1st Real Estate Job | Help!

<p>Hi there,<br>

I'm a beginner freelance photographer and I stumbled upon this gig on craigslist and needed some help figuring out cost, rate , etc. So the job is as follows: They want to have <strong>200</strong> salon interiors photographed ( <strong>5</strong> unedited photos of the interiors of each salon location). They want to charge a fee per location photographed. How do I begin to charge for this? <br>

I was thinking of charging <strong>$40-60</strong> dollars per location plus a post production fee off $<strong>100-200</strong> dollars. Am I on the right track here? <br>

Respectfully,<br>

Angel </p>

<p>Have you ever done this kind of shooting before? If not, don't practice on paying customers.<br>

If you have done something like this, then you should have an idea of how long it will take to set up, shoot, and post process the photos.<br>

If they are talking 200 salons, I figure they can't all be in your town. So how far is the farthest? How close is the closest? What's the average travel time.<br>

Five finished photos of each of 200 salons is a thousand finished photos. If you take 6 minutes per photo for post processing, that's 100 hours of post processing time, two and one half weeks of 40 hour per week work.<br>

Can you estimate how many salons you can shoot per day? Do you know what it costs you to shoot? For example, it costs your time, your transportation, wear and tear on your gear (if you shoot 50 frames per salon that's going to be 10,000 shutter actuations on your camera). Do you have insurance? Do you have a backup camera, in case yours fails? Do you have a rigorous file backup system to ensure you don't lose any files if your computer goes south?<br>

Since you don't know what you don't know, I suggest you find someone with experience doing this kind of work and turn the job over to them, then act as assistant photographer to get experience. As I said up front, never practice on paying customers.</p>

 

<p>Thank you for your sound advice Charles. This is a lot to think about and you've brought a lot to my attention. I appreciate your honesty. Thanks again.<br>

Angel </p>

<p>My take is these high volume shoots don't ever pay enough to cover the time and energy they require if they pay by location. You need to charge by the hour, including drive time. In addition to the questions Charles brings up, I would want to know what your working situation will be. Are there customers that can't be in photos? Can you adjust the lights to make it look better? Do you need to bring your own lighting in case it's not well-lit for photos? </p>

<p>In addition to the backup issues Charles mentions, I would recommend either using a dual-card camera or dumping photos onto a laptop on-site. </p>

<p>Finally, what do you know about the hiring organization? Since it's unlikely they own 200 hair salons in one geography, do they have permission for you to shoot in each of them? Are they setting up the visits to each salon? If not, you have to factor in phone or email time to confirm that you can shoot in each one. The more I write in this paragraph, the more I wonder if there isn't something fishy about this job. I would ask for at least 20% of the pay up front based on an estimate of the hours it will take.</p>

<P>As Jeff points out indirectly you need to find out if the salon clients (and workers too) are to be in the shots and if so how

are model releases to be handled. It will be easier if the shots have no one in them but that also means you have to work

outside of regular business hours <I>and</I> after the clean up crew has finished their job.</P>

 

<P>Honestly i think you are kidding yourself thinking that you can do 5 shots per location for $60.00 per location, (which

works out to $12.00 per shot). Even at $400-500 per location you might just be breaking even for a day's (or night's) work.</P>

 

<P>Also after about the fifth one, I suspect you'll start to go a bit bonkers at the thought of doing the next one.</P>

 

<P>But if you do get the gig, you might teach yourself a lot about logistics and architectural shooting. Also make sure you get

a sizable deposit (1/3rd) up front, 1/3rd halfway through, and 1/3rd on completion and delivery of the final set.</P>

<p>Hair salon? Nail salon? Some other type of salon?<br /><br />Is this a real estate job? If so, how can there be 200 locations that need to be shot? If it were a chain of hair salons (for example), each location looks pretty much the same as the other. If it's a real estate owner (shopping center/mall/etc.) they deal in storefront spaces, which might be configured as a hair salon one year, bookstore the next, clothing store after that. <br /><br />Are they photos of just the space? Or at they pictures of the employees at work, and are customers included? Why five pictures -- is the the same five at each location?<br /><br />Shooting anything other than shapshots, I can't see getting in and out of any one location in less than a couple of hours. It could easily be half a day each, maybe more depending on what is needed. And that doesn't figure in travel time.<br /><br />I think Ellis' figure of $500 per location would be more reasonable. What's your day rate? $1,000? $1,500? $2,000? More? And how can you actually do in a day, do it comfortably and do it right? <br /><br />Usage is also a factor. If the photos are for advertising the salons, that demands a higher rate than a real estate listing.</p>

<p><em>"Honestly i think you are kidding yourself thinking that you can do 5 shots per location for $60.00 per location, (which works out to $12.00 per shot.</em><br>

<br>

Yes, but if he shoot all 200 locations that is $60 x 200 + $200 = $12,200 ! nothing to sneeze at...</p>

<p>Assuming the OP can shoot two locations per day, five days a week, that's almost two years of work. $12K for two years work is peanuts. Even if she can shoot 5 locations a day, five days a week that's still 8 weeks of work. $12K for 8 weeks of full time photography work is still peanuts. And it's highly unlikely that anyone but Superman could shoot 5 shots at 5 locations every day for 8 weeks.</p>

 

<p>Sorry bad arithmetic. 2 a day 5 days a week is 10 a week for 20 weeks work, or most of 6 months. Still too much work for too little money.</p>

 

<p>Your on the right track ,the qualification is if you want to do this and have the time then proceed ,do bring with you a relative wide lens 24mm min for any indoor work , a good flash just in case for fill and don't forget to let them know you can shoot in HDR for that price if your camera allows it</p>