to charge IMO.

for the additonal prints the same negative
charge a little less than the first one
that's how i do it ..

And printing for someone else is very different to printing for yourself. You may have to take direction from the photographer if thats what they want.
And if there are a lot of prints to do, then think about what that means in terms of your time because if he gives you 50 negs to print, you may find you have more on your hands than you are used to.
If you don't have a well organised darkroom then a volume of prints can be difficult to deal with

Many years ago when I first started printing professionally I was advised by Bill Rowlinson, one of the best printers around, to charge by the hour plus the cost of materials. His reason was quite logical, a really bad negative could take considerable time to print and the printer would be probably losing money.

Les McLean said:

Many years ago when I first started printing professionally I was advised by Bill Rowlinson, one of the best printers around, to charge by the hour plus the cost of materials. His reason was quite logical, a really bad negative could take considerable time to print and the printer would be probably losing money.

Click to expand...

Well yes that can be a route but if the client has asked for a quote for the whole job, then you don't know how long it will take until you get the job and see the negs.
However, unless these are to be exhibition prints which would be charged a lot more for additional time in getting the best out of the neg, then a difficult neg is a difficult neg and would not normally be expected to be a masterpiece of printing. i.e. you ain't going to spend a lot of time on a bad neg unless its for exhibition.

The normal rate per print/size/rc/fibre would average out over a batch of negs. Some quick to do some take longer. Once you start saying the basic charge is for a quick to print neg and anything else is charged extra, then the client hasn't a clue what it will cost. Thats like asking for a blank cheque from the client which is not the norm as far as I have seen.

I charge by the hour for fibre printing , I also make the client provide the paper and lunch. I also encourage the photographer to spend time in the darkroom to nail the look.
$125 per hour with $60 for toning and washing.
* I have printed professionally for 30 odd years and this method is definately the best*
this allows the photographer to get as many copies of each image they want and after doing it this way for quite awhile now the costs average out in the end. The first session with a photographer is the learning stage and less production, but after a few sessions the photographer definately wins on the dollar side of the equation..


In this paticular case the photographer seems to like your work, so I would go with local rates for this service in your area.
Look at web sites , you can go to mine and see fibre prices.
If they like your work then charge the rates, if they are coming to you because they think you will drop your pants because you are new to printing for others and unsure of yourself , then I would be careful.* you could end up getting pissed off and not wanting to do this service again.*

Proctect yourself and print fibre, 11 x14 is around $50 per print , seconds are at half price.
I would also then group all the toning into a hourly basis ... $60 per hour for all the prints.

I never undercut the competition on price.. as you will feel stress with time and paper if you do .
Remember , they are coming to you and like your work , not the reverse. This puts you in the driver's seat and is a good thing for present and future work.

good luck

I would take a look at his negatives before I talked about money at all. My father in law wanted me to print some of his old negatives once....My god the horror....Doesn't sound like he's given you nearly enough info to base a quote on, except maybe for proofs.

Anyway, all other things being equal, Bob's suggestions sounds very reasonable. I'd itemize as much as you can to protect yourself.

Les, Bob: YES !


I had a client for a short time (hint, hint) whose negatives were consistently underexposed and over underdeveloped.
He would not increase exposure, he wouldn't change his film lab.

It wasn't worth the bother to bail this guy out. For a healthy relationship, you have to get correct negatives,
and a professional relationship means give and take.

Finally, how many hours a week can you print ? Decide what your time is worth, and how much time you can devote to the job. For goodness sake, remember that fixing, washing, drying, and the myriad finishing chores, including clean up and chemical mixing, has to be accounted for.

Can you get a steady supply of the materials you'll need ?

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the answer. I am very pleased to always find plenty of answers on this forum for any question I have!

It won't be a big job, and yes, he's aware of the time it will take to order paper/chemicals from freestyle. His negs should be ok, since they are mostly XP2 and he likes contrasty prints, like 3 1/2 or 4 contrast grade.

I will ask for 35$ on fiber for the first one and 20$ for duplicatas + material. He will provide me with a print washer that should help to cut times.

I will surely take a look to the negs and the whole job before giving a quote.

This being said, I never though that I would "make money" by doing wet printing in those digital ages... Actually, it would probably give me some money to buy films and other goods too. I don't expect to live from photography, but at least if I am able to practice my hobby for free by doing small jobs, it would be fun!

Thanks All

Kris