How Much Is That Photo Worth?
Answer: As much as anyone will pay for it!

A budding photographer contacted me for help today. He wanted to know how much to charge for photos that a restaurant business wants to purchase to place on the social network pages and possibly for advertising elsewhere. The person asking for advice told me that he was on assignment to help out a friend, and was not working for the restaurant. I said $100 would be a fair price for a non-exclusive photo use IF the photo was top notch and could not be easily duplicated by another person with a cheaper camera. However, I encouraged them to enter dialogue with the potential client and be willing to package the price of several pictures and possibly go down. (I haven’t seen the photos, but know that this amateur photographer is winning lots of awards and is taking some great stuff!)

Pricing your work these days, be it marketing services or photography, is a game of guessing the client’s budget with a willingness to negotiate. In professional trade organizations for my field of photography, the advice and pricing has change significantly in the past decade. Newspapers often sell photographers’ images for a fraction of what they once cost.

Rules of the road:

Don’t give it away unless you really don’t want it.

Don’t price yourself so low that you’re losing money.

Don’t pin your hopes on being called back again because you gave someone a deal. I know quite a few people who simply keep looking till someone gives them the deal. Of course, they keep looking and keep finding. Do they ever pay for anything? No, of course not. They’re cheap.