Pricing for catalog work.

I've been asked to shoot a catalog of about 100 pictures, mostly macro

work on jewelry (rings, necklaces) on "neutral" BG. The client is an

artisanal jeweller of a rather local stature. He plans to print about

5,000 copies of the catalog and to post a copy of the pictures on his

web site.

 

Apart from the per diem and material costs, what would be a fair

princing for a catalog printed at 5,000 copies for a year and for the

Internet rights also for a year? I was thinking of three prices, one

for normal, small sized pictures in the catalog, one for larger sized

pictures for the cover page of the catalog and one for Internet use.

 

Finally, what would be a fair extra cost if the guy decided, for

instance, to print 5,000 more catalogs sometimes in the year? It must

be assumed that I cannot reuse these pictures for other purposes,

because what they show is copyrighted on its own.

 

 

The market is Montréal, QC. Picture prices are rather low, here, but

just figure out a fair price for the US (outside NYC, LA and other hot

spots) and I'll figure out a way to convert that to local prices.

Have you shot jewelry before? it can get a little tricky... <p>

good luck (not being sarcastic)<p>

--Roy

No, I haven't shot any before, but I know it's tricky. I basically plan to shoot the whole thing under a white "tent" with the flash ouside, some distance away. Fortunately, the jewels are not too glossy, as they all have antique silver or antique bronze finish. With some low contrast film (probably Portra 160) I should be able to do MUCH better than the artisan with his digital P&S and pop out flash... ;-)

Get to a bookstore for a book on lighting before you attempt this. At the very least, I recommend a lighting tent, which are relatively cheap. They allow your strobes flash through the fabric sides, and have a hole for your camera lens. Incredibly easy to use with great results. Check out B&H. They have them. BTW, what are you charging for this?

Err... Rich, I just wrote that I'd be using a home made version of a lighting tent and my question is precisely about how much I should charge!

Philippe,

Weird, I just answerd the same question on a different thread. My advice, add up all your expenses for the shoot. Figure out a profit margin (say 30%) and use that number for the basic fee. From there you can add a usage fee for each type of usage. IE: $200 + 30% for film/lab,creative fee (your time and skill) $300, + $2 per image for internet use, + $50. for catalog cover usage, + $150 per each additional 1000 print run.

Therefore, hypotheticaly I would charge $560 to shoot it, plus $2 for each image on ANY web site, $50 for the cover (front or back), and if they print more after the first 5000 print run charge them another $150 per each 1000 catalogues. Adjust the prices to fit your situation as you see fit.

Michael: That's more or less what I had in mind. It makes a lot of sense. Thank you very much.

Sorry Philippe, didn't see your follow up.