Fashion Commercial Campaign... Pricing Help

[andrewdayphoto]

Hi everyone,

*I was recently contacted by the owner of an upscale boutique that saw shots I did using clothing from her store(s) and she wants to talk about doing shots for each of her stores.

They will be lifestyle themed images and I plan on using mostly natural lighting and a reflector or two.

I have a 19-35 Quantaray, 70-200L f/4, an "old school" Rebel XT DSLR body, and borrowed a friend's 85mmL 1.2 along with his reflectors that I used for the shots below. I can purchase my own reflection panels for this upcoming shoot, no problem, and the 85mmL 1.2 is next on my wish list.

Among the many questions I have are: Do I charge a day rate, hourly, per location, per model, per image, hourly for post processing time, and what kind of price would you charge given the current quality of my work...? That is my biggest question -- finding the numbers for a rate.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

[AmandaMarie]

All I can really comment on at the moment is that I LOVE LOVE LOVE those clothes.

Perhaps you could PM me and let me know what store this is, if it's not any sort of violation of rules? God I'm such a woman sometimes. FORGET THE QUESTION, LOOK AT THOSE ADORABLE TSHIRTS haha

[andrewdayphoto]

All I know is if I shoot models it's about $300 for 3 looks/outfits and they get batch processed files on a web gallery and I edit/touch up 5. $20 an image after that.

But this is going to be for different purposes, not headshots, mainly store publication. And there will be many more photos...

[Karl Johnston]

In my recent but limited experience it is not uncommon, though a bit frowned upon, to ask for the budget of the client. Though, I like to do this because... there are so many freaking options, if you quote one price that is way too high maybe you can renegotiate for a better price - for them - providing you compensate on your end with what you do, what it costs to do that and what kind of options you give them.

I'm new to commercial work too, but for some reason my name is getting passed around a lot for it...and I have very little experience in it. But I love any work :D and all work :D and I love to learn.

See my post on licensing a few doors down from this one, I'm in a similar situation as you..I think you probably are looking for the same thing; to sell the company licensing to use your images.

I highly recommend you don't try to print anything yourself..that's just a whole world of hassle and you're not set up for that kind of thing.

To me, I see it as appropriate to charge based on
(Your rate/hourly) + (Licensing) + (Printing)*=end price

*though you're not set up to do this part, so forget it.

[sspellman]

Standard commercial photography is generally priced by photoshoot expense + usage fees. The photoshoot expense would include photographer fees by the hour plus stylists, assistants, models, location and any other expenses. As a good starting rate, I would say $100 an hour for shooting, plus 1-2 hours of post processing. This is good for extimating expenses when you plan the project with the client and define how much time you expect it to take to create the results as required by the client. This way your fees are adjusted to match the scale of the project and estimated to the client, but billed at actual time. This also encourages your client to plan the photoshoots efficiently.

Usage is often billed seperately and above the photoshoot expense. However, this is often difficult to calculate and confuses clients. As a emerging photographer, I would include non-exclusive client use of the images for 5 years at no additional cost, and you keep copyright. You may get the opportunity to resell the images for stock, etc. As you work with more advanced clients and understand usage better, you will have other opportunities to bill seperately for that.

-Scott

[PhotosGuy]

I don't know the company's budget,
&
In my recent but limited experience it is not uncommon, though a bit frowned upon, to ask for the budget of the client. That's the first question I ask.
The second is "What publishing rights do you need?" Now you have some info to work with.

Per-hour rates? (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=127979)