Posted by Gavin G: 
I would charge $0- $500 for local use, and $500-$1,000 for nation wide use plus photocredit.   A $1,000 penalty for publishing without a photocredit.  The price varyance would be based on popularity of the band.

Would you charge this pre print or for the shoot because he can't charge for a shoot he wasn't comissioned to do. We're only talking prints here right? Maybe 20.00-5x7's, 30.00-8x10's Nice profits in there for ya since you were just having fun. You can print em for around 2.00!

I know that most of you guys are pros.

*sigh*

I would guess that less than 10% of the photographers on this site are actually pros...but that's a WHOLE different conversation.

Never, EVER sell a photo to someone without understanding what their intended use is.  Since it wasn't discussed if the guy just wants to put it in a frame and hang it on the wall of his house charging him $500-1000 will probablly get you laughed at, if not punched.

In that case charging for prints much like a portrait photographer would is more in line.  Proofs are done in so many ways it's hard to tell what would work best for you.  4x6 proofs, digital proofs, contact sheets, online watermarked proofs, etc...That depends on your seriousness, your printing capabilities, and a bunch of other things you didn't answer for us in your post.  Get him the images and actually let him see what they look like, if he's still interested at that point, then find out what he wants them for and go from there.

If he's more thinking that he likes the shot so much they want to use it for their CD cover then perhaps a bit more is a reasonable assumption.  However, a few things to keep in mind before I point you in the direction of places to get that information.

1) Your experience level.  Having a band of any size use your image on a CD cover at your level of experience will be a high I'm sure you will appreciate if this is a hobby.  Prices of professional photographers who make their living doing what they do are going to be higher than what you could reasonably charge.  You want to be fair to them and realistic in your assessment of what your talents are worth in the marketplace if your goal is to get more work down the road.

2) Actually making the sale.  As it stands, no photograph is worth anything until a buyer is introduced.  No matter what the quality, until someone wants to buy an image, it's worthless in a financial sense.  Something that people fairly often don't really grasp is that photography is a buyers market.  Even if you were the best celebrity/band photographer in the world, if you took a picture of a small band that could financially only support paying $250 for an image, THAT is it's value.  It doesn't matter that Big Name Band XYZ just paid you $2,500 for a shot...the image of the small band is worth no more than what the only realisic consumer of that shot will/can pay.

A little searching and diligence will go a long way here because I cannot post the thousands of variables that go into stock photography pricing.  Go look at a few of the largest stock photography sites and view their prices for usage, but above all, remember that the sale is important.  You don't want to price yourself so out of what they feel is appropriate that you burn that bridge.  If you pursue this path and look back and eventually say that it's not worth it to you so sell any picture for less than X, fine...but right now you're not in that position, so take the experience and exposure, ask them to put your name on it and sell it cheap.  The experience of your first REAL photo sale is one you will always remember, I promise you that.  Ask any of the high end professionals that are world or nationally recognized.  Every last one of them remembers that first shot.

Andy

Posted by Dv8ed: 
Over the weekend I was shooting a live band. Just having fun drinking partying and what not. So after the show I was talking to one of the guys in the band telling him that I think I got some cool shots. And before I could say I will email them to you he said "really I will buy them".

   Well at this point of the game I dont sell anything just do it for fun and the art of it. But how cool would it be to make money at something you love and how do you put a price on that. I know that most of you guys are pros. So could how much would you guys charge???  [/quote


Since this was done for the fun of it, I would go easy on the price to the band. They must be rather unknown, or you would not have been allowed to photograph them. Tell them you would like to be their official photographer, and see if you can do more images for them, and get paid.

Posted by piers: 
Although not commissioned he would still charge for usage - plus any post shoot expenses such as retouching and supply of prints - suitably marked up obviously.

My comment was based off of this statement. "Well at this point of the game I dont sell anything just do it for fun and the art of it." So my advice was to sell them a print and be done with it. Retouching may not even be needed. Plus, selling a print has nothing to do with usage. He can get into the usage thing later, but in the mean time he has a potential future client that could become a recurring client.

Posted by Fred Brown: 

Posted by piers: 
Although not commissioned he would still charge for usage - plus any post shoot expenses such as retouching and supply of prints - suitably marked up obviously.

My comment was based off of this statement. "Well at this point of the game I dont sell anything just do it for fun and the art of it." So my advice was to sell them a print and be done with it. Retouching may not even be needed. Plus, selling a print has nothing to do with usage. He can get into the usage thing later, but in the mean time he has a potential future client that could become a recurring client. 

But then you might get into a misunderstanding about the rights one has when purchasing a print.  When you own a piece of art work,  you do have certain rights.   This might lead to a misunderstanding.   I think it is better to be straight from the start.   

The amount paid by small music companies to shoot small bands is often not that much and they often want to retain total ownership to the photos.