3 days of corporate shooting - do I price per image or per hour...?

I shot a 3-day sales seminar for a Fortune 500 company last year. They wanted to know the final price I charged, not how I came to the price. Thinking that the client may be willing to pay a premium for the event and given the fact that the event was out of town, I added a 20% premium to my normal day rate and charged them for 3 days. They said yes without even blinking. When I got to the event, I ended up working 2 12 hour days and a 17 hour day, and culled 2k images down to 150 'highlights' at 3am, which were delivered at 6am for a slideshow in front of the entire company. Looking back, I probably should have charged a 50% premium (or more) on my normal day rate.

Try to find out what they are spending on the event. The total budget for this seminar was estimated to be around $1M, so my $x,000 bid to shoot the event was barely a mark on the balance sheet.

Well, they requested that the bid be submitted Today soooo...an hours gone by since I turned it in to the Marketing Manager. I'll just have to wait and see if they bite the worm...

I won't be out on the streets digging thru trash cans trying to eat if they pass me up as the photog.......but it would be nice having a little extra weight in my pockets!!!

good luck!!!

tak0eye wrote in post #15103477
thanks for the responses. They really vary...one suggestion was $3000.00 per day if i'm correct and the other for $600.00 per day.

Actually, no. That illustration was, "$600/day (1970s prices),..."
Local price practices, compensation for inflation, whether you fold in "Rights" or other expenses will all affect how you charge for the job.

I always wonder how shooters that have to ask how much to charge can know what and how to take the actual pics for the jobs they are asking about?

Maybe they don't, I see a lot of questions about how to shoot jobs as well so perhaps it's blaze away and hope for the best?

I wonder if there are like forums for Plumbers, bricklayers, electricians , accountants, Lawyers or doctors where they get on and say "How much should I charge to replumb a bathroom" or "I am doing the tax for a photographer, how much should I charge?" Or, "I have this fat patient that needs Liposuction and a gall bladder removal, how much should I charge them to do the operation? I figure it's about 5 hours in theater but I don't ant to get digging around inside them and find they are healthier than I thought and only get 3 hours work or find they are sicker than I thought and quote for 5 hours but have to be digging around inside them for 6. Should I quote by the hour or by the operation including post op care, follow up visits to my surgery etc.?
As the operation will be on a Wednesday, I don't want it to go overtime and miss out on the back 9 holes. I also don't want to over charge and have the patient go somewhere for a 2nd opinion and find out they only have 6 months to live and then not bother to have the operation and me loose the job all together. "

Seems stupid when you put it in terms like that but it is EXACTLY what so many shooters ask.
No wonder the profession is going down the crapper.

It _is_ stupid when you put it like that, because those respective professions all have set standards for how work is to be done, as well as rates and estimates put together buy someone else for them. Photography has very interpretive standards, and rates that vary wildly depending on if the customer 'has a friend' or not.

You think a doctor knows how much to charge for an operation? I really doubt it. Thats what an office manager is for.

the difference with photography as simple. the ease of production of final product that is acceptable to the general public has gotten automated to the point that getting a few good shots is something anyone can do. So you have a lot of folks who don't know anything about business dipping their toes in for the first time. "How much do I charge" should be something you love to hear, because it means they are trying to educate themselves, and it's an opportunity to help prevent a further undermining of the market. How many times have we seen someone complain "I got underbid by some GWC"? Is it because he just didn't know any better?

On the other hand, a few good shots isn't going to cut it at a 3 day event. nor is it going to help when it takes GWC 2 hours to get 4 good shots for a family portrait sitting... even if he did only charge $50 and gave them a CD...

glumpy wrote in post #15106334
I always wonder how shooters that have to ask how much to charge can know what and how to take the actual pics for the jobs they are asking about?

Maybe they don't, I see a lot of questions about how to shoot jobs as well so perhaps it's blaze away and hope for the best?

I wonder if there are like forums for Plumbers, bricklayers, electricians , accountants, Lawyers or doctors where they get on and say "How much should I charge to replumb a bathroom" or "I am doing the tax for a photographer, how much should I charge?" Or, "I have this fat patient that needs Liposuction and a gall bladder removal, how much should I charge them to do the operation? I figure it's about 5 hours in theater but I don't ant to get digging around inside them and find they are healthier than I thought and only get 3 hours work or find they are sicker than I thought and quote for 5 hours but have to be digging around inside them for 6. Should I quote by the hour or by the operation including post op care, follow up visits to my surgery etc.?
As the operation will be on a Wednesday, I don't want it to go overtime and miss out on the back 9 holes. I also don't want to over charge and have the patient go somewhere for a 2nd opinion and find out they only have 6 months to live and then not bother to have the operation and me loose the job all together. "

Seems stupid when you put it in terms like that but it is EXACTLY what so many shooters ask.
No wonder the profession is going down the crapper.

