A fairly close friend and one of her daughters have asked me to retouch several photos for the daughter to use as her senior photos. These are super nice people and the photos were taken by another common friend. The photos aren't too bad. Mostly fixing dust specs, whitening teeth, Adjusting lighting/color, etc. The first two took me about 2 hours each because she wanted her hair "defrizzed". I have about another 10 or so to go.

The mom is insisting on paying me but she has no idea how much this could run into for this many photos. Even at only $10/hour it would run about $250.

So, as stated earlier, this is a GOOD friend and I'd like to keep it that way. But I don't want to completely donate my time either. In this geographic area she could have gotten professional senior pics done for about $400. Not sure how many poses that would get or the prints but that's the figure we're hearing from people who did get pro photos done in the last few years.

So...any suggestions on what a fair price would be? Or should I go with my gut and just accept whatever she hands me and hope she doesn't ask me for the price?

Tell her whatever she feels is fair, when she gives you 20 bucks...say thank you, then go buy a 12 pack

Charge accordingly.
And I agree with that Von Stetina guy.

Strange how people are. Why didn't she hire a photographer in the first place, get the kids hair done and go with that?

Charge her $40 and get a 24

You just ventured into the Friend Zone.
Not like the dating kind either.

When a mate asks you to do something knowing your profession, it means they are screwing other professionals over by severely undercutting the market and you are enabling that undercut.
Also you will end up looking like a dick by completely undercutting yourself and undervaluing your time.

It also means that on some level, they don't appreciate the cost and the effort that goes into doing design work and of course they don't.
They aren't a designer. They don't have to shell out money to buy the licence for the tools you are using.

Generally for friends I use the, "You owe me one".
Make a note of who owes you a favour and why. That way if you ever get in dire straights you have a favour you can call on, make sure to value the favours properly.

So you must make it clear how much effort the work took and the level of redemption you expect in favours.

To put this in perspective, a friend of mine who gave me a lift to pick up some coursework I had missed earned a pretty big favour, which I repaid by allowing him to use my green-screen and doing some 3D work for him to help him on his course.

Because money cheapen things when it comes to friends and favours can sometimes be more useful than money.

I have to agree with Marx. I've done my share of freind jobs and it has come back to bite me. My usual rate is $75 a hour. Cut some friends of a good friend a deal. They had told there friends about it. Then they call me and I tell them the price. Ended up losing 2 job over the whole ordeal.

Friend situations can be touchy if you rely on graphics for a income.

In your situation I would say (what ever you feel it was worth) and the rest is a graduation gift to her. You need to set the price, if you say whatever it was worth and she gives you $20 your going to be pissed, but if she pays you $300 your going to feel bad. So set the price to what you are comfortable with. You won't hurt any friendships by giving her a firm price.

Firm price sets everyone at ease. Saying pay me what ever it was worth complicates things. Then she will wonder if she offended you, or she over paid you. Give her one set price. Then when she pays you the whole situation is over.

I'm doing a dvd for my nephews graduation. Told them $50 and all I can drink

When you work for darn near free everyone expects that. I have over $2k in cs5 and plug-ins, and a $4k computer, not to mention books, schooling, licensing agreements. Working for free does not help me recover the money at all.

I use to be unsure on my prices also. I am a very shy peson. I use to be unsure of what my time was worth. After a couple quick lessons of getting talked down or taken advantage of I learned how to handle the priceing.
Example for business cards. I usually charge $100 but would sell them for 80-90, which created issues with new customers wanting them for the same. Finally I got to the point where I was firm $100 for 1k with a hour of design time. I actually found out you get more sales when you are firm on your pricing, not a dick about it, but confident.

I post on craigs list all the time, picks me up 3-4 sales a week. Advertised at $100 for 1k and $130 for 2.5k for business cards. My closing rate off craigs list for business cards is 100% My cost for 1k uv coated double sided cards is $15, so I make $85 a sale. Somwtimes I feel bad I make so much off of 15 minutes worth of work, but overall people are amazed that 1k cards only cost $100. So I still have some moral issues I deal with on a daily basis, but I have identified them and I'm trying to handle and grow from it.

