Pay for Magazine Work?

I've been getting a little magazine work lately and wondering what the "going rate" for pay

is? Is the pay usually good?

 

I've done a little work for very small mags in the past with very little budget and I have an

assignment coming up in a few weeks (its a portrait for a feature story) with the biggest

magazine that i've ever dealt with (its nationwide).

 

The pay is decent but I get paid more shooting for private people. I'd like a future in the

magazine section of the business (doing features; portraits, documentary) but still have to

make a living.

 

btw, i'm into photography for the art but would like to feed my family in the future. My

husband is looking forward to retiring early to concentrate on his street photography :D ...

with my blessing. Am I expecting too much?

The "going rate" depends on a lot of things. What is the circulation of the magazine? How are the images going to be used? 1/4 page inside, cover? If doing an assignment, don't forget to bill for all your expenses and time. If you do computer editing after the shoot you need to be paid for your time doing that as well as time spent on the shoot.

 

Many magazines will tell you they pay X, which is usually a price that is less than your cost of producing the images (even without an office you have overhead - think of equipment costs, repairs, upgrades, taxes, vehicle maintenance, etc.) You should present your price and negotiate with them rather than blindly accepting their rate.

 

For pricing guidelines I strongly recommend Jim Pickerel's guide. Also, check out the editorial photographers website and Seth Resnick's website.

editorial rates are low even for the majors unless you are james Nachtwey or any of the top

photojournalists, or celebrity portrait photoraphers like Michael O'Neill , Aniie Liebowitz,

Greg Gorman, et. al.

 

But really it isn't a great way to make money.

 

Make sure you hold on to as many rights as you can. Some publishers have contracts that

strip you of basically all rights for you to use or re-license your work in the future ot other

clients. Conde Nast comes to mind as the most notorious of these contracts.

It will be for a half page; inside.

 

The photo editor said that's what they pay their photographers (what their paying me). I

dont mean to sound ungrateful, but I was really looking forward to magazine work

(amongst other things) and making a new career for myself.

 

I'm curious, why do other photographer's do it if the pay is not so great?

One of the most important things a photographer has to learn if they want to be in business working with magazines and book publishers is to say No. If they offer you a fee that isn't acceptable try to negotiate it up to a level you'd be comfortable with and if the publisher doesn't want to negotiate politely decline the usage. Personally I always say something like "Thanks for the opportunity but I simply can't license images at the offered rate. Please contact me again should your budget change". More than once a publisher has come back to me and offered a higher fee.

 

The pay isn't usually good compared to shooting for advertising clients or similar. But, you should be able to get roughly $300 to $500 for up to a quarter page in a magazine with a fairly large circulation. Plus expenses and your hourly rate if you're doing this as an assignment.

 

Hope that helps.

One of the photo editors at Maxim UK gave a quote to me for full page image (A4) for about $350 I believe, I'd have to look it up. It's basically not much to live on unless you're doing 3 or 4 magazines per month.<br>

It's really going to depend on a lot of factors; How significant is your image, how big the magazine is, what is their budget, how good are you at selling yourself, etc.<br>

Shooting paparazzi images is where the money is really at! But I couldn't camp out in trees all day long and hop fences while trying to escape from bodyguards.

Those figures you quoted is what their paying me. I'm at the bottom of the totem pole

very early in my make-shift career as a photographer. I still consider myself an amatuer

even though I've been doing paid shoots for a year (I'm not comfortable with the term

"pro").

 

I'm greatful for the oppurtunity while maximizing my experience. I just dont want to be

five or ten years in the game getting paid pennies when I do become "pro".

 

This will definatly add some insight as to what direction I want to take. I will continue to

do freelance but it sure is nice to see your photos on the glossy pages of a magazine. I

just dont know if I can live with the cap in salary.

<I>I'm at the bottom of the totem pole very early in my make-shift career as a

photographer. I still consider myself an amatuer even though I've been doing paid shoots

for a year (I'm not comfortable with the term "pro").</I><P>Even though you aren't

comforatable calling yourself a professional, other people are starting to rely on you to

deliver the work and paying you money for it so that means you have t osart looking at the

business end of what you are doing as a professional. If you do nothing else, just start

looking through the guidelines and resources at http://www.editorialphotographers.com :

it is free!

As to why people do editorial work even though the pay is low? that depends o nthe

photographer and their goals. For some people it is a way to start getting their name in

front of their target audience; for some it is a way of building their credibility with clients;

for others they just like the freedom of editorial work and the ability to generate their own

stories and see them in print. For others they like t it fulfills a romantic notion they had

since childhood. But what ever your motives, just never forget that for the people

publishing the magazines it is just as much a hard nosed business as any other. And nevr

forgetthat your images might have a greater monetary value down the line than what you

are beign paid for that first usage. Almost every editorial job i've done i nthe past four

years I've gotten a call about from some other (usually foreign) publication lookingto

purchase secondary rights to. As an idea to the diversity of these requsts these stories

have ranged from a feature on historically black universities in Atlanta, a story about a

bagel shop in Houston and stock images of political & business personalities.<P>

 

Unfortunately for editorial still photographers and maybe all except the very very best

commercial photographers we as individual photographers are like Dodo birds in an age of

blunderbus toting colonizers. The way you'll survive is , as Dr. Dre (?) puts it, is to "keep

your mind on your money and your money on your mind." To that end be thinking in

terms of two to five years and not five to ten years.

Sabrina, you've gotten a lot of good advice here, I recommend that you think about it carefully. Editiorial work is generally very low paying. I've been doing editorial work for a number of years and I've built a fairly steady income stream, but I wouldn't want to do it as my full-time job. If you're really interested in editorial work and want to make a living as a photographer, my recommendation would be to educate yourself as much as possible about the editiorial market, treat it as a business, and pursue other areas of photography to generate additional income.

update for those of you still reading this thread;

 

I did the shoot today it went ok. This was my first experience dealing with a large national

magazine (I've worked with a few small local ones). I just have one questions for those

more experienced persons out there... How do you deal with the creative director? .. the

person there directing your every shot, positioning your camera and choosing your lens.

 

I felt like I couldn't be myself with my shooting style. The director controlled everything

from start to finish. She basically did everything but click the shutter; peering through my

viewfinder, choosing my lens and postioning my camera. It was the most anti-climatic

experience ever and everything was rush, rush. Is this normal?

 

For the pay, I dont know if its worth it. With private clients, I have more freedom to

explore a little further. At the end of the shoot, she offered me another assignment with a

very large music producer and owner of a big wig record label (one of the top labels in the

country). It would be great and open a few more doors for me but I'm not sure if I can

work under these conditions. I always like to have at least 2-3 hours with my subject for

them to relax, warm-up and maximize the experience. 30-40 mins with someone

breathing over your shoulder telling you to wrap it up is not ideal for me.

 

Am I being realistic or is this the nature of the beast? ...