Don't ever sell yourself short. If you made a good photo, you made a good photo and even better if someone wants to buy it. That guide doesn't have to be followed strictly but if you cut into your profit too much, then you may find yourself cornered into selling at a lower rate in the future.
Another thing that selling low does is to hurt the local and stock photo market so a bargain basement sale could have the effect of bringing down many more photo sale rates and depressing the industry even further.
We have this problem in Philadalphia. All of the big colleges have some sort of art or journalism programs and the city is flooded with student and recently graduated photographers who are taking less and less money for work simply in order to get the work. The problem is that it is depressing the whole photo market in the city. I regularly yell at friends of mine for selling their work for pennies and they don't think they are hurting anything but themselves.
Back in 2006 I gave an estimate to a client on a job where I'd shoot the interior of his firm. The estimate was itemized and included all consumables, rental, usage, digital processing and day fees. The client turned it down. Today I have 6 years more experience and a degree but couldn't successfully bill a similar client the same amount for a similar shoot. The economy and the prevalence of excellent digital cameras in a city where art students and recent grads are desperate to find any work in their field has gutted the photo market.
Sorry for the long anecdote but it's just one rant I have about the state of the photographer/client relationship. In a nutshell, price your work high then let the client talk you down a few percent. If they want your photos bad enough, they will buy them. Sticking to your guns about pricing will show you're on your way to becoming a savvy professional as well and most clients respect that kind of reliability.
Phil Forrest