Not all surgeries cost the same. Not all plumbing jobs cost the same. I'm sure there are newcomers to every profession who don't know what to charge at first. They probably ask...just not necessarily on public forums.

I'm also sure there are doctors who try to avoid complicated surgeries right before the weekend. They are human too.

@ glumpy.

Your concept is spot on, you could have used better references though.

I agree with cdifoto, IMO, the questions on here about the price of doing a job are that people really wanting to know. The reality is, what they think should be $50, should actually be $500, most seemingly cannot justify charging that much because they don't see themselves as a business person, they see it as composing a shot and pressing the button. "How can I charge that when that is all I do?" Most who turn their hobby into a business soon realize this, or they go bust.

I personally don't use photography as my sole source of income (my field is construction and estimating), but I do have a side business because I enjoy taking photos. I also recognize that the equipment we use is expensive and I want some reimbursement and to top it off, there are actual primary income photographers in my town who can do without Johnny Walkaround selling off images for pennies on the dollar. Just like my construction world, when a cheap ass contractor comes into my town and slashes his price to get in the door, everyone notices and what effectively happens is, they destroy established markets with low low margins, because now everyone wants to pay 250,000 less for the same job.

Now the new market with lower margin is established thanks to him. Just like "professional" photography. Photography is such an easy activity. There is no accountability for art. You don't see a bricklayer asking what a job costs because there is an accountability for a failed deliverable service. Any rational sane person wouldn't take on a brick laying job (apart from your own BBQ maybe), because they know they cannot get away with it. If someone asks an amateur photographer to take their family photos because they have seen an example of their pet dog or a setting sunset on FB or Flickr, the collateral damage from failure is low. We justify it in our head that if the new client likes what we do, we're on the right track, OR, if we fail miserably, maybe I'm not as good as I thought, OR, what the hell do they know, I'm the photographer. The verdict is, we'll use our car to get to the job, with our new camera, snap some shots, edit them in a program, hand them over, just to hear "awesome photos, I'll be sure to tell my friends how good you are", with a big ole smile, or a credit line in some local/regional magazine, without a single consideration of just how much it cost. Until one day, when we string a couple of little jobs together and realize that Im spending more money to put a smile on my/or my customers face, than I'm making.

And then the line in the sand is drawn. That's when $50 will turn into $500

PhotosGuy wrote in post #15106242
Actually, no. That illustration was, "$600/day (1970s prices),..."
Local price practices, compensation for inflation, whether you fold in "Rights" or other expenses will all affect how you charge for the job.

I should have specified context on my $400/day example as well. It was 1996.

-F

Flores wrote in post #15107452
You think a doctor knows how much to charge for an operation? I really doubt it. Thats what an office manager is for.

I know they Do!

They quoted my mate and his wife a straight up figure for her bbob job including deposits, payment plans etc. The doctor was also able to give my wife and I a straight up cost for her eye surgery.
We also got a quote years ago from the professor as we sat with him for the cost of my son's tonsil operation.

I bet when a doc goes on holidays and wants a locum to mind their practice, that minder can give an exact figure for hours or days they are required even though they have no idea what they might actually have to do.

I waould suggest that 9 times out of 10 the person asking the question WILL undermine the going rate and have seen that stated because " Thaty aren't professional " or " are just starting out".

The biggest and most obvious problem with these never ending "How Much" questions is the fact they are impossible for anyone else to answer!
The myriad of variations and influences is near incalculable especially when at the end f the day it just comes down to gut feeling.

Asking how much should I charge is like asking someone " What sort of a girl should I marry?" It's a question only the person asking it can ever answer.

There are some things you just HAVE to put the time and effort into learning yourself because no one else can answer the question for you. There are no shortcuts and advise is not really helpful because only you can weigh up the value of each of the endless factors that influence the decision.

I undermine my own rate when it's something I've never done before. Since there actually are no going rates for photography - what with established professionals being all over the map too...it actually doesn't hurt anything.

As others have suggested, a daily rate for xx # of hours which includes xx# of images.

Anything over the # of hours or images is not included. Each additional hour is $150 or you pick the $$ for the 1st hour and $125 for each additional hour. Images are xxx per 6 or 10 images.

Remember you are trying not to:

1. Kill yourself by working 3 12-14 hour days in a row and
2. Be compensated fairly.


If you are in dire need of $$$, then the above advice is not needed.

When I do product photography I set a daily rate plus a per image fee. The daily rate covers my time, setup/takedown. The image fee covers the license and time to process. My daily rate is sufficiently high to cover the time I have to take off of my full time job.

lol i rember when i was charging $25 per shooting hour, Now im at $150 And TBH my photos are not the best but my sales pitch and attitude are

I appreciate ALL the comments whether they be positive / negative or WHATEVER-tive.

I've received no response to my bid yet.....