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Photography Rates
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Hi All
Can anyone provide me with a basic rates guide for photography.
I am looking for daily rates, half day, hourly, Travel prices etc
For photography from
Product Photography
* Company newsletter
* Advertising, Editorial and Marketing Photography
* Architectural Photography – Exteriors and Interiors
* Conferences /Trade Shows and Event PhotographyAs i am trying to put together a business plan and am just looking for a direction of what i can expect to charge in a realistic enviroment in Dublin
Thanks
DarrenDude
Do you want us to write business plan too.
Man just go surf on the internet you will find them
I can think of at least two members on here that have prices listed in the sort of details you want on their websites, I know cos I have looked
the other thing ring some photographers, get the golden pages out and start ringing round
Steve – you’re basically right in what you say but I think you could have put it more eloquently. I find myself in a similar situation as Darren but didn’t ask the question here and I wouldn’t advise anyone to do so either, not just to prevent unhelpful replies but also because no matter what reply you get it will be wrong! Why? Because each individual business has it’s own set of unique circumstances.
Darren, by all means look at what the competition are charging and use the information as a starting point from which to work. Ideally you should set yourself an annual salary you would like to earn and work backwards from there, not forgetting to include the actual running costs in your business model also.
If it can be of any help…..I have all my prices on my web site. I normally do a survey of other colleagues and pitch my prices somewhere less than centre but above one third of average also takeing into consideration the area I am marketing in
also. My area is not the greatest when it comes to spending on Photography services but then its reasonably cheap to run a business from here also. So there are pros and cons as anyony will find in any given location.If anyone cares to contact me I will be as up-front as possible and will give the best advice I can…….so dont be afraid to call.
Thanks for the reply guys, as stated i was looking for a starting point but looking around on the net there was little from Irish photographers. although i started the business properly in early 2006 i did not take any paid jobs as i still wanted to get my name around. All of a sudden i have been asked to take on a few jobs which is great but was just looking at some kind on entry point and work from there.
My goal is to be afull time in photography but need to buiild slowly and then have enough so i can quit my office job.
Again thanks for the help and Gerry i may have a look at your site just as a pointer.
Thorsten
I agree about charging what you think you are worth
But working out your rates based on your annual salary is not good business sense for 2 reasons:
1. you have to within reason charge the market rate, the reason for this is otherwise you are deemed expensive, and also the market rate is what it is because to a certain degree thats what customers are prepared to pay.
2. it is very short sighted way of costing. If you aim at only your salary then suddleny 5 times as much work in year two or worse only a 5th of the work are you suggesting that your prices change accordingly???
I want to say having re-read my post it might of come across a bit abrupt and that was not my intention, but sometime you gotta be cruel to be kind, and the costings for this stuff aint no mystery
Brookied
Your doing it the right way slowly building up both a client base and a reputation
But Normally most businesses take 3 years to become established, ie with a flow of both work and payment. so dont be suprised if you have afew jobs now then it drops off, for the workflow to level will take a while
But because your still working in your office job you can supliment your income, also it means you have more money to invest in the business, equipment etc. I built up my equipment over a number of years and so when i started working for myself I basically had the kit i needed, ie no new captial investment on day one
stcstc wrote:
Thorsten
I agree about charging what you think you are worth
But working out your rates based on your annual salary is not good business sense for 2 reasons:
1. you have to within reason charge the market rate, the reason for this is otherwise you are deemed expensive, and also the market rate is what it is because to a certain degree thats what customers are prepared to pay.
2. it is very short sighted way of costing. If you aim at only your salary then suddleny 5 times as much work in year two or worse only a 5th of the work are you suggesting that your prices change accordingly???
I want to say having re-read my post it might of come across a bit abrupt and that was not my intention, but sometime you gotta be cruel to be kind, and the costings for this stuff aint no mystery
Cruel to be kind? Absolutely! But I think there are better ways to be cruel. Although admittedly, if Darren took offence to your inital response then he wouldn’t be cut out for this business, which can be very cruel indeed!
Re. your first point, I agree that you can only charge what the market will bear. However, it is possible to raise the level of what the market will bear through shrewd business practice. But you also have to charge what you can bear – i.e., there’s no point in setting a rate which will leave you with an insufficient salary. I never suggested striking a rate based on salary alone – there are a multitude of other expenses to consider which need to be recouped. Ultimately it’s a compromise between what you would like to earn and what the going market rate is.
Re. your second point, I do think that if you reach a stage where you become so successful that you end up getting far more work than you can cope with one of the options open to you is to make yourself even more exclusive by raising your prices thus filtering out the “bottom end” of your market and concentrating only on the more lucrative jobs. There are plenty of examples out there of people having done this. On the other hand if you end up getting less work, the last thing you should do is drop your prices (unless they are already way above local market prices). I think the only way to pull yourself out from a situation like that is through prudent sales and marketing.
stcstc wrote:
Brookied
Your doing it the right way slowly building up both a client base and a reputation
But Normally most businesses take 3 years to become established, ie with a flow of both work and payment. so dont be suprised if you have afew jobs now then it drops off, for the workflow to level will take a while
But because your still working in your office job you can supliment your income, also it means you have more money to invest in the business, equipment etc. I built up my equipment over a number of years and so when i started working for myself I basically had the kit i needed, ie no new captial investment on day one
Three years is a relatively short period in which to get established, so that’s heartening to hear. Most businesses take at least five years.
Right now, I don’t have the luxury of any other job, having just been made redundant, with no redundancy package. And now there are going to be another 400 or so people dumped onto the labour market here with the closure of Motorola, increasing the challenge of finding a new job. So I’m trying to look at ways of reducing those three years down to three months!!! I don’t have any other choice at this stage unless a job crops up in the near future. However, I’m not naive enough to think that this is actually possible and in reality I’m really looking at a period of about a year of effectively working for free before starting to make any money at all in this business.
Interesting comment about building up equipment. I have a sufficient enough arsenal to take on most jobs and if I need something extra I’ll beg, borrow or steal it (no hire shops here :( ) My thinking is that I’ll leave the purchase of more expensive pro-grade equipment until such time as I really, really need it and am properly set up and VAT registered, not just to save on the VAT portion of any capital expenditure but in order to properly account for such expenditure in my accounts. Depreciation and other capital related costs are very real business expenses and I don’t see why they should come out of my pocket! Also, it doesn’t make sense to spend on equipment that’s “nice to have” but isn’t earning it’s keep (not suggesting for one minute that you did this!). Of course, if I won the lotto, or otherwise had more disposable income I wouldn’t hesitate to spend on gear that’s “nice to have” :D
Your right in building slow, I have main equipment purchased, and also this year have planned to purchase studio lighting and backdrops. This is looking forward to the purchase of my new house which will have space for a studio which i can then put my purchased equipment in.
My full time job is secure until i deem that i can earn what is needed to pay the bills etc…
I also think that by looking at other photographers rates i can market myself a little below in order to start the ball rolling and when i have an established base i can then slowly raise these to meet the current trend in the market place.
Rates are a bit of a mystery as not a lot of photographers advertise openly on there sites. people like me are not looking to rip off a photographers prices but do need a starting point in order to not price them selfs out of the market and at the other end not price them selfs way under what you could rightfully charge.
While i have a 5 year plan which was started in Jan 2006 the first year went exactly as i had hope in creating the company as a legal entity. building up my shots portfolio and slowly getting my name around. This year was to get more regular work pro gratis which i have managed and from that i have managed to get some paid work. This part has happened quicker than i thought so i have been caught short as it were.
Thorsten