Product Photagraphy Gig

[bbslim]

Well, I'm shocked that I am actually getting paid gigs, but the "how much to charge" question always comes up. I have made up the cost of my camera and its accessories/lens, so I think I'm doing ok.

Next gig is for a retail store (of the mom and pop type, vintage clothing, etc).

The task: Take pics of entire inventory (clothes, jewelry, hand bags, etc) and upload them to a website. After everything is shot, there will be a once a week visit to update the site with the few newer items that come in per week.

There are tons of items in this boutique. The job is pretty simple, but time consuming. My question is, what would your approach be, and how much would you charge?

No copyrights involved. Images will come and go, as the inventory is never consistent. Im just confused. Flat fee? Time based? Both? Its more a question of how to approach the situation rather than how much to charge.

Any feedback would be great.

Cheers
:confused:

[Nightstalker]

I'd go with either time based or per photo price.

Probably for me I'd go with a price per photo as it is seen to be fair to the customer as you could drag the job out if you go on a time based billing schedule.

As for how much, well, how long is that piece of string...

Say basing on $100 per hour - how does $5 per item sound - that's one product shot every 3 minutes on average? Some will be quicker, some longer.

At least this way you and there shouldn't be any arguments over the invoice.

Oh and don't forget to add on expenses and set-up time. You'll also need to cover post processing / image resizing , renaming and uploading - this can be time consuming.

[NZDoug]

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=369442
cheers

[bbslim]

thanks for the help guys. ill go through these options tonight, and come up with a price.

cheers

[sfaust]

$5 per item is way way low in our area. Typical is $20 on the low end, $50 on the high end, depending on usage. Since you aren't concerned with usage on this project, $20 or so per item is more appropriate.

Shooting one image every 3 minutes sounds good on paper, but in reality unless all the items are similar in texture, reflectivity, size, shape, etc, and require nothing more than a drop and pop, thats not going to happen. In a boutique, you will have a large variety of sizes and types, and all will require fiddling with. 7 to 10 an hour is running at a good clip.

[Nightstalker]

bbslim - how did this go in the end? Did you finalise of a price?

How many items do/did you have to do - tons of product isn't very specific.

[PhotosGuy]

(clothes,... These can be a BIG PITA! I suggest that you include a stylist in the budget, or a rep from the store to arrange the clothes before you shoot them. If a 'knockout' shot, have several 30X40 boards so they can arrange ahead of you & just carry them into the set. It wouldn't hurt to have an A.D. from the company there to look at the hot linked images on a large screen to approve each shot before you move on to another.
I'd charge a day rate PLUS a rate per shot.