On Spec vs commission work

[DarrenL]

A quick question of the business minded pro's out there.

Up until now, all my work has been on spec. I turn up at an event of my choice, shoot, submit pictures to newspapers and then invoice for any images used. I do know in advance of any images used.

I want too try and supplement this with commissioned work and have a question.

I understand UK rates are between £150-£250 for a commission, what should the client get for their money or is each client different?

Is the payment to purely turn up and shoot. Then you submit images and then charge image usage as well? I'm frankly a bit lost.

I’ll give an example. I was asked last week to attend a local night final footie (soccer) match to grab team photo’s, presentation and a few action shots.

I attended, grabbed what I needed, and submitted to the newspaper. They have gone with 4 images, (2 action, 2 team photos) but I feel as they contacted me, I should have charged as I was purely there for their purpose.

Any comments are welcome

Darren

[DarrenL]

Has anyone got any advice?

Darren

[Roddy]

All clients will be different, some will pay more than what you are quoting others will laugh, all will have their own requirements.
By working on spec you are providing them a cheaper alternative than commissioning, I think your best option will be to talk to them and see what response you get.
In my experience, when I have been commissioned by magazines the fee has included first usage of however many images with further payments if images are reused in other publications.

[DarrenL]

All clients will be different, some will pay more than what you are quoting others will laugh, all will have their own requirements.
By working on spec you are providing them a cheaper alternative than commissioning, I think your best option will be to talk to them and see what response you get.
In my experience, when I have been commissioned by magazines the fee has included first usage of however many images with further payments if images are reused in other publications.


Thanks for the reply Rody,

I'm understand that each client is different and has different needs. I'm just trying to arm my self with as much information as possible.

Darren

[Jon, The Elder]

Darren...go through some of the stickies on this catagory. You should get some good ideas.

[Tall_Paul_2000]

Darren,

Apologies, missed this first time around. Will fire you a proper response tomorrow on this, based around a conversation I had this weekend and also the experience I have had up here.

The commision rates you quote sounds like national commision rates, the local papers will probably pay considerably less than that.....I think I have told you before what I was on for covering stuff up here on comission, so that should give you an idea.

Anyway, as I say, will fire you a response tomorrow.

Paul