My husband and I recently photographed a band signed to notable label. They (manager/label) asked to see all of the raw images and wanted to choose which ones we would edit and they would purchase. (This was weird for me, but I was told this is standard..) They chose 26- which made me happy because they said they would only choose about a dozen, but they really liked them!

How the heck do I price this?


Thanks in advance!

you really should have agreed on this before the shoot - and i am highly surprised you did not, given they are dealing with a manager and a label.
how are these going to be used? commerically, on a cd ? promotional posters? web only? all of these instances will account for your pricing and RELEASE.

i bet brady would be a good guy to ask.

I agree- we should have sorted it all beforehand. But it all happened pretty fast and we didn't want to pass up the opportunity.
Two of the guys in the band are very close friends of ours and have been encouraging the rest of the band to let us photograph them. Basically, they called us on a Tuesday to set up the shoot for that Friday. We couldn't work out a time to get together with anyone in between there. The day after, we left town for a week. So we're just starting this part of the process now.
They've hired an artist for their cd artwork, so probably won't be there.. But, they will definitely be used on promo posters, web, and probably in magazine ad promos.

i'm concerned that a release was not signed before the shoot - or was it?

did you charge an initial session fee?

in all seriousness, you shoudl charge what you feel your images are worth - but i have a feeling they are not gonig to want to pay much.

had this been a more structured 'shoot' the results would have been better, financially for you.

26 images x ____ (the higher that price is there <------, the less images they will purchase in the end, you can almost count on that).

Zack Arias is a music/artist photographer. I definitely PM him.

Wow, tough spot. However the dollars work out it sounds like it'll be a portfolio building and learning experience for you....

Check out the resources here:

http://www.asmp.org/commerce/estimator.php

I worked as a producer or a fairly well known photographer and there was always an initial fee for your time shooting. There was also an agreement that said prints and files were additional. The photographer I worked with charged $150 per finished file, yes, it is standard for the label to look at unedited images, however, basic adjustments were done to make them look more polished. Once the fee is given for the file rate, those 26 images will be knocked down to 5, but they will want them fast.

I would figure out your rate based on how long it will take you to complete editing for each individual image. Typically, the agreement that was worked out prior to the shoot would only allow the use of images pertaining to whatever the project was for. So, if it was for cd/album packaging, the label could use the images in conjunction with any promotion for that album, so that includes web banners, actual packaging , anything related to the promotion and release of that album.

I hope this helps.

I had a similar band inquiry recently, didn't shoot it yet, so YES, this helps A LOT!!!