Portrait Pricing

The costs for portrait photography can be divided into three major areas. The first is the portrait session where your individual, family, or group portrait is taken in the studio or at your selected location. The second area to consider for cost estimation is the combination of prints you will want to purchase from among the completed portrait proofs. The final area involves any optional services or features you would like to include to modify the appearance of your final portrait images.

Portrait Session Fees

We charge a fee for your portrait session. This addresses our costs for any film, film development, and photographer time involved in producing your portrait images. The fees vary depending on the nature and duration of your portrait session. Listed below are the fees we charge for portrait sessions.

Session Duration	Outfit Changes	Number of Images	Fee
Up to 30 Minutes	Up to 2	Up to 20	$ 50.00
Up to 60 Minutes	Up to 4	Up to 40	$ 100.00
Up to 90 Minutes	Up to 6	Up to 60	$ 150.00

A typical portrait session is usually completed within fifteen to twenty minutes. Most portrait sessions are fairly standard and easily fall within the realm of the first category above. As you request more elaborate poses, changes of clothing and makeup, or more pictures, we will charge appropriate session fees based upon the table above. We will inquire during the initial consultation to get a pretty good idea of what type of session you will require and we then establish the session fee for you at that time. That way there are no surprises. If, during your portrait session, you begin to run beyond your expected limits we may warn you of the anticipated overrun or ask you to reschedule the remainder of your portraits for another time. The latter will arise if you want more images and there is another person or group scheduled to have their portraits taken.

Session fees are due at the completion of your initial consultation to book your session.

What About Location and Travel Fees?

Our session fees for location work are the same as for studio work. The only exceptions to this are if there is extensive travel involved (more than 20 miles) or if we are forced to pay a fee (for example, parking fees) in order to photograph at your selected location. In such cases we will ask you to pay a mileage fee (gas prices vary too quickly to quote a firm number here, but it is likely to be less than $1.00 per mile) and to reimburse us for any actual expenses we incur. Naturally, if your travel requirements are more extensive (plane travel or overnight stays, for example), then we will negotiate these expenses with you prior to the portrait session.

How Much are the Prints?

Prints can be purchased in a Portrait Package, as Individual Prints, or as Custom Prints. The portrait packages are the most economical way to purchase quality portrait prints (the packages contain built-in discounts for the larger order), but there are times when buying individual prints could save you money. Custom prints are the most costly, but they result in large and elegant display pieces that can brighten any wall or act as a conversation piece for family and friends. Click on any of the above links for pricing details about a specific print type.

What About Those Extra Costs?

There are a number of additional Portrait Options that you may include to improve your portraits. These range from extensive retouching (we do common minor retouching on all portrait images without charge) to canvas display prints. These are all optional costs that you may either select or bypass.

What Do People Normally Spend?

There can not be any standard response to this question because portrait needs vary a great deal by individual and by their current stage of life. A new family may want to capture images they can share with a large distributed family. A potential traveler may only require a couple of images for their passport. A proud father may want a large canvas portrait of his son or daughter upon their graduation from law school. The needs and desires vary greatly, and as a result so do the expenditures for portraiture.

If you want a very simple portrait package with a reasonable number of prints, you can have it for about $150.00 total (plus applicable taxes). If you want a mixture of small, medium, and larger prints, then this can be accomplished for something under $300.00. And of course, you can spend a good deal more if you want a more elaborate portrait package.