Day rates, film versus digital

I have just converted from film to digital. When I was shooting film

I had a itemized invoice to show where the clients coins went. Now

that I am shooting digital I no longer need film, film processing,

polaroid and low resolution scans or high res scans. This was a nice

hunk of change and I can't figure out how to retain this cash flow.

One thought was just jacking up the day rate to compensate for the

loss but with an itemized invoice clients will be curious why the day

rate shot up with the change to digital. Any advice?

dickson, are you charging for your time? shooting and post processing in

digital, well how can I say this, time consuming, indicate the time you spend in

downloading, uploading, loading, adjusting levels, colorcorrection, etc. etc....

Two suggestions: (1) Go back to film. <g> or (2) Tell your current clients the day rate went up to offset the cost of going digital and the loss of cash flow from no longer needing film. ;>) Mark

http://www.editorialphoto.com/outreach/digital_manifesto.asp

Or you could add a line item to your invoice for "Digital Processing" or some such

category. Just remember, just because you are shooting digital doesn't mean that the

images are ready to go, straight out of the camera. Just like with film, you have to 'process'

them and you should charge for it. You might need to do some customer education if they

question the charge but a courteous explanation will help them understand and you won't

have to eat the cost for your time. Happy shooting :-)

I just put in an item

"Digital services: Transferring, converting, color correcting, and retouching"

Server space and HTML proofsheets is another item as is burning CD-ROMs

 

I make more money than I did marking up film, and the client spends less that they did on film, clip tests, processing, Polaroids, messenger services, car services.

 

If they balk, offer to let them deal with the raw files themselves.

 

Really though, I just tell most of them that my overhead is higher with digital and that I need to recoup the lost markup of the film and lab fees. In any case they are paying less than with film and getting better service so they go along.

 

Some clients get the super itemized version where everything is broken out, especially if there is a lot of retouching.

I charge a digital shot rate expense. Take the price of the camera, flash cards, etc. and

decide how much use you can expect out of them over say a three-year period. Divide the

total cost of the equipment by whatever total lifetime shot amount (i.e. before you would

replace it) you come up with. This gives you a $/shot rate. Mark-up this cost by whatever

your standard mark-up is...

For events and similar gigs, in addition to my creative fee, I charge per 36 digital images, same as what I'd charge clients for film/processing a 35mm roll. In the not so distant film-less future, I'll come up with another pricing system, but for now it works fine. www.teddavisphotography.com