I need some help/opinions about property photography (A Hotel) Thanks. :)

Heya everyone;


As some of you know I have been around for a long time but have never really gotten into the business side of photography.


I have been interested in property photography for some time now yet I have not ever taken a paid job for it.


Today the opportunity landed itself in my lap quite unexpectedly. The owner of a hotel here in Northern California had seen some of my photos and really liked my style and contacted me about the job.


They would like me to take photos of 5 of their staged room types, probably around 250 photos total as well as 7 angles from the outside.


I expect to spend quite a bit of time working with the natural light that comes through the window and I will throw a couple HDR's in as well.
I also want to take morning and evening photos of the landscrape around their hotel.



They also want me to do some post processing to clean up some of the photos due to weather and landscape and cosmetics.

They want me to make the photos as inviting as possible as it is an older hotel.


I expect to take about 400 photos total and spend the entire day there.


Now for my questions as I am a newbie as far as the business side goes, though I am a very experienced photographer.


1.) How much should I charge for this job? I have to drive 75 miles round trip, shoot, edit and deliver. I do not want to charge too much and risk putting them off. What would you charge?
2.) Do I give them full rights or do I keep them, if they want them should I charge more?
3.) Should I give shared rights so that I can sell the photos as stock photos as well and do I need a release from them to do so?
4.) Are 400 photos enough to cover this job?
5.) What tips do you pros have that you can give me to get the best product to my customer?

Thank you everyone, your help is very much appreciated.

-Eric-

There is an excellent thread for all of your questions.

https://photography-on-the.net …973&highlight=r​eal+estate

Ahh, thank you Alan.

No problem Good luck!

CameraMan wrote in post #14143987
There is an excellent thread for all of your questions.

https://photography-on-the.net …973&highlight=r​eal+estate

With all respect what the OP asked was about an architectural/advertis​ing job not real estate photography from a business point of view.

The value of real estate photos ends the day the property sells.

The value of advertising photography lasts until the images are no longer used in media.

Real estate photography may help to sell a property faster and perhaps at a slightly, higher price.

Good advertising photography can bring in millions of dollars of new business to a hotel.

Do not confuse this as traditionally within the commercial photography world price/licensing is reflected in the value to the client.

As far as price is concerned I could not begin to give you an idea of what you should charge as the idea of doing 400 shots of a hotel in one day is not something I can wrap my head around. Most top pros are going to be talking about doing less than 50 shots in a day. I would bet many would be happy to get 20 great shots in a single day with all the setup these shots would take to do first rate. Of course they would be lighting most of the interior shots and using at least staff, if not models, to have some people in the shots. Just the shots in a hotel restaurant often take hours.

BTW, I can guarantee you they really do not want 400 photos. What they want is probably 20 great photos of their hotel. Work out a shot list with them before you even give them an estimate. If you do not know what you are shooting, how do you know either pre production or post production times and therefore your costs?

Good luck. It sounds like a great opportunity to learn a lot about the profession on advertising photography. You can look at www.asmp.org and their paperwork share area to see what top photographers are pricing their work at and the paperwork that goes along with such a job,

NeoTokyo wrote in post #14143948
They would like me to take photos of 5 of their staged room types, probably around 250 photos total as well as 7 angles from the outside.


They also want me to do some post processing to clean up some of the photos due to weather and landscape and cosmetics.

They want me to make the photos as inviting as possible as it is an older hotel.

1.) How much should I charge for this job? I have to drive 75 miles round trip, shoot, edit and deliver. I do not want to charge too much and risk putting them off. What would you charge?
2.) Do I give them full rights or do I keep them, if they want them should I charge more?
3.) Should I give shared rights so that I can sell the photos as stock photos as well and do I need a release from them to do so?
4.) Are 400 photos enough to cover this job?
5.) What tips do you pros have that you can give me to get the best product to my customer?

Thank you everyone, your help is very much appreciated.
-Eric-

Pretty much all of this made me think of the link I posted earlier and I still think it's relevant and helpful which is what the OP was after.

CameraMan wrote in post #14144733
Pretty much all of this made me think of the link I posted earlier and I still think it's relevant and helpful which is what the OP was after.

