davekatz Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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I very much appreciate all of the feedback- this has given me some real-life insight into issues that I had before only intellectualized.
cineski wrote:
Dave, I hope you're not trying to make a living with photography, because $200/day is horrific and you just set the tone with what you're willing to do with this client. If that's what your market expects, you can further expect to have new photographers popping up when you start to get established bidding $200/day jobs which will put you out of business. Those new people will then get to the established point in their career to have another $200/day photographer come in. See the trend? Yes everyone has to start somewhere but wow.
Micky stated: It's too bad that these days there are very few beginning photographers who have a mentor or at least someone to ask business related questions, not a forum but a real live person or friend in the biz to help you from making deal like this.... This is completely correct and there's a lot of different catalysts for this. Unfortunately it's created a culture of unsustainability in our industry. Man this thread is frankly scary.
Let me put it another way. You're not even getting paid to cover the risk of taking your camera out of your apartment/house. Let's say it gets stolen, shutter breaks, whatever, you aren't making enough money on the job to cover any expenses like this and if something does happen what happens with your next client? You can't even rent get a replacement in hand for $200/day. Add the cost of doing business, insurance, retirement, living, etc etc and you'll see that as a beginner you should have charged $3-4000 for 20 shots like this which is $150-$200 per shot. That's what you should have charged as a beginner. And that's still not charging usage fees which is how photographers really make money and stay sustainable....Show more →
I see your point regarding being undercut, and I want to make clear that this is not a pricing structure that I plan to live by or set as a standard. Every client has different needs and a different budget. For this reason, I felt this day rate was appropriate based on a 10+ year professional's opinion as well as the status of the client's company. Could they be lying about their "small" budget? Sure, they could. I looked them up as much as I could and found nothing more than their one-page website describing themselves and a contact page for vendors. That was proof enough for me that they're new, and can't afford to pay what would otherwise be a normal day rate for this sort of photography.
I totally agree with Micky's sentiment, and the person whose advice I took is somebody I've met with multiple times, worked with on an editorial shoot, and plan to work with in the future, so please don't make assumptions. I wholeheartedly believe in the craftsmanship of photography, and as such plan to continue my 'apprenticeship' phase, assisting for those photographers whose style resonates with me. This opportunity came along and I asked my 'master' how to price it, and followed his advice accordingly. Though definitely insightful, I think there are a lot of strong opinions being thrown around here that are a little out of line.
I've done my research regarding pricing structures, both print and online, and this figure only came after a lot of mulling and discussion.
tcphoto wrote:
Your friend is giving you bad advice on that fee. I specialize in food images and it sounds like they want to throw the dishes out in the dining room and you just shoot them. That is a recipe for bad images, especially if you have limited experience. You will need a Food Stylist and at least one Assistant plus another day to produce images that are worth a damn. They want unlimited usage? I would not touch that project for less than $7500 and I would limit their term of use to two years. You are looking at at least one day of Pre Production, two Shoot Days and two days to edit the selects, so you better get paid accordingly....Show more →
I think you are right that they aren't looking for highly stylized imagery, but rather a high quality version of what one might encounter at these restaurants. I did limit the usage to 2-years, web only.
Micky Bill wrote:
I have a feeling that if it costs more than $200 the owner will do iPhone pictures. It doesn't sound like a place that would spend $7500 for a photo shoot..
Agreed 100%. Had I quoted them something more reasonable by the standards of working professionals, they would have gone to Best Buy and purchased their own camera and shot it themselves.
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