product photography Q's

32finn

Hey Guys & Gals,

Have had a quiery about doin some pix for a restaurant.
They are looking for some shots of the staff and also of the interior and some of the meals they are doing.

Anyone got any ideas on what to charge? It will be for a couple of hours and the images are being put on a disk!

Cheers in advance for any help.

Barname

Anyone got any ideas on what to charge?

$1,000,000.00

Borderfox

Depends on whether you want an hourly charge (€150) or per shot (€55) up to yourself

Paulw

And could also depend on the ultimate usage of the images, and who owns copyright.

PCPhoto

depends on what you want to charge and what you think is fair for....

A) your knowledge of Portrait Photography
your knowledge of Food Photography
C) your knowledge of Industrial Photography/Commercial Photography
D) your knowledge of Architectural Photography
E) your knowledge of lighting
F) your knowledge of digital cameras and their operation
G) your general knowledge of photography
H) purchasing your own equipment and learning how to use it
I) your time
J) your knowledge of image manipulation software (Photoshop etc)
K) any training you have had (either self taught, books or classes)

Are the images for web use only, for brochures, for menu's ?

if they were hiring a professional they would probably be paying a couple of hundred per hour.... I'm guessing you are not a professional, so I'm guessing they wont want to pay professional rates ..... are you prepared to get sued if they don't like the pics and claim you didn't do a proper job ?

I'm not trying to be on a high horse here (but) - This could be a simple job or could turn out to be completely complicated and may be best to leave it to a professional with experience of such a thing - if you think you can do the job then work out a figure that you think is fair based on the amount of time you will have to spend taking photos and post processing the images, personally I dont take on work without knowing what they want exactly...and if I can do it.

EDIT: your local restaurant may be looking for someone to take pics on the cheap: €100-150 (in total)....but will expect professional results, food photography is a specialist area - while anyone can point a camera at a meal and press the button, food photographers know how to make the picture look appealing.... they also want pics of the restaurant... I'm guessing without people in it, and the staff - its more than likely that they want it for a mixture of brochure/menu and also website usage....maybe for flyers also.

m_s_nixon

Borderfox wrote: »

Depends on whether you want an hourly charge (€150) or per shot (€55) up to yourself

Is €150 an hour the going rate? seems a bit excessive

Borderfox

That rate would be my commercial rate and would include licensing of digital files, I had some clients and they only wanted 1 and 2 hours of coverage so arrived at this figure. I dont know if its the going rate but for my time thats what I charge, I am confident enough to know my value which is a good starting point.

Good list from PCPhoto too on how to rate you skills.

DotOrg

m_s_nixon wrote: »

Is €150 an hour the going rate? seems a bit excessive

being paid €150 an hour by an employer would be a great rate of pay but being paid €150 an hour by a client if you're working for yourself isn't all that much if that's what you were relying on to pay yourself a wage, pay for equipment, insurance, training, premises, transport, tax etc etc...

Borderfox

True

m_s_nixon

DotOrg wrote: »

being paid €150 an hour by an employer would be a great rate of pay but being paid €150 an hour by a client if you're working for yourself isn't all that much if that's what you were relying on to pay yourself a wage, pay for equipment, insurance, training, premises, transport, tax etc etc...

I'm not one of these people who thinks that because you charge €150 an hour then that all goes in your pocket, i'm well aware of the overheads involved in any self employed job. My initial reaction was that a figure like that could scare away the OP's client

PCPhoto

m_s_nixon wrote: »

Is €150 an hour the going rate? seems a bit excessive

have recently been told that going rate for PR photography is €500 an hour, again this is a specialist area as the photographer would need to have contacts/connections in the media.

I normally wouldn't charge more than €200-250per hour for PR work (and usually an hour for post processing), I have over 10yrs experience and have been printed locally, nationally and internationally.

€200+ (per hr) is fairly acceptable if you are capable of doing the job and willing to put your name behind your work

photographers who are self employed have a lot of costs (direct and indirect) .... and have to earn money to cover the depreciation of their equipment, insurance...in order to maintain working at a high level you need to keep up to date with latest trends ... which sometimes means purchasing the newest equipment/software before you have a need for it....and purchasing equipment which might only be needed for a one-off job.

32finn

PCPhoto wrote: »

depends on what you want to charge and what you think is fair for....

A) your knowledge of Portrait Photography
your knowledge of Food Photography
C) your knowledge of Industrial Photography/Commercial Photography
D) your knowledge of Architectural Photography
E) your knowledge of lighting
F) your knowledge of digital cameras and their operation
G) your general knowledge of photography
H) purchasing your own equipment and learning how to use it
I) your time
J) your knowledge of image manipulation software (Photoshop etc)
K) any training you have had (either self taught, books or classes)

Are the images for web use only, for brochures, for menu's ?

if they were hiring a professional they would probably be paying a couple of hundred per hour.... I'm guessing you are not a professional, so I'm guessing they wont want to pay professional rates ..... are you prepared to get sued if they don't like the pics and claim you didn't do a proper job ?

I'm not trying to be on a high horse here (but) - This could be a simple job or could turn out to be completely complicated and may be best to leave it to a professional with experience of such a thing - if you think you can do the job then work out a figure that you think is fair based on the amount of time you will have to spend taking photos and post processing the images, personally I dont take on work without knowing what they want exactly...and if I can do it.

EDIT: your local restaurant may be looking for someone to take pics on the cheap: €100-150 (in total)....but will expect professional results, food photography is a specialist area - while anyone can point a camera at a meal and press the button, food photographers know how to make the picture look appealing.... they also want pics of the restaurant... I'm guessing without people in it, and the staff - its more than likely that they want it for a mixture of brochure/menu and also website usage....maybe for flyers also.

Cheers for the imput Pc,

The portrait and interior and processing end of things i will be ok with but, i have not done food pix before. For this reason i wasnt sure what to charge. I have made them aware of this also and if they are ok with that i will probably offer to do a sample shot of one of there meals first before committing to the job.

I do understand that food photography is quite complex and there is more too it than just pressing the shutter!!


Am i a pro? Maybe not in the true sence but, it is my only source of income for the past year. As for being sued, is anyone ever prepared for that? I am insured if that's where your coming from!

I will not have the full details until tomorrow but, they have mentioned putting the images on disk, i would imagine that they would want them for brochure, menu and web use. As for copyright, they have asked about it, if they want copyright it will be figured into the price.
Like yourself, until i know the full details and exactly what's involved will depend on whether or not i do the job!

Again, thanks for the input and to everyone else also.

Cheers

Borderfox

Some food shots here http://pix.ie/keithjack/album/334461/goto/859504

Set up shot

32finn

Cheers Borderfox, some great pictures there. Am hungry now :-)

Borderfox

10 different dishes and a taste of them all

ike

PCPhoto wrote: »

personally I dont take on work without knowing what they want exactly...and if I can do it.

Thats a very valid point - get a clear brief from the client otherwise your 2 hours could turn into a lot more, food may not be ready, certain staff may not have turned up etc.

Don't forget 1-2 hours of shooting = approx 1hour setup and testing, maybe 1 hour travelling, maybe 1,2,3 hours processing backing up files etc, copying to disc etc all take time. It all adds up and it still time you're spending on the one job.

Anyway best of luck with it and I hope it works out well - if you're inclined you have to take the leap sometime and you will learn far more in those few hours that any other source.