It is relevant in a way but there are a lot of people who confuse real estate photography with architectural photography and it truly devalues the architectural photography business. This is really advertising/hospitalit​y job and traditionally pays more than architectural work. I think my reaction was to sending him to a thread where $300 is good pay for a job and it is for some real estate shooters.

I really did not mean to criticize you for sending him to a good area of information, I just thought it the wrong area in a business sense for the job he outlined.

Park Street wrote in post #14144721
With all respect what the OP asked was about an architectural/advertis​ing job not real estate photography from a business point of view.

You offer some great advice but there are tons of posts in that thread not just about real estate, but architectural and interior photography, as a few of us have migrated entirely from shooting RE to working for designers, agencies, architects, etc

That being said I think you're right in a sense, there is a big difference between this and RE shooting when it comes to navigating the business side of things (and this is one area I'm still working on). So I think technique wise it's a good thread to skim through. There is some info on billing in there but for the most part having more to do with RE as when it comes to big jobs you're sort of on your own and there is no one size fits all solution. So check it out for some techniques and ideas and start practicing now. Architecture and interiors are probably one of the most demanding genres of photography.

I was hoping a regular from that thread would find this and chime in. I wasn't expecting the OP of that thread.

It's a great thread and offers great advice both in photo technique and marketing.

Everything that you guys have given me has been incredibly useful.

Park your info is also what I was looking for as they will be using these photos on their websites, mailers, brochures and any other type of media that they advertise in.

I ran through a payment calculator and it seems that according to that I should charge right around $650 dollars. I still am not sure if that is exactly what I should charge.

The License agreement would need to give them full use over the photos. I still have to read more and draw up an outline from the site you gave me. What if they want this to be a W.M.F.H. job, how would that change my pricing?

As for all the photos that I will take, only the best will go on to my client, and several will be HDR's.

I just don't want to make any business mistakes, I am confident in my photography skills just not so much on the business side.

Alan, thanks again for pointing me to Mikes thread. I followed it for a while back when Mike first uploaded his shots, I thought they were awesome. I think I found Mikes thread when he uploaded one of his pics in the 1DIII photo sharing thread.

Over time I forgot about the thread so it was really a great treat to see it again and all the new comments and content.


Park, first - Your website is awesome, you do beautiful work.

For hotel rooms should I stage with models or just do that in the lobby and around the pool?
I have never staged a room before let alone hiring models. I have worked with people to play stage before but nothing on a Professional level.

The type of photos they have now dont have any models in them. The rooms are staged as they would be when you rent the room for the night.


I am excited but at the same time I am worried. Is that normal? lol

Thanks again guys.


-Eric-

Whatever you found that quoted $650 was probably a stock calculator and that may have been per shot. This job is an assignment and not a stock sale though. As you will see on ASMP's site, many photogs structure a job like this into broad categories like a creative fee, expenses, and a licensing and then add assistants, post processing fees, capture fees, talent, if you are responsible for it, travel, make up and/or stylists, and on and on within these categories.

It is really impossible to advise someone what they should charge but I can tell you that if you are talking $650 total it is very low for a job like this for almost all the pros I know who do this type of work. Of course you are not one of these yet.

Neither I nor any of the guys I know that I would refer if I was booked could not start to bid this job without a lot more information and I mean A LOT MORE.

You might try a site like www.shakodo.com where a number of pros hang out and would tell you what they would roughly charge if you give them enough info.

Good luck.

1) Your base fee should be based on an hourly rate for shoot time and editing time. This should be $100-200 per hour. I usually estimate at least 1 hour of editing per 4 hours of shooting for simpler jobs. Travel time should be billed at 50% of your normal hourly fee.
2) You can include 3 years commercial usage rights in the base shoot fee. Adding unlimited time usage should be an additional 20%. Copyright transfer should be an additional 50%. Stock or other re-use of a clients images will generally upset the client.
3) Add expenses for travel and special equipment. You can also offer estimates for models($50-110 an hour), special staging/styling, and a lift or other gear.
4) Doing a great job involves extensive planing, review of sample photos, careful organization of hotel staff to maximize efficiency, walkthrough of the property to identify issues, etc.