Help with price suggestion for 4 day event.

Hey guys, I've been toying with photography since about 2001, I've just recently got in the professional market about a year ago. I mainly do senior portraits, sporting events, and weddings... but

I was asked to be a personal photographer for a cosplay group @ an anime convention. I will follow them around documenting their visit and doing staged photos with other cosplayers.

My question goes into the fact of how do I charge for this since I'm pretty much going to be theirs for DAYS.

whats a good starting point?

I was thinking travel expenses & lodging + a day rate. Prints can be handled after the fact. Most likely digital presentation will be the form of delivery (cd of images).

yep pretty much that

Correct.

Travel expenses (air / hotel) + day rate + licensing cost for images.

This is how you should price EVERY job you get

you need to know how many hours a day the plan to use you at this event....

and if there will be any post event use of yourself as well. Like will they want you to also take photos of them afterwords at some parties or something like that. You need to get a break down of how many images they will want from you and how much time you will be investing.

This will give you the basis for your daily rate and then included a cause about overages for each day. Also if they plan to use you for more than 8 hours each day then you need to also be charging 1.5-2 times what you would consider your normal hourly rate. Once they tell you how many hours each day they will want you give them a number based off of that and then maybe include an hour or so for free. so if they tell you 8 hours, tell them value for 8 hours of time but 9 hours of actual use of you. that will make them feel special. then also include a note that any hours over the agreed time will be considered as overtime at 1.5-2times your normal hourly rate...

it's not that hard to figure out really, just kind of a big thing that you need to write up pretty clearly in a contract.

When I quote commercial jobs I do pretty much what is being suggested at day rate plus expenses. I add a 8% handling fee on expenses. I always define what constitutes a day and then the hourly rate for anything beyond that. Some make a day eight hours while others may pick another number, that is something that you should decide for yourself. To be fair to the customer I always include what the print pricing will be and what the charge for licensing could be. It's not fair to them to say we can work out the other charges later, IMO they should know what the charges could amount to.

Without intending to derail this thread, I'm surprised that a cosplay group can afford a pro to follow them around.

I would be astonished if they don't balk when you name a price that's fair to you. They might be expecting a hundred bucks a day, when your usual rate is a hundred bucks an hour.

You might instead suggest that instead of following them around a con for four days, you instead set up a few hours for posed shots, with a couple of costume changes per person. Charge a flat rate for a four-hour session, make sure it includes fair pay for postprocessing, and includes a fair price for image rights if you're giving them a CD.

They'll probably have a couple of members who will know how to do posing, and/or they'll have poses pre-determined for the characters as whom they are cosplaying. It's likely that you won't have to spend a ton of time doing posing - you'll be able to blow through them pretty quickly, and get more/better results than a ton of candids at the convention. Maybe have them send you some character background in advance of the shoot, so you can be prepared with lighting/props/backgro​und/location that suits the character's style.

Having said that, anime and comic conventions are a ton of fun for getting photos of people dress in all sorts of costumes, including some that are extremely elaborate and well-done. And, most of the costumed attendees are very eager to pose for a camera, especially if you look like a pro. If you have the time and the inclination, don't treat it as a professional work, instead treat it as a fun time and an opportunity to get some cool shots of some fantastic costumes.

Some more reading:
http://www.cosplay.com​/forumdisplay.php?f=17​3

Yeah for 4 days think in terms of 4 weddings - I'd guess that $6000 would be on the low side.