Paid job - how much should I charge?

Thirdfox

Hi there guys,

I've been contacted by someone who was interested in having me cover a conference this Saturday (for a few hours I'm guessing) and shooting some pictures.

Just wondering what people would charge to cover a conference? Mind you they are a student organisation so I wouldn't really want to set the fee too high, what's a reasonable price for a day's work or the rate per hour?

pete4130

I used to shoot live shows (bands) and initially had a dilema with this (was shooting film too so nothing was garaunteed).
Basically think how much of YOUR time are you giving up? They obviously want you to cover it and are prepared for the expense of that. I wouldn say €15-20 per hour is unreasonable for a "professional" service, or a basic minimum fee (which is more plausable to me as you may shoot for as little as 10-20 mins) of between €100-€150 seems reasonably cheap to me (more if its 2 hours or more, I'd guess maybe €300-€400 for a full day or 6-7 hours?).
If it's a first time gig then try not to overprice yourself. Be reasonable but not too cheap that you seem unprofessional.
The biggest thing to remember is that most of these people don't know anything about photography and when they see something slightly more than a point and shoot effort they think it's fantastic and €100-€150 will seem cheap to them. If they require prints then you obviously charge what you feel is appropriate for you time and effort to get decent prints made.

Good luck with the shoot!

Pete.

Thirdfox

Thanks - it's not a band situation so I'd guess they wouldn't be able to pay as much. 20 per hour as a minimum sounds good. For a few hours I'd probably look for around 100 euro then.

They have seen my work from the newspaper that I regularly get published in so I think they know what they're going to get.

Thanks for the advice.

Cabaal

I;d say 100e sound right, if its yoyur first hired gig on this sort you don't want to price yourself out either as you ideally want to get repeat business

Mellor

€20 an hour including travel time would be fine, you are covered plus they get a decent price for service received.
Thats what I charge for my jobs like this (not photography)

Beef

Don't forget to factor in your time for processing the images also...

Paulw

I rate my time at €65 per hour (or event, if it's a sports game). That would also factor in image processing time after, up to a max of 20 images. Prints are separate as I'd have to order the prints.

quilmore

and what will you give them after charging them for the photo shoot? a contact sheet?
or is it just the "right" to get print outs?

will you include any JPG in a disk (even at low res)

Oriel

Make sure you agree all the terms beforehand - how many shots he wants etc. Explain to him that there's more to it than just turning up a shooting too.

rymus

what the? how the? Praise Allah!

Oriel

rymus wrote: »

what the? how the? Praise Allah!

There is one decent admin...

rymus

outstanding *fires AK47 into the air in an erratic fashion*

City-Exile

Between €100 & €150 for half a day.
I'd charge mileage too.

Paulw

quilmore wrote: »

and what will you give them after charging them for the photo shoot? a contact sheet?
or is it just the "right" to get print outs?

will you include any JPG in a disk (even at low res)

They get whatever was agreed in the discussions.

Normally, I'd put up a web gallery (watermarked) and they can view these and make their selection. I have different rates for digital images (with a license file which states conditions of print usage (all low res so max A4 print)), but it would very much depend on the agreement.

By default, they get nothing. They pay for my time to be there, take photos and I've already scoped some time for processing, but I have separate rates for digital images, prints and my time.

The most important thing is to come to an agreement/contract before you even do the shoot. Make it clear what they get for what they pay for.

sheesh

I would figure out how much time you would need to process them afterwards
I would also find out if they want prints and get a price for them
so that they know in advance how much the whole thing will cost. what wedding photographers tend to do is shoot loads put them up in a gallery and let them pick the best of them and print them.