Went on a shoot last night.. only took 15 minutes... how to charge??

[kaycee4]

I did a promo shot for a performing arts center last night. It only took 15 minutes to shoot (I shoot fast, background in sports photography). I took over 50 shots, spent over 4 hours post processing and delivered 34 nice shots to them this morning (they wanted quick turn around).

Before the photo shoot, I had planned to charge $100 per hour, but that would be based on the 15 minutes spent at the perf. arts center. Do I just charge by the job? Do I charge by the hour including the hours spent post processing?

I'm thinking this job was worth at least $100... do you agree? The photos are exclusively theirs, I will not use them again, the media will choose and download them to use in their newpaper.

Any opinions out there? Thanks in advance!!

[tupper]

Just include post processing.. as it took alot longer than the actual shoot.

[neilwood32]

You didnt have a deal worked out in advance?

I would have worked that out before the shoot and asked if $100 was in the ballpark of what they were looking at.

You may find the situation that they were expecting $50 (for 15 mins work) and you went way over.

Sort out pricing before hand - its way easier to come down in price by saying the shoot was quicker than expected, than it is to go over their budget and expect payment in full.

[bacchanal]

This is why people have minimums. It doesn't really make sense to base your pricing on shoot time anyway.

I agree with the others that you should have worked out pricing before hand, but $100 seems reasonable. Send them an invoice with you PP time included.

FYI, I do the same type of thing for small time bands and I usually charge $50 total. I don't pp and deliver 34 images though...more like 5-10.

[kaycee4]

Thanks for all the input, very helpful! It all happened very fast, as we were working out pricing, I got a call asking me to come do some promo shots the next day, so we didn't finalize the deal. But that is OK, because I will be doing this ongoing at this theater and I am going to sit down with the guy tomorrow to finalize the deal.

All of your input will be very helpful for our discussion tomorrow, he seems like he's willing to be reasonable with me.

thanks again!

[neilwood32]

Apologies if i sounded harsh with my post but it is amazing the amount of time things like this happen and the photographer gets screwed.

I didnt realise you were negotiating the pricing when asked for the shoot.

It does sound like you will be able to come and go a bit - specially if its an ongoing assignment.

[kaycee4]

No, not too harsh at all. Good advice, I'm learning my way as I go through this business process for the first time.. thanks again!