Q: How much do you charge per photo for a sweet 16? Or how does it work?
A: This is not really a question about nightclub or nightlife photography, but I will still answer the question since I've done some event photography (anniversaries, birthday parties, etc.) in the past.
Doing photography for a sweet 16 party is very different from doing nightclub photography. Photographing a sweet 16 party is more or less comparable to wedding photography so the rates and deliverables would be similar to that. How much to charge would depend on what the client is expecting to get and how much experience you have doing this type of photography.
My pricing is simple and straightforward. Here's my pricing structure for event photography:
My rates start at $_____/hr or $______ for _____ hrs of photography (you could do an hourly rate or a fixed rate for a certain number of hours and additional hour cost $_____). This includes approximately ____ images. The key to my pricing is that clients receive high-resolution images on a DVD that have been optimized and are ready to print. The client controls the reprints and don't have to pay me exorbitant reprint prices or buy packages they don't want or need.
My rates included not just the time I spent photographing the event, but also the time I spent editing the images (basic color correction/post processing/deleting bad pictures), time spent meeting with the client and doing any follow ups, travel expenses, and what I estimated the amount to be made from selling prints. If the client wanted to get prints, a photo book, or more editing on pictures, then those would cost extra.
Do a google search on sweet 16 photography and see what's the going rate and what's being included.
