"Where do you draw the line with your clients?"

A photographer friend of mine just came upon a very common situation. Here's an example: You are doing pictures for the Smith Family. The Smith Family has already been quoted at your standard price. However, the neighbour kid, the cousin, the best friend, the great grandparents would also like a couple of pictures taken, not a full session, just maybe one or two... How do you know where to draw the line?

This situation is sometimes very easy to sort out, but can become very sticky and problematic especially when you aren't prepared for the extra people who show up.

Let's assume you have your family session listed at $100, and the client gets about 20 images, making each image worth about $5. So long as you make it clear that a 'family' session is restricted to immediate family only, and that the package is restricted to 20 images, then when they want to add the grandparents or little cousin Jonny, you can say, "I would be happy to do that, and the additional cost will be $10."

Now, let's assume that Cousin Jonny's mommy is there and says, "Well, since we're here, would you mind doing one of just me and Jonny?" If you have already had the opportunity to establish that extra pictures are going to cost extra money, then it's very easy to say, "Well, sure, I'd be happy to take a picture of just you and Jonny, for $10." Precedent has been set, and the expectations of what you will and won't include are very clear. If you make this clear in your advertising or price list, or if have the opportunity to discuss this ahead of the session, there are way fewer problems. But... (there's always a but...)

Let's assume that you get to your session and SURPRISE! Little Jonny is already there, in his suit, with his hair combed, with his Mom, and they want some pictures, too! Obviously, you haven't had an opportunity to discuss the issue of additional charges at that point. Even if you have it abundantly clear that your session is restricted to nuclear family, there are always those who will try. And as a rule, the client will not offer extra money. At that point, there are three options.

#1.) Ask for the money. It can then become very awkward for you, the photographer, to suddenly say, "Sure - that'll be an extra $10 per pose!" since when you ask for extra money, it isn't always well-received. Often they are quite happy to pay the extra bit, but just as often they will try and get out of paying. Sometimes they will act taken aback, play dumb, or be very nice. "Oh - we had no idea it would cost extra. But you're already here, so - would you mind? Please?" Sometimes the surprise client will say, "Oh, well, never mind..." and act very hurt or indignant that you would have the audacity to even consider demanding more money. I've figured out this is an attempt to guilt you into doing the extra pictures for free. And on (thankfully) very rare occasions, they will be come outright rude. "You've already been paid - what's the big deal? It's his COUSIN, for God's sake..."

#2.) Go ahead and take the pictures, for free. They will love you and refer you to all their friends and family. If you're having a slow week, or really enjoy the clients, you may just feel like being generous that day. You may not feel like fighting that day. Whatever the case may be, at your discretion, you are always welcome to give extra to your customers. Just beware: if you give it away for free too often, it becomes expected, which in turn makes it increasingly difficult to say no or ask for extra money down the road. Give it away for free sparingly.

#3.) This is often the most diplomatic and simple solution, and though you may have to answer a few questions after the fact, people are usually pretty understanding. If you refer to the previous posting, I go into more detail about how the pictures are exponentially reduced by the number of participants in the session. If you have a family of four, and they add a person to the session and you arne't in the mood to discuss price, what you can do is take fewer pictures of the other clients to accomodate for the new person. So a group of four would have had 5 pictures of each person; a group of five will now get 4 pictures of each person. The client may ask why there are fewer pictures - this is when you explain that they were only signed up for a total of 20 pictures.

By far the easiest way to avoid this situation is to have the issue of price crystal clear and out of the way BEFORE the session.