Pricing photos for local small business

[jgraves]

Before I begin, I should state that I'm a college student working on

a degree in Photography. My experience isn't as great as a working

professional, but I still deserve a fair price for my services. I'm

working on a job for a local small business, they specialize in

sunglasses and other beach wear. I'm shooting a half-day on location

with some models wearing the products and studio product shots of

each pair of glasses, about 20 pairs in total.

 

I figure my expenses to this point are $300-400 which includes my

time, materials,post processing and travel. The client wants low res

jpeg's for their website, about 25 images tops. How much should I

charge per image for one year, nonexclusive rights? I'm stuck

between getting the job and undercutting the market, I would like for

them to have a larger budget, yet I want to be fair to myself and

others working in the business. Any estimates would be greatly

appreciated, thanks in advance.

[conraderb]

without knowing the quality of your work, I would say that you are probably worth between 20 and 60 bucks an hour. I would calculate your costs and then add a time fee based on how long it will take you. best.

conrad

www.genuineimagephotography.com

[bill c.]

Conrad-- Hourly rates are BS. They penalize a photographer for being fast and good. See previous posts for more info. Repeat this mantra, "Don't charge by the hour or by the day, charge by the shot..." About a hundred repetitions a day should do it. You can start right now.

 

Jeremy-- You can give the client the best of both worlds. Charge an expense fee, and then charge per use per image. The industry standard is to charge by the quarter, or 13 weeks. If you're really insecure about your work, then charge about $10 per image per quarter, which would net you up to $250 four times a year. If your shots are good enough to use longer, you'll get paid more. If the client feels that better shots could be done, then it would be cost-effective for them to do them over. NOBODY could quibble about ten bucks a shot.

 

A more realistic price would be $50 per image per quarter, plus $50 each used image for tweaking the file to get it ready, plus $50 to burn a CD with the useable files on it, plus expenses, etc.

 

Make sure your contract nails down every contingency. You don't want to be re-negotiating after the fact, you want to be able to just track the client's useage and then send in a bill. Somewhere in your contract there should be a clause that reads, "failure to pay fully and promptly for use shall constitute copyright violation." Make sure you copyright your images, and somewhere in the legal gobbeldygook it should say that you have the right to sell the images for stock (but don't sell them to competitors).

 

Best of luck. -BC-

[heidi_h.]

Question from naive newbie pro photographer: How do you get a photo copyrighted?

[jgraves]

Thanks Bill, I appreciate your help in pricing this project. I also had a question about manipulation of my images. The business I am contracting with has a graphic designer that would like to alter the backgrounds of some of my images to give the look of a beach setting. I'm not sure what to say about this to them. Also, how would I go about copywriting my digital images?

[craig_shearman1]

U.S. Copyright Office is at www.copyright.gov with all necessary forms and information. You own the copyright to an image from the moment it is created automatically even without filing any paperwork. Filing the paperwork is necessary, however, to have any reasonable hope of enforcing your rights to the image. I'm not a lawyer, so to to their website to get the details.

[bill c.]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>graphic designer that would like to alter the backgrounds of some of my images to give the look of a beach setting. I'm not sure what to say about this to them. <<<<<<<<

 

 

Jeremy-- Personally, I would have no problems with this as long as the designer and the client understand that it would cost them the same amount for the use of the images no matter what background they were used with. -BC-