Amateur - how much to charge

dublin05

Hello,
I am fairly new to photography and have been asked by a department stores to take images for them of their products (watches mainly).
They are tricky to take and take a while but I am able to do a decent job. I have no idea on what to charge. To do 10 it would probably take me 1 hour to shoot and 1 hour to fix up but I would just be charging time and not skill element. A|ny ideas on how much I should quote per 10 watches? I am new to this game and would like repeat business but don’t want to under sell myself. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Borderfox

It will probably take more time to set up and process so allow for that

smelltheglove

You should also find out how they want the images, are they looking for prints for in storeadvertisement or digital images for online use, how they use them and what license required should be reflected in the price.

i.e. say you were to charge them the going average rate of 20 per 8x10for instore use thatd be fine but if they wanted a digital image that they would use on tv and online adverts you could want more, every photog would vary and I dont do commercial work but say for example that would be 100 per digital shot. Commercial photography is different to say turning up at a social event and photographing guests.

PCPhoto

smelltheglove wrote: »

You should also find out how they want the images, are they looking for prints for in storeadvertisement or digital images for online use, how they use them and what license required should be reflected in the price.

i.e. say you were to charge them the going average rate of 20 per 8x10for instore use thatd be fine but if they wanted a digital image that they would use on tv and online adverts you could want more, every photog would vary and I dont do commercial work but say for example that would be 100 per digital shot. Commercial photography is different to say turning up at a social event and photographing guests.

I have to disagree - that certainly is not the going rate for a professional commercial product photographer.

then again - the OP is not a professional (as he/she mentioned) so he/she needs to consider what is a fair price for a decent product..... if you (OP) can produce professional images - do what a professional would do - charge them for a shoot - not the amount of images.

an example - if a shoot takes an hour to set-up, an hour to shoot and an hour to post process .... charge them for 3 hours of work at ...... X amount (to be decided by you)

I agree with smelltheglove - you need to know what they intend using the images for and give them an appropriate licence permitting usage on strict terms.

if you want repeat business work for free - people love photographers that will work for free

Take into account the amount of money it cost you to purchase your equipment, insurance (I assume you got insurance to cover you incase they sue you for doing a bad job - it happens) .... and your time.

as for the original job - photographing 10watches ....I would suggest €100 per hour - or €250 for the job....give them full res and low res versions and let them use it whatever way they want.

smelltheglove

Sorry PC as I said, not a commercial photog, just going on the average print price for portraits etc.

ksapwaff

smelltheglove wrote: »

Sorry PC as I said, not a commercial photog, just going on the average print price for portraits etc.

The average print price for a 10x8 portrait is multiples of €20 and if thats what you charge then you need to have a good look at your business model.

CabanSail

OP has been sitebanned for problems elsewhere.

Thread closed