In my eyes a friend does not = discount. Thye are giving you there work so thats a favor in itself. If you expect some smoking deal because your friends, your really not a friend, your a user and taking advantage of them. This works both ways.

I should clarify. This family has 5 daughters and not a lot of money (hence not hiring a pro). We've known them for 15 years or so and they've done loads to help us in the past.

I just don't know what to tell her if she asks how . Guess I'll go with "whatever you think is fair". Even then I'd probably give money back to her.

Edit: thanks for the input gz. I don't do this for a living. I'm a programmer. This is a side hobby really.

Do it as a graduation gift then or a repayment for "that 1 time"

First of all, how old are the daughters?
Tofu, Tofu, Tufu, in the future, if this ever happens again, before you agree to anything, tell the client your rate before you start and @ how long it will take, so it is not a surprise to anyone, then factor in if this is a friend, if so, do it for free, or figure out what that friend can do for you in return, like sending her daughters over to feed you grapes, and fan the Great Tofu.

One KEY element, I think, in all this Mr. Tofu is that you let them know the value of what you are doing even if you don't charge them that value.

I've given far too many friends "favours" (they all see me do shit in 5 or 13 minutes and think "meh - it is nothing for him to do") and they do not see the 13+ years and $10,000 in investment it has taken me to DO THAT in 5 or 10 minutes. I have to admit, I do not (at 51 years old now) have that many of THOSE kind of friends left.

It is funny, the friends who I'd gladly do stuff for free for because they are so cool are actually the friends that won't ask or will only ask when they've got the money.

BUT - when I do agree to a deal, with friend or basic client, I always invoice the PROPER AMOUNT and then SHOW THE DISCOUNT. This way, even though they will probably NEVER want to pay the FULL PRICE after getting the DEAL, they at least know that what they got was worth much more. This also helps remind you of your own worth.

The fact that you are not a pro at this doesn't lessen the fact that you've spent time figuring out how to do it. I would DEFINITELY go for the 24 pack!!

While we're on this, I'll mention another thing I strive for in this area of creative contract work: Non-Resentment. You want to NOT resent all the chopping you'll be doing, and you don't want them resenting HOW MUCH THEY HAVE TO 'SPEND' to get you to do it. So I always try to negotiate to that point where, at the end of it, everyone feels un-abused and un-resentful of each other. If you CAN NOT find a path of non-resentment, then the cost of the project is TOO HIGH and you should politely decline the "job".

Okay - I'll hand Blue Lurker back his soap box now. I'm going to go and find some ROBUST CHEDDAR now.

Thanks for the input one and all. Another tidbit I'd forgotten to mention is that the mom originally spoke with my wife and the wife basically said "sure he can do it".

Love the wife but she knows jacksquat about the time and effort it takes and she's way overconfident in my abilities some times (or at least in my ability to do things in the patented Reinman 5-10 minutes vs the Tofu 1-2 hours).

So basically I got roped into this by my wife and since it's a dear friend I didn't care.

Guess I'll have to reiterate to the wife to talk with me first before subcontracting out my efforts.

Took the words right out of my mouth. I'm doing a lot of freebie work for the various radio hosts on my network. Graphics, promo spots and bumbs. Basically if you are a radio host on our network I'll support your promotional efforts. But I am now billing for the work and hours, and zeroing out the balance. Like Reineer said, it keeps in mind the value they are getting for cheap to nothing.

Look at the good news, only 4 more daughters to go.

Quote: " I don't do this for a living. I'm a programmer. This is a side hobby really."

You must be a pro you have an agent.

In this case I think you should do the work, add it all up and make a bill.

When you give them the finished work, you give them the bill and tell them they can pay what they can and tell your darling wife that she will have to make up for the remaining bit.

No, seriously. This is a gift from your family to that family. But you are ok to show your wife how much she has given to them by showing her the bill. And if they ask what they can do for you in return, well, perhaps one of them can do something for you in future.