p.1 #1 · 200 pieces of clothing: How much to charge?
Ok. So I have a client that wants me to shoot around 200 non-artistic shots (prolly same angle the entire shoot) of the company's clothing products for their website. How much should I charge.
I am a solo, freelancer w/ low-clientele (actually, no clientele, lol): so im no really expecting to charge her 1000's.
any help appreciated!
Here are the emails:
Hi
My name is xxx. My sister and I are staring a new clothing business
here in New York City. We have been selling these clothes in festival
and it has been a success, but now we are trying to expand and sell it
wholesale to boutiques. We need professional photos of our clothing to
use it in a catalog and in our website. We need around 200 pictures
and we need them in digital form, not prints. We are on a tide budget
and we are looking for the best prices. Please send us your price
list. Thank you.
Best Regards,
Hi,
Wow thats alot of photos. What type of pictures do you want exactly?
Meaning:
-do you want the pictures while the clothes are on people?
-or just on display/for catalogue/general product shots?
-artistic shots?
-do you want the items/clothes to be shot with a particular background (white, black, color, etc)?
Regards,
Edgar
Hi Edgar,
Yes, we need a lot of picture, but is because our clothing is multi
wear so we have to take a picture of each style the clothes can be
wear or at least some.
We want a model to model our designs. We also want simple pictures
nothing artistic. we want them in digital form so we can upload it to
our website and make a catalog with them. I think a white background
would be good enough. Check our website so you can have an idea of
what I'm taking about.
p.1 #3 · 200 pieces of clothing: How much to charge?
I won't tell you how much to charge, that's up to you to decide, but before you go into the "I'm new, they're on a budget, I'll do it for peanuts" mode, think about this:
1. 200 outfits will take a lot of time for a model to do.
2. They're making money out of it
3. You're spending money on it. What? It's all digital and free? What about your time, equipment wear & tear (how many shots and what's your shutter rated at?), time post-processing, travel costs and time, food and lots of other things.
4. If they're not really "artistic" and they're not really that good because they don't want to pay for them, are they any good too you? If you give them crap photos for little money you kind of wasted your time as you certainly won't be able to use those photos for anything else. So is it a cost-effective way of spending your time?
So in the end, try to work out how much money you would like to earn over (let's say) a day's shooting, after subtracting costs, time, an extra day's post-processing, payment handling, taxes, form filling, equipment and other things. You certainly won't make any money if you charge $200 for it, that's for sure.
You should realize that 200 images will probably take a full week to do - about 50 per day, plus a full day of post-processing. And 50 per day is only remotely realistic if they hire multiple models who can keep on rotating through garments. If you only have one model, it will take probably 10 full days of shooting.
200 pieces is a big job. I base a lot of my pricing by the "total headache" method. The bigger the headache, the more I charge. Jobs like this are up there....
Oct 07, 2008 at 09:08 AM
jjlphoto Offline • • • • • [X]
p.1 #5 · 200 pieces of clothing: How much to charge?
Their email should be a tip off. Selling at festivals? They cannot afford professional photography for all 200. Even at a paltry money-loosing $100 a shot, that's twenty grand.
If you are a beginner and in need of self-assignments/portfolio shots, perhaps you could offer to do a few of their top sellers with a beginner model who needs TFP (but you have to tell her the shots will be used commercially).
p.1 #6 · 200 pieces of clothing: How much to charge?
Jonathan H is correct. 200 images is a very big job if you want to do it right.
I would disagree with the post processing. I think picking out 200 and adjusting would be a lot more than a full day. I think I would need 3-4 days for adjusting the images.
p.1 #7 · 200 pieces of clothing: How much to charge?
I would pitch them on the idea of shooting 20 shots with a model and the rest shot nicely on a surface. The model alone will run about $1500 for the day plus makeup artist and stylist to do it right. If you go low budget, you need an experienced model who can do her own make up and hair. I'd propose a package deal on your fee of between $1250 to $1500 per day if she commits to all 200 pieces. That would take about 5 or six days plus editing.
BTW, the editing should be billed separately not given away. I'm sure that they will be shocked by the total and you can also offer the unedited files and let them find a graphics person to edit them... they will have to let you edit them.
Ultimately, they will try to talk you down or cut the number of shots and eliminate the model. Either way, make sure that your paperwork is very specific about the terms, usage and payment. I always get half upfront and the balance on delivery or within 30 days. You should not be financing their project.
