Costing for commisions

[dabow]

<p>Hi folks,<br>

I'm looking for info on pricing for commissioned landscape work, especially from any photographers who've undertaken commissions; how you priced it up, break down of costs and expenses and, if you normally sell limited editions, how the commissioned work fitted in with that i.e. did you sell the commissioned image(s) as part of your regular editions or treat it as a one off for the customer commissioning you, and how you priced it accordingly? Basically, as much info as anyone can offer would be most appreciated, plus any advice/considerations you think would be helpful.<br>

Thanks in advance.<br>

Dave</p>

[tonybynum]

dave, this question was just asked last week. maybe look in the business forum for the thread. Also,

pricing this kind of work is not that difficult. "Costing" is your business, no one else. Just sit down and

make a list of your expenses. What is impossible for anyone to determine for you, ss knowing how much

money YOU need to make from your work .. . I can tell you right now that I will make 10x more than the

next guy but there's guys out there that will or could make 10x more than me . . . you might be wise to

start with this video, then do you own math - think about what it costs you to do the work - what it cost

YOU not what it costs me - then develop a budget based on the work assignment. I know Im not sharing

numbers, I'm sorry about that. I'm not sharing numbers because they are meaningless to you. So go

watch this video and it should all become crystal clear . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=nDVTO7QDHgs

[tonybynum]

sorry, for some reason that link did not go though correctly. It's an adorama video on "how much should I

charge."

[dabow]

<p>Hi Tony and thanks for your reply. Fully understand that pricing for a job is something that will differ between photographers. The dilemma I'm having is really more on the print side. If a customer commissions me to go and take a shot of a particular landscape there are expenses associated with my time, travel and accommodation. Normally when I shoot these costs are covered by me and (hopefully) recovered in the costs of the prints that I sell. However, for a commissioned piece I'm not quite sure how to balance that.</p>

<p>So I guess what I'm asking is how other photogs who've been commissioned have handled the sale of the print afterwards? Not in terms of actual price figure, but whether they sold it to the commissioning customer as a regular limited edition and then sold the rest of the edition to other customers, as a single edition to just the commissioning customer, or whether these were given as options with differing costs at the time of commission? There's probably no right or wrong way of doing this, but I'd like to know how other photogs have handled it.</p>

[david_henderson]

<p>If I'm commissioned to photograph in a specific location then</p>

<ul>

<li>In principle I will cover the costs and profit I wish to make from that shoot from the commissioning customer alone. I will not depend on future sales to others to make a satisfactory profit. It is in my experience unlikely that I will make downstream sales to others unless and until I get it placed in a stock agency- which is not something I can rely on.</li>

<li>I will grant the licence that the customer asks for. If they want exclusive use of the images we discuss territories, segments, periods etc and price according to what the client agrees he needs. I like to hang onto the ability to use images for my website etc . </li>

<li>I keep quotations as simple as possible which means incorporating UK travel and subsistence costs into a day rate, quoting a fixed time for shooting and processing/reviewing/editing and making an agreed number of print files. Unless we've agreed further shooting days (eg really bad weather) the client gets the best from the number of days photography he's agreed. </li>

<li>My quotation will specify the number. size of prints to be provided and a price for each size of print. Print quantities can change, so I don't rely on print pricing to recover fixed cost elements of the shoot. I price prints so that if the quantity rises then I make a little more, but if the quantity reduces it won't kill me as my costs and minimum profit are being covered by the day rate. Print costs will generally include mounting(dry-mounting for large prints) and matting to an agreed size unless the client doesn't want it. </li>

<li>I tend to prefer to leave framing to the client, since the process of discussing/agreeing the frame tends to suck in a lot of time and its hard to recover that time by marking up frames that I don't make. </li>

</ul>

[dabow]

<p>Thanks for your input, David. One thing I've discovered over the years is that I can never be sure what will sell, and what won't. Just because I'm shooting to the brief of one client doesn't mean other customers mightn't also like to purchase the same image. My thinking, at this point, is to charge time, travel, etc. expenses as per for the shoot and then offer two options for the print - a 1/1 exclusive edition (at a higher price) or a regular edition, for which they pay my standard edition price per print and get the first number in the edition, and then I still sell future editions of the print to anyone who would like one.</p>