Boudoir prices

[flygirl]

How much did everyone pay for their bd session?

I really want to make my FI an album using mypublisher so I will need my pictures in digital form. I e-mailed the studios I was thinking of using and this is what they told me...

 

Our session fee for any adult session (including our Boudoir sessions) is $30. An "adult" is anyone over the age of 12. Included for this price are the following services:

Professional makeup and hairstyling

A photo session with approximately 25 edited poses and 3 outfit changes

Viewing of the images immediately after your session

Although most of our clients choose to purchase some kind of collection of prints for a Boudoir session, we do have 2 types of digital formats available.

 

The first type of digital format would be the low-resolution cd. This would contain all of the images from your photo session for $100. This price does not include any retouching. Retouching could be added for a fee of $50 per image...and could be performed on only the images that you select to have retouched. (If you purchased some other type of collection, you could add the cd at a discount...and any images you already had retouched would be retouched on the cd at no additional cost.)

 

The second type of digital format would be the high-resolution cd. This is something that is usually purchased by our business clients. It is basically like buying our "negative". The cost for this cd is $175 per image. It includes digital retouching. You can make your own prints from this cd.

 

$175 per image?!!! that would be a really expensive photo album! or do you think I could get away with the low resolution cd?

 

and the second studio...

There are a variety of option for creating an album with your photos. From a typical session you'll have 30-40 images to choose from. I do offer some folio and album options for the photos. If you're looking to just do the album yourself, I do make the high resolution images available for $25 each, or a complete set of them for $400, which is around what most clients spend on reprints and album after the session.

 

Wow, I cannot afford that!

[EricaG]

I am not sure what the going rate is for BD pics, but that does sound extremely high. This is something that I am thinking of doing for my FI if I can lose enough weight, but I don't think I can afford prices like that!

[Kristy!]

I would ask to see examples of the low-res. It's probably fine, but I know I'd want to see it.

[Dbld78]

Let me give you my professional opinion....

 

Being a professional photographer and graphic designer, I hate to tell you this....you should really have the HI RES images for any reproducing, even with the album. I personally don't think those prices are too bad! These are very detailed sessions...

 

I offer my girls a package deal....but I have to have many girls...

Hair and Make up

2 Hour session at a swanky hotel in downtown Philadelphia

100 Hi Res images with copyright release on CD

$150 photo or album credit....

All for a bit more than what they are offering.... I would investigate some more photographers in your area..

 

Good Luck!

[mpark46]

That seems really high! I would confirm if it really is $175 per image.

 

I'm not doing a Boudoir session right now, but will for our anniversary.

 

When I inquired, my photog said it was basically the same as an engagement session, which was $150/hr and you get all of the EDITED photos on a high resolution CD. You co-own the photos so you can get them printed anywhere you like.

 

My photog did tell me that getting the photos printed through her was going to cost more, but that they would go through a final editing/retouching before going to print to get you the best photos possible.

 

Then again, my quote didn't include hair/makeup but did include as many outfit changes as I wanted.

[caroline]

Yikes, that is expensive! It's something I've bene considering also - but not sure I want to kick out that kind of change!

[Agape Gems]

The first quote seems really high, but the second one sounds reasonable if there isn't a really high base price on top of the $400 for the hi-res images. I wouldn't buy the low res b/c they will not be as sharp when you print them, even in a book-especially if you try to do a full page of a single image.

 

You might want to ask the photographer if they have an assistant who could do the session at a lower rate.

[COFPhoto]

Currently pricing for high resolution digital negatives varies quite a bit from one photographer to another for a variety of reasons. First, some Photographers are more comfortable selling the digitals than others - many Photographers still hate the idea of selling "negatives" to their customers, and it has nothing to do with losing / making money. It has to do with them not wanting crappy reprints out in the public eye representing their work. In other words, if you make your book, and it looks terrible (compared to high end books that they sell), it hurts their image. At least that's the way a lot of Photographers still think.

 

The person who quoted you $175 per high res digital image also said that people "use these for business portraits" etc. I think in this case they're talking about someone like a Realtor who comes to them and wants 1-2 digitals for their business cards, etc. In that case the customer may only buy the 2 digitals for a total order of $350. If they priced them at say $25, then they'd only make 50 bucks, and the job wouldn't be worth their time.

 

We're somewhere in the middle. We do sell the digitals, but only to customers who buy at least $500 in photos / canvases / books first. That way the are available to the customer, but only after they have already purchased a significant amount of our photos. That way if they take their CD to Wally World and their prints look like crap, it won't be a reflection on us (because our prints looked great).

 

If you're looking for a Photographer who will do a 1-2 hour photo shoot, edit all of the photos, and give/sell you the CD with all of the retouched images, and you want it all for just a couple of hundred bucks, then you're not looking for a Professional Photographer. You're looking for a hobbyist or someone looking to get into paid photography. A two hour photo shoot takes more like 8-10 hours of work when you include travel, the shoot, and all of the computer time involved. It's just not worth it for less than at least $500 for anyone who does it for a living.

 

So since you're wanting a budoiur session, I'd be careful about who you choose. I've seen more than one case of some pervert pretending to be a Photographer, offering cheap budoiur sessions.

 

Not saying that you can't find a student or an aspiring photographer with a good eye and skill that could do it for you...just use common sense when you look at their work/pricing and when you talk to them.

 

HTH!

[caroline]

COFphoto... thanks for the run-down!