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Pricing model for an automobile shoot


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<p>Although I'm an avid hobbyist photographer, my professional work has been limited to a handful of side jobs every year. Most of those are commercial events like fund raisers, golf tournaments, & awards ceremonies, where I charge a flat hourly rate for the time I'm on site and then do only minimal editing on the keeper photos. The client gets a disc with the images, since nobody wants prints from those events.<br>

I've just been commissioned by a local car buff (a friend of a friend) to photograph his '64 Chevy pickup that he just finished restoring, and which won first place at a recent car show. These will be personal photos for the owner's scrap book -- not used for any commercial purpose.<br>

I love shooting old cars, but I've never done anything quite like this. I've spent plenty of time shooting the dirty, rusty cars sitting around my parents' farm. I've also spent plenty of time with my macro & ultra-wide lenses shooting shiny surfaces at local car shows. What I'm envisioning for this shoot, aside from the requisite shots of the owner with his car on their acreage, is something along the lines of what Tim Wallace teaches in the Kelby Training videos. For those not familiar, that's a full-on studio shoot with artificial lights and multi-shot composite images. Although I'm pretty familiar with multi-light studio setups for shooting people, and although I feel pretty comfortable with the techniques Tim teaches, I've never actually done a shoot like that before. I may try to play a little bit with my own car before then.<br>

So, my question is, "How do I price this job?" I expect there'll be a fair bit more postprocessing on a shoot like this than there would be for a corporate event, correct? There will also be a definite need for prints from this shoot, although I'm sure the'll also want the digital versions as well. Given that, I was thinking that maybe the flat hourly fee that I usually charge may not be the best way to charge for a classic car shoot.<br>

One reason I'm hesitant about a flat hourly rate is that there will still be some experimentation on this job, and I'm not sure how long it will take me. I don't mind learning on somebody else's dime, but I hate to go overboard with it. If I had to guess, I'd say I'll spend 3-4 hours on this shoot IF I'm able to do the Wallace-style studio composites.<br>

Should I charge a flat hourly fee that's somewhat lower than normal, but then tack on a mandatory minimum charge for prints from my web site (Zenfolio)? Should I bother charging for a disc of digital images, or should the mandatory print minimum just cover that for me?<br>

The thing is, I hate to tell the client that I'm charging by the hour, because I don't want them to cut me off just when I'm getting into the groove with the studio shots. I'd rather just keep going until I've gotten some awesome results. Would I be better off just charging them a fixed amount that I've calculated myself based on how long I think I'll spend on it? If I then stick around a lot longer to "play," then that's coming out of my own pocket.<br>

What say you?</p>

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<p>Never practice on a paying client. If you don't know how to do it, don't charge.<br>

If you want to rent a studio and lighting, explain that you will be out of pocket on this and that you want the client to pay only your out of pocket expenses. But unless you have a clue, more than having watched a video, you have no business presenting yourself as a pro and charging for the job.<br>

<Chas><br /><br /></p>

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