Steve Parr
20th of February 2005 (Sun), 22:34
I'm interested in starting up a side gig taking photographs of local bands, here in San Diego. Every week, there are, maybe, 300 bands with gigs. For every one that gigs, there are two or three that don't. I'd imagine that half of these bands have websites. I'd imagine that, of these websites, a large number or them have photos taken by the drummer's girlfriend.
It's all in the planning stages right now. I've shot two bands thus far (gratis; both bands are friends), just to figure out all the little ins and outs of what I'm doing, time involved, etc., so I can arrive at a reasonable fee to charge.
So, I have some questions:
1) I'm not looking to pay the mortgage with this, but I don't want to undersell myself, either. Is there a "standard" to go by; say, a certain number of images for a certain price?
2) When a band buys the images from me (they would be burned onto CD), are they buying the rights to them, as well, or is that something that needs to be stipulated?
3) Is there a simple contract I should employ for doing something like this?
4) This is an equipment question: The flash on my Digital Rebel leaves, I think, a bit to be desired. A friend who does this type of thing for the company I work for rents a Quantum T2 with the power pack. I thought I'd "pick one up", until I found out that, new, these units, with the battery pak, are almost $800.00. Is there another, less expensive unit available which will yield acceptable results? Again, I'm not looking to turn this into a living, but I also want to make sure that my customers get good shots, as well.
Basically, I'm trying to get the benefits of a flash without the look of a flash; something with a diffuser, I think. I want to get the "effect" of stage lighting while not being subjected to always shooting without a flash to get it. Does that make sense?
I shot a friend's band last night, and I pushed the ISO up to 800. It worked fairly well without the flash, but not quite good enough for my liking. I didn't ppush it to 1600, although I guess I could've given that a shot.
Anything else that can be offered in terms of advice, recommendations, etc., are most welcome. I'm still pretty new to this and I'm still trying to figure it all out.
Thanks...
Steve
It's all in the planning stages right now. I've shot two bands thus far (gratis; both bands are friends), just to figure out all the little ins and outs of what I'm doing, time involved, etc., so I can arrive at a reasonable fee to charge.
So, I have some questions:
1) I'm not looking to pay the mortgage with this, but I don't want to undersell myself, either. Is there a "standard" to go by; say, a certain number of images for a certain price?
2) When a band buys the images from me (they would be burned onto CD), are they buying the rights to them, as well, or is that something that needs to be stipulated?
3) Is there a simple contract I should employ for doing something like this?
4) This is an equipment question: The flash on my Digital Rebel leaves, I think, a bit to be desired. A friend who does this type of thing for the company I work for rents a Quantum T2 with the power pack. I thought I'd "pick one up", until I found out that, new, these units, with the battery pak, are almost $800.00. Is there another, less expensive unit available which will yield acceptable results? Again, I'm not looking to turn this into a living, but I also want to make sure that my customers get good shots, as well.
Basically, I'm trying to get the benefits of a flash without the look of a flash; something with a diffuser, I think. I want to get the "effect" of stage lighting while not being subjected to always shooting without a flash to get it. Does that make sense?
I shot a friend's band last night, and I pushed the ISO up to 800. It worked fairly well without the flash, but not quite good enough for my liking. I didn't ppush it to 1600, although I guess I could've given that a shot.
Anything else that can be offered in terms of advice, recommendations, etc., are most welcome. I'm still pretty new to this and I'm still trying to figure it all out.
Thanks...
Steve