What to charge?

I have been asked by a local DIII college to shoot some sports for the college communications office. They want photos for: "We in the Communications office sometimes use athletics photos for various PR stuff, mostly social media and the school website, but also high-res stuff in publications too, like the college magazine or admission material."

I have quite a bit of shooting experience but not a lot of pricing experience. I know they have used freelancers to do this work in the past so they know what they pay now but I don't. One of the current freelancers is a very good, pro, every day, multiple bowl games a year, big college shooter. My work at a smaller scale with the college athletic department has laid the groundwork for this offer.

So, what should I ask? What is the range of pricing for a single game? They have 21 NCAA teams and I would guess they might hire me for one game for 10-15 of the teams. The college full time photographer shoots some games but not many.

When you aren't sure what to charge (and even when you are sure), one of the most effective things to do can be asking the client what kind of budget they have for photography. You obviously don't have to agree to whatever the budget they name is, but asking about the budget has saved many photographers from actually asking for less money than the budget allowed for.

zantop wrote in post #16685810
When you aren't sure what to charge (and even when you are sure), one of the most effective things to do can be asking the client what kind of budget they have for photography. You obviously don't have to agree to whatever the budget they name is, but asking about the budget has saved many photographers from actually asking for less money than the budget allowed for.

Or saved them from accepting a job that wasn't going to pay anything.

How can you quote a price without knowing how many games they even want you to shoot? I would do as suggested above and ask about the budget as well as what they would need from you as it relates to work produced.

I was asking about a price per game. I think the assignments will be somewhat variable based on the full time guy's schedule. He also mentioned that he might need me for other events throughout the year. Again, no details provided or likely available right now.

Do I just give him a hourly rate? If so what might be a reasonable range? I would be using my equipment.

I agree completely about asking about the budget and I plan to do that.

What is the full-time guy's rate? I would expect to make the same as he does if my quality is equivalent.

bpalermini wrote in post #16686395
I was asking about a price per game. I think the assignments will be somewhat variable based on the full time guy's schedule. He also mentioned that he might need me for other events throughout the year. Again, no details provided or likely available right now.

Do I just give him a hourly rate? If so what might be a reasonable range? I would be using my equipment.

I agree completely about asking about the budget and I plan to do that.

Are they even thinking of pricing it on a game/hourly basis? Are they asking for a "work for hire" type of arrangement where they get full usage rights, or are you talking fee plus, usage charge?

I think they want a rate per event which would need to be variable based on how much time it takes to my thinking.

As for rights I think they want full rights to use the photos as they need to but we could talk about that.

Their highest use of the photos would be in their alumni magazine and potentially for advertising but I doubt they would be highlighting athletics in many adds. It is a D3 school and there are no athletic scholarships and their teams are not all that great.

It might be worth a call to see how the previous guy structured his rate. Not his actual rate, but how he charged, event, hourly, etc. The copy the format.

i generally price one off jobs at my full rate, and will give discounts for recurring work. The seemingly vague nature of this project is a bit of a red flag to me.

my experience has been that people who will not clearly define the job in advance are bottom feeders. They will either ask more of you for the same price or then ask you to do half the work for half the price. The latter is problematic because there are certain fixed costs outside of the actual time behind the camera.

I just bid a job for a 4 hour event where they think they only need me on site for 2 hours. I'm guessing they'll change their mind and keep me there for the full event.

Here's how I bid the job:

Pre-event set up, On-site photography for 2 hours, Delivery of JPG files - $175

Additional time: $50 per hour


This is an awards banquet where I'm being hired through a third party who will be marking up my work. He's a client for commercial table-top photography, etc. Supplying straight out of camera jpgs, so no editing time.

had they asked for the full 4 hours first and divided in half for 2 hours, it would have messed up my rate for "set-up" time.

That's good advice. Thanks.

bpalermini wrote in post #16685785
I have been asked by a local DIII college to shoot some sports for the college communications office. They want photos for: "We in the Communications office sometimes use athletics photos for various PR stuff, mostly social media and the school website, but also high-res stuff in publications too, like the college magazine or admission material."

All of this doesn't go into one rate. Charge for your time + usage. Quote a price you are comfortable with to cover an event (hundreds), and include limited usage such as the website and social media. If your photographs are good enough to go into the college magazine or admissions materials which have national distribution and in turn bring in future students and huge revenues, those pictures need to be billed at a much higher cost.

bpalermini wrote in post #16686395
He also mentioned that he might need me for other events throughout the year. Again, no details provided or likely available right now.

This has absolutely no value and should not factor into your pricing. Real work pays. Theoretical work does not.

bpalermini wrote in post #16687513
As for rights I think they want full rights to use the photos as they need to but we could talk about that.

Full rights come at full price. Don't give your work away. Make sure the exact use for each picture is specified before you hand it over and get paid, so you can protect your own rights and charge for additional usage down the line.

How much does it cost to build a house?

Well, that depends. What kind of house do you want? Do you already own the land or do we have to buy it? How many square feet? How many bedrooms? How many bathrooms? Do you want any upgrades? Fireplace? vaulted ceilings? chandeliers? Marble?

.... same with pricing a shoot. Without knowing the details, the lack of context makes the question impossible to fairly answer.