Another newbie pricing question.

[Pyromaniac]

I guess the best way to describe where I am at with photography is in the pro-am stage. I know how to take a good photograph and have been paid for some of my work. I work a full time job and do photography in the evenings and on the weekends, so I don't really think of myself as a professional, but having been paid for taking photo's I think makes me more than an armature. I have done team and individual shots for some of the local soccer teams for a couple of years and pick up one or two new ones each year through word of mouth.

I recently went to a custom car show and found that there are several local places that build custom motorcycles. I took some shots of the bikes they had at the show and want to approach them about doing work for them as a photographer. I am confident that I can produce the quality that they would be looking for, but I'm not sure how to charge them if they want to buy shots I took at the show or if they want me to come in and do a shot for them. I have read several of the threads on pricing but those seem to mainly be for wedding, sports and portrait type work. Should I use pricing similar to that or should I come up with something different. I know that any work I get from them will probably be used for advertising, magazine articles and displaying in their shops.

Should I charge them by the hour or just a flat fee?
Should the price include prints?
If print are extra how should I price those?

I have tried to research what other photographers around my area charge for this but haven't had much luck finding pricing info. From what I have read in some of the other post on the forum that seems to be the same problem a lot of people run into.


I would also like to know if anyone else has done this kind of work and what kind of equipment you use. I have pretty basic equipment, camera body, several lenses, a flash, a couple of backdrops and a continuous light set I got off eBay. I know that the tungsten lighting isn't as good as strobes but at the moment a decent set of strobes is a little out of my price range.

I'm also not looking to quit my day job just yet, just make a few extra bucks to get some more and may better equipment.

Do you think I should try and make the jump to that kind of work or wait till I have more experience?


Any advice is welcome, and if there is already a thread on this I apologize for strating another one.

[PeterTaylor]

This is not just a straight forward answer. But basically when I was in the position you are in now many years back now, charged a flat fee for the Photography side of the job, that is the taking of the photographs, this included developing and printing to 6x4 on print film either colour or black and white. Any enlargements were extra, but were at a rate lower than my normal print rate, because this was in with the job.

For example, if normal 10 x 8 print rate was £5.00, than as part of the job this would be reduced to say £4.00.

If they wanted the film or slides including copyright I would charge £20.00 per image. (Because normally you are not going to get future sales form bits of engine or wheels etc).

The other option I did for some customers who would be taking a large amount of prints from and slides was to charge a day rate, which expenses for film and processing which would include any prints they wanted. This would normally include the copyright. If the job was a of the type which could generate future sales then the copyright would be extra, but I would not charge the customer expenses for film and processing.


Basically as this your first commission I would go for the flat fee, which a per print cost, as a start point. See what they come back with. Also ask them if you can use some the work for your portfolio, because it could be beneficial to both of you. Also as it is your first job you are not looking to make a fortune, but must cover you time and effort and materials so the job does not cost you. So if at the end of the day you walk away with £30 - £40 in your pocket as profit you will be doing well. But the main thing is the experience you will have gained. When I was in your position it was basically experience I was looking for, so that it would build my confidence, as long as I was not out of pocket.

[Vegas Poboy]

I'm still working on the pricing part myself, so far I came up with flat hourly fee & charge for the CD plus photo credits. I know some out there charge per usage but it's getting harder to track that info with people today.

I say don't buy it till you need it. No sense buying all that lighting and don't have a way for it to pay itself off.
Hopefully we'll get more info.

[IndyJeff]

There is this little thing known as CDB, Cost of Doing Business. Figure realistically how many days in the next year you will be doing photography. Lets say, to make it easy you have spent $3000 on gear, and you think you will be able to do 10 jobs over the coming year. Therefore, your CDB is $300 a day. Now you know, or hope, your gear is going to last you at least 2 years so you can reduce that figure to $150 a day. That is what it costs you to go to work for 20 days out of those 2 years.
So each job must produce you at least a profit of $150 a day in order just to break even. Of course you also have taxes, insurance, gas, wear and tear on your vehicle, which must be taken into account.
Before you shoot someone a price think about what it costs you to go out and do this.


You must also consider that a guy who owns a bike shop probably doesn't have a budget for spending $3000 on a photoshoot for his ads and displays. The best thing is find out what the customer wants to do with the images. Will he be looking for images for an ad in the local paper or in a national magazine for custom bike work?

Will he be renting a billboard and using your image for that ad? Do you have any idea how much a billboard costs for a month? If you can get one for a month, usually they won't even talk to you for anythng less than a 3 month run but then your still looking at over a $1000 a month. Here is a link about some billboard prices guys have gotten, billboard ads. (http://www.sportsshooter.com/message_display.html?tid=13808)

Also your competing against him. Anyone who can customize a bike will think he can take a picture of a bike, he does have a digital camera from Wal-Mart that his wife got him for Christmas last year and she paid almost $200 for it. So it has to be a good camera.

Think about your CDB, his budget, his needs and work up a price which will be to your liking and his affordability. If you know he will be wanting images for uses in ads locally, call the paper and ask how much thier ad rates are with just text and with an image. Ad space ain't cheap and any business man knows it but, he also knows it is the CDB for him. Without good advertising he may not be around next year.