Commercial Photography Pricing Structures.

wyf437gn6btzue

Hi,

I was wondering would any commercial photographers out there be able to advise on how they charge clients?
I am slowly edging my way into commercial photography but I am unsure whether I should be charging by the hour or by the image? Anyone I have asked have all gave me indirect answers but they wouldn`t be full on commercial photographers, most just do the odd commercial job.

I would appreciate any advice

pwllor

I guess you'll need some time and experience and you'll know what works best for you. There is no right or wrong.

gloobag

It's a difficult question to answer as there are so many possible variables to consider, such as:

What are your costs of doing business?
How long will the shoot take?
How many images need to be delivered?
Are you expected to do the retouching yourself?
How long will the retouching take, and how difficult will it be?
Do you need to hire any special equipment for the shoot?
Do you need to hire a studio for the shoot?
Is the shoot on location? How far do you need to travel, and how long will it take you to get there and back?
Is there any risk to your equipment at the location?
Do you need to hire any assistants?
Who else will be working on the shoot? Is it worth doing the shoot at a discount for the chance to work with these people?
Who is the client? Small, medium or large business?
How will the images be used and for how long (licencing)?

I'm sure I've missed a few points there, but as you can see, there's a lot to think about.

The way I usually tackle it, is to ask all the above questions of the client and get as much info from them as possible, so I know exactly what it is they're expecting of me. I then put together a quote that includes my basic half day/full day rate, as well as the cost of retouching. If equipment/people need to be hired, or I need to travel, I bill all of that to the client.

You also need to tailor your approach depending on the client. I've had some big, well known brands pay me very well for very little work, but then have to fight tooth and nail to barely make my basic day rate from small local businesses that expect the world, and vice versa.

It can be a bit of minefield, but if you can extract as much info as possible beforehand and give an itemised quote that you and the client agree on, you'll be in a good position should any issues pop up. And trust me, there will be issues/clients that try to screw you.

Hope that helps.

wyf437gn6btzue

Thanks for the reply, I'd agree I need to work to my needs.

Thanks for the detailed answer gloobag, there's a lot of excellent info there that I'm absolutely going to use.

Many thanks