Hi all:

I am a wedding photographer, but I love doing detailled shots.
I've been approached on numerous occasions about doing commercial shoots and never know how to price these.

I have just received an inquiry to photograph washers, nuts, bolts etc...in a plant.
She states that it would be a few hours of work, and wants to know what my fees would be.

Can anyone make some suggestions here for me.

Thanks so much
Jennifer

How about $900 and you provide them with a CD.

Hey Charles....

Thanks for the reply.

You're site is beautiful.

I am curious, would you normally determine a price based on an hourly rate, or a dayrate, or some other type of pay scale???

In the future, I would like to be able to price these competitively but make it worth my while.

Thanks
Jen

Anyone????

we do 1250 per day around my area, but we are in NYC mostly for commercial or fashion work

I don't shoot commercial, but the book reccommended by strobist called Best Business Practices for Photographers goes through commercial pricing quite nicely. He bills for his time & costs (including equipment 'rental'), plus charges based on usage of the final image. It may not help you now in time for your quote, but is a very eye opening read in regards to quotes, etc.

Wow...Tess...this guys site is amazing.
Of course I haven't bought the book yet, but thanks for giving me the link.


Ok..so as it turns out, I did make her an offer of $900 plus full size and websize digital negatives on DVD.

She thought that was much more than she'd expected to pay....so now I'm waiting to hear how much they have in the budget.
I'll keep you all posted, in case anyone else in the same predicament is interested.

Thanks everyone for your help
Jen

For just a few hours, I'd say no more than $500. When I worked in San Diego for a Chip mfr, we had a photographer that would come out and photograph. We got the negatives (2 1/4 square). I think we were charged about $350. He was out for the better part of the day and brought studio lights. Now, this was about 5 years ago, so I'm sure things have changed a little.

To me, $900 is a little much for 1/2 day of photographing. But I know there are a lot of photographers who charge much, much more.

On my last commercial gig, I think I charged $50 an hour. I was there three days a week for about five months (a huge project). My time was charged for all photographing time, editing, post-processing -- pretty much any time I was working on the project. I did not charge travel time or mileage. It was a good job while it lasted.

Adam I desagree, it depends on your area and the client. I am working 3 hours for BellSouth and making $1500. I would price higher than lets say a wedding.

If this shoot is for a manufacturing facility, take in consideration manual settings and getting the white background color the same on each shot. Even though you are only taking photos of a nut or a bolt each photo especially if displayed side by side in a ad or on web must be color balanced perfectly. You wouldn't want your background looking different throughout your shoot. When you are talking with this women let her know what all is involved, and maybe learn about how they will be utilizing the photographs. This will give you a better understanding of the time and set up that might be involved.

I did do some probing....
and I personally think it would be best if she brought the items here to be shot in high key, at the studio....
but here was her reply:

1. I think it may be easier to come here, that way you can pick and choose what parts may look best together. But I do not object to coming by your studio either. Which ever you prefer.
The parts would not be photographed piece by piece, but rather in groups of like parts. I could assist with this of course. Check out some of the pics we already have at http://www.astraprecision.com.
The parts would be cleaned by us for you. They come of the machine quite oily, and we have a special cleaner that removes the cutting oil.

2. We probably have over 200 samples sitting on our conference table, but not each one would need to be photographed. I would say with the parts in groups, probably about 20 or so.

3. The images, right now, are to be used for our website. It's possible that we may use them in the future for booklets, but I'm not sure. Let's go with the full resolution.

4. The sooner the better of course...;-) I'd say a max of 6 weeks from now.


Thanks everyone for your advice.....

I've still not heard back from her, so hopefully I will (that is if I haven't already scared her off! LOL)

Corporations want to know that you can do the job and that you are professional more so than the price. If you come in toward the high side it is better!!!!!! I have found that corporations don't look at the quotes that come in on the lower side, just because of perception.

I agree with that, but I suspect that this is a much smaller, family based business just looking for a deal. I think the same can be said for wedding photography. Price often leads to perception of quality.

They came back with an offer of $200 though they were willing to make some alterations for that price, including dropping the items off at the studio and letting me keep them for a few weeks to get them done.

Huge difference from my $900 starting point though.