What to charge?

[Dave Schneidr]

How to price a job? I have done very few "for hire" photo gigs and some of those were contribution in kind for charitable organizations. I have been asked by a colleague if I would be interested in photographing a products his company makes. This particular item is a prototype for a DOD contract and they would like some good photos before shipping the product. The item is a 17 foot tall cylinder that resembles the nose cone of a missile that folds open. They have tried photographing it themselves and gotten miserable results with on-camera flash. They talked to a few pros in the ares who do mostly wedding and portrait work and most of them turned down the job since they didn't have the lighting or a view camera and new they wouldn't produce satisfactory results. The job will require 4 to 6 lights and possibly a fill or two on the interior surfaces. I think a view camera will be the only way to achieve results that don't suffer from converging lines. The space around the object is limited, moving it to a larger warehouse or something isn't feasible. I'm pretty sure I can produce the results but it may take a little more experimenting. I've got all the equipment I will need. The job will have to be done on site. What sort of a price do propose? Fixed fee for the job? Minimal payment just to try and then charge extra for any shots they choose to use? I'm open to suggestions.

[Frank Petronio]

They will probably want all rights to prevent you from reselling the images along with a non-disclosure agreeement, so factor that in. Second, you need to cover your overhead and time at the bare minimum. Third, since it is DOD work and not a non-profit, you should charge enough to make a healthy profit.

After you figure that out, then you charge as high as you think the market will bear.

Remember that you can be friends with all these folks but that doesn't mean you should lowball a job that no other local photgrapher can do. I suspect it will be unrealistic to charge $5000 like a lot of established pros would do - but you should probably be in the $1200 to $1800 territory without any regrets - maybe closer to $2500. That's for a good day and several variations, scanned and delivered as digital files and prints.

[Kirk Gittings]

What Frank said.

[Jim Rhoades]

Frank, Kirk, I dunno. At $600.00 a toilet seat the DOD could go for $5,000. His buddy could add it to the billing.

[Aaron van de Sande]

Don't forget to factor in lighting rental as a seperate expense.

[Frank Petronio]

No matter what you charge - from a few hundred to a few thousand - it will seem like a lot of money to a company that is used to shooting snapshots. Everytime I've given a discount to the inexperienced it has bitten me in the buttocks - they still think it is too much money - so you might as well aim on the safe high side.

I used to do slides for artists when I was starting out - even for friendly favor of doing an afternoon's work on location for film plus $50 they would bitch about the cost - so I quickly learned to charge $250 jsut to make it worthwhile.

[Ted Harris]

Frank has a point .... those that are no tused to buying these sorts of services have no clue what to expect. For a number of years I have been shooting for a couple of area restaurants. They thoought my original quotes were outrageous so I made them offers to a barter exchange worth a bit more than my original quotes .. worked like a charm. Of ocurse you can't barter for an F16, or can you?

[Steven Barall]

You better get some good money for this thing because you're going to need it for that lawyer that you're going to need to get you out of jail after the DOD finds out that you have described their new secret weapons system on the internet.

Really though, considering that you don't have a lot of experience, and considering that the client was almost happy using a photo from a point and shoot camera don't expect them to be too motivated to spend great money on your photos. It also seems that they just want the photos for the files and are never really going to use them outside of the office. The final usage of the photos is the biggest determining factor of price. I think it's safe to say that the photos aren't going to used in advertisements in Vogue or People.

I think that Frank's suggestion of roughly $1200 is perfectly fine so ask your friend what the budget is and then compromise. Do a realistic expense budget and then add a day rate of $800 to it. (Don't forget to budget for plenty of expensive Polaroid.) This isn't the job that you want to take advantage of them on. Work with them now and you'll get a bigger payday out of them in the future. Good luck.

[Gregory Gomez]

The usual day rate is around $2,000 to $3,000, plus materials. Keep in mind you may have to hire an assistant and/or use a "cherry picker" to get the proper view. Also, you may be there all day, working between eight to twelve hours to get really good results. The photographer my company uses, and we do a lot of product shots, usually charges $2,000 per day. That's a decent wage. So if it were me, I would charge $2,000 plus expenses and guarantee the work, of course. That is, if the shot ain't great, they don't pay a dime.

[Dave Schneidr]

Thanks for the feedback. You guys are too imaginitive thinking I'll be caught up in an espionage case or bartering for an F-16. The item in question is a moulding and forming machine to make large fairings. I believe they are some sort of weather shield for equipment. I've got pictures of the machine and the item it makes that have been e-mailed to me. I would have undercharged if I hadn't asked you guys for advice.

[Paul Coppin]

You can cost out an hourly rate, more or less, based on what you would need, if you did this full time for a living. Figure on a 250 day work year. Figure out what you would like (need) to net out on an annual basis (as a reasonable, obtainable amount!) Gross it out to a daily or hourly wage. This is your minimum rate. Factor a reasonable gross profit for yourself. Add a percentage slush for contingencies, if you have high daily "maintenance" expenses . This is your personal "working rate". Your business rate may be several times this, if you have real business expenses, and not including the cost of production. You can (and should) sit down and estimate your actual working expenses (film, process, rental, labour, etc) it will get you thinking as how you're actually going to do the job. Walk through it step by step (create a storyboard!). Add what you might expect the cost of delays would be.

At the end - you'll probably sit there and say "holy crap!" Ask yourself if its in anybody's best interest to low-ball - the answer may be yes, if for you, the learning curve is highly desirable. In which case bill it at a mutually acceptable "working rate" for your time, plus expenses. Make sure the client understands "plus expenses", and if you've low-balled it significantly, I'd suggest you make sure the client understands you've discounted the work for your own benefit, and that this price isn't your norm. If he's any kind of businessman he'll understand that. There's a reason why the area pros have walked away from it :)

[tim atherton]

CDB

http://www.editorialphoto.com/resources/faq.asp#anchor20

lots mere here

http://www.editorialphoto.com/resources/faq.asp

http://www.editorialphoto.com/resources/

much of it is applicable to more than just editorial work