Tom Kitoko

Hello everyone, I have been reading the emails from this forum I get every day for quite a while now and there is a lot of great information here. I have an opportunity to photograph 70 wedding dresses that will be put on mannequins at the customers location.

My questions: How much is a fair price to charge and should I charge a price for each or for the whole lot? I have a feeling this will take a while as they will be putting the dresses on the mannequins and changing them as we go.

Thank you all, your answers are most appreciated.

KindaSpikey Loc: English living in San Diego

Don't try to price for quantity, (#of pics). Price for time + any consumables, (SD card, paper, ink etc). I am a carpenter, (and very amature photographer). Whatever kind of work I am doing, I charge in multiples of half days. (UP TO 4 hours =half a days pay),( over 4 and up to 8 hours =a full day's pay). Don't try to charge by the hour, you'll end up undercutting yourself, and it won't be worth the effort, also customers seem to respect you more if you charge them a clear rate, (half or full day), rather than doing it on the cheap, almost like a favor. Stick to your guns, and be confident. Let "them" take as long as they like dressing the models, and don't rush them. Just remember, half or full day, as long as that's made clear up front, everyone will be happy.
Ray.

Tom Kitoko

KindaSpikey
Thank you for your advice, Let "them" take as long as they like dressing the models, and don't rush them. They are getting these dresses ready to sell, I just want to give them quality digital copies, not prints. I don't want to under charge and have them ask for the same price at a later date. Day or half day sounds good. Thank you for responding.

KindaSpikey Loc: English living in San Diego

No problem, hope it was a little helpful.
Ray.

Tom Kitoko

Yes, helpful, Thank you, enjoy a great evening.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Normally, you refer to your business and marketing plans for pricing. One will tell you what your break even costs are, and the other will give you a general idea what the going rate is.

You also need to consider licensing of the images, image credits, etc. It helps to find out what they've paid in the past. You'll need to discuss who stages the dresses, equipment and prop rental, special requests, etc. Finally you'll need to execute a contract that covers each party's obligations and what the costs of things outside the scope of work will cost. It will also detail how conflicts are resolved.

Tom Kitoko

Hello Gene51,

This is quite an eye opener, actually, I’m just starting out in this field of photography, I normally shoot landscapes but someone gave me this opportunity. These are a lot of things to consider and a wealth of information.

Thank you so much for responding, enjoy a great and wonderful day.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

If you are a professional photographer charge $100.00 an hour.
If you are a amateur photographer charge $40.00 and hour and insist on a photo credit on your work. But, if the images are not professional, your photo credit will work against you, fast.

Tom Kitoko

Hello Billnikon,

At this time, I’m not a paid professional photographer but, I’m pretty confident in my work. I’m old school, I wouldn’t sell anyone something I wouldn’t sign my name too. I’m more interested in the photo credit then the money. A bad reputation can destroy a person.

Thank you for the professional advice and wisdom, enjoy a great and wonderful day.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

There's some good comments so far. Reading your responses, here are some issues to consider / address in a quick written agreement:

Total price
Expected hours to be shooting, in hour ranges, such as 2-4 hours - cost $x; 4-6 hours, cost $y, so forth
Delivery timeline - initial drafts, final edits / finished images, specified by estimated dates, or days following shoot
Delivery format - JPEG, upload website, physical media, email transfer, etc
Image ownership - are you hired to shot images for them for images they own? Or, are you licensing images you own for their uses?
Payment schedule - all up front? Half now, half on delivery? Other? Specify how payment will be made too.

Personally, it sounds like they're hiring you to shoot for them, as in they own the results. If this is the situation, you should state this expectation as well as specifying how you can use the resulting images too, such as social media, personal website / portfolio, etc. As a hired photography, just cover the technical logistics, deadlines from the list above and set a total price, paid 50/50 to start and upon delivery, or a lumpsum at the end. Also, put-in other comments covering the scope of your work being the photography, not the dress selection and such, maybe covering where the shoot occurs, as in, at one place of their choosing / date with a specific start time.

Think about 70 dresses, if you waited for the preparations and shot maybe 5 / 10 versions of each for 15-minutes waiting and then shooting, that's 17-hours, likely a multiday event if done sequentially. If all the dresses were ready, it still might be a 5-minute average that would be 6 hours if working that slow and deliberate. Take your total shooting time and allow the same duration to process and prepare the images in determining a turnaround deadline.

Outside the technical logistics, seek to confirm what shots they want. I'd think a full-body frontal, maybe a side / three-quarter full length view, as well as one or more detailed / close-up shots, especially the shoulders and neck-line. Do they want all in a portrait aspect? Mixed landscape, portrait and square? What ratio? 1x1, 3x2, 5x4, 19:6, other?

JeffDavidson Loc: Originally Detroit Now Los Angeles

Charge for time plus for your setup.

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

Lots of things to consider here, and here's a few, and some already mentioned:
*Get a signed contract, by both parties, and be sure to list all the T's & C's
*they have to understand that they are paying for your time, and not just a bunch of digital files which almost seem valueless in todays climate of cell phone photography
*are they buying the full rights to your images, or for just use of your images? You want to be clear on that and have it in the contract. If it's just use they are limited as to what they can do to, and with the images which may include no rights to do any further edits to your images, you still own the copyrights to those images at that point. For full rights, or ownership of the images they pay a premium, and more $$$ for full rights, then they own them, and can do whatever they want to, or with the images, and use them many times over.
* are you doing the edits? That can take a lot of time and many customers don't understand that. They only see you doing the shooting, and not the hours or days involved doing the edits. They need to understand that that is included in your fee for the job. Also remember, 70 outfits doesn't mean only 70 shots. You will be required to take multiple shots of each outfit, and at a minimum, I would say at least 3 or 4 of each. Are they expecting to get all shots of each dress, or what you, or they decide is the best?
* in today's climate of millions of cell phone shooters, and the multimillion number of photos that are taken nowadays, the value of professional photography services has diminished some. And, that equates to the price that one can expect for photography services. They (the customer) needs to know that they are paying for your time, and not just a disk of digital copies. So, consider a few things before you quote it. How many total hours involved, who gets, or keeps the rights to the photos, and remember, it always boils down to "what the market will bear." This job could easily entail 10-12 hours of work...is it worth a $100 dollars an hour to the customer? Is it worth only taking $25 hour to you, and doing it for less? I, personally, would opt for the former at $100/hr, and maybe leave the door open to negotiate if the customer balks at the price, but remember, you have to sell that price.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Following the comment above, there is the question of what is their budget? They might think by asking someone with little experience in this area, the price might be free or nominal, $100 total or less. If they thought they were asking for a professional and established wedding photographer, they might already be prepared for a $2000+ cost, someone working onsite for a day or more at $100/hr. To me, from the limited description, it's probably a lump sum bit of hired work around $350 total, but don't leave money on the table if their thinking of the budget was in the $500 range.

autofocus Loc: North Central Connecticut

Always true Paul, and surely a good question to ask. Expectations need to be set up front. There's always that fine line between what you, the photographer thinks it's worth, and that of what the customer/buyer of the product thinks. Sometimes when a fair price can't be agreed upon it's just as well to walk from the job. Especially if you sense that the customer doesn't see the value of the service or product you are providing, and a customer like that can make your life miserable should you decide to take the job.

kenArchi Loc: Seal Beach, CA

I used to charge by the half or full day.
When I learned PP there was less time on the job and more photos to process. In 2 hours we did 20 photos. Used to be only five or six.
Now I charge per photo.