Need some advice on a proposal I recieved

I was contacted by a "promoter" representing a model I have worked with previously. I was hired by her friend some months ago to take photos of her to get her into modeling. Now I was contacted by her promoter (a different man) to be the photographer for a calendar they're printing for her. They plan to print 1,500-2,000 calendars, and each photo for each month will be a different theme, so they plan this to be a two-day photo shoot. They will be "promoting" me on the calendar and at an event they are hosting for the release of the calendar where they expect about 300 people to attend.

How should I go about calculating my price for this? It will be a two day photo shoot and I will be editing and giving to them 14-15 photos with a print release. 1,500-2,000 calendars with the photos I take will be printed. I will not be renting a studio, it will be outdoors and I already have all the equipment, and my assistant is free (he's my BF and always helps me with model photo shoots lol).

Any advice is appreciated! I really want to do this, I feel it will also be beneficial to me aside from the payment, the experience I will gain & possible exposure.

"Sure, I'm interested. Did you have a budget in mind?"

I can't believe I did not think of that at the time :\. I was just kind of caught off-guard. I had a meeting with them in person but I had no idea what they wanted from me, they just told me it was a "proposal". So I had to ask for some time to calculate my price because I was not ready.

To be honest, it's a bit optimistic that you'll get a perfect response from that, but at least it gets the discussion rolling.

Don't be surprised if they counter with "We're working on figuring our budget, but you can go ahead and give us an estimate."

I already told him that I would get back to him tonight with an estimate :\ So I don't feel right responding with a question when I already dug myself in this hole of getting back to him with an answer. I'm considering $500, with limited non-exclusive rights, do you think that's fair?

Double that.

$500 for a 16 hour photo shoot is far too little. $800 and shrink the shoot to 8 hours is much more reasonable.

"My regular rate is $125.00 an hour with a two hour minimum. 16 hours would normally be $2,000.00, but I'll knock that down to $1,500.00 for you."

Hey, the worst they can do is say "no"...

sspellman wrote in post #17405189
$500 for a 16 hour photo shoot is far too little. $800 and shrink the shoot to 8 hours is much more reasonable.

This ^^^ Plus she is going to be doing the editing as well which takes even more time.

Take your regular day rate ($500-$1,800/day is a reasonable range, depending on experience), add in an assistant fee ($250-$400/day), then figure in any equipment and facility rental fees and you'll have a good number to start with. For usage, you would normally either license each image for a period of time, or sell the rights to use them on a buyout basis.

Keep in mind you will also need to edit these images before licensing them or otherwise making them available to the client. If it's a calendar (with a big release party!) you'll want to spend considerable time to make them perfect, adding to your overhead.

If it's a commercial shoot, I always pay my assistant for their time and efforts. Others might use volunteers, which is fine, but I think it's only right to compensate others for their time and expertise. As a businessperson, there will come a time when you need to use paid assistants and will need to budget this in to future shoots.

This does sound like a great opportunity to "get your name out" and gain additional experience, but remember to position yourself as a professional at all times, charge a fair professional market rate and let that exposure lead to more work at a fair rate. I would suggest starting with all the real costs and what other professionals may charge, then decide how much you want to reduce it from there.

Remember, you can be certain the company printing the calendar is charging a professional rate. The promoter likely as well. No reason you shouldn't be compensated a fair market price.You want them to use you because they are familiar with your work and desire your talent, not because they think you'll be willing to work for next to nothing.

Thank you everyone, all gave really great advice!! I responded that same night with $800 (they accepted) D: Now I realize I should have probably asked maybe $1,000, but i'll just have to make mistakes in order to learn from them I guess ha. I don't feel that bad about it though, maybe this will open up more opportunities for me so it will make it worthwhile.

Diveguy I really agree with you about the assistant thing, before going into the business side of photography I took used many volunteer assistants but now I am definitely more considerate. My bf always helps me out with the equipment in model photoshoots but they only last about 2hrs. For this one I'm paying him for both days, especially since he's going to miss work.

I'll see where this new experience takes me!

Glad to hear you're getting paid. Your service has value.

I would come up with a day rate (8 hours) a half day rate (4 hours) and be very strict with the time. Remember to factor in editing time. Committ this to memory and next time someone inquires, answer on the spot.

When you start getting busy, increase your rate.

We all learn lessons when it comes to pricing a project. It will take you at least three or four days to actually produce the project including preproduction, two days shooting and at least a day to edit the selects. In hindsight, I would have quoted at least twice your figure and limited their usage to that press run of 2K and no retail sales. Their Client can easily recover the investment in two bookings. Whatever you do get it in writing asap so there is no misunderstanding how they can use the images.

Ray Marrero wrote in post #17418754
Glad to hear you're getting paid. Your service has value.

I would come up with a day rate (8 hours) a half day rate (4 hours) and be very strict with the time. Remember to factor in editing time. Committ this to memory and next time someone inquires, answer on the spot.

When you start getting busy, increase your rate.

tcphoto1 wrote in post #17418940
We all learn lessons when it comes to pricing a project. It will take you at least three or four days to actually produce the project including preproduction, two days shooting and at least a day to edit the selects. In hindsight, I would have quoted at least twice your figure and limited their usage to that press run of 2K and no retail sales. Their Client can easily recover the investment in two bookings. Whatever you do get it in writing asap so there is no misunderstanding how they can use the images.

Thank you both, I appreciate your advice and I'm definitely going to use it. I'm going to use this project as an "experiment" and test out how long it takes me to create the final results, so I can better calculate my rates and have them ready if another occasion like this arises.

I drafted up an agreement for the licensing rights and made it limited use so they can only use them for the 2k copies and can't make money off of them anymore (but can still use on social media or any non-profit stuff with credit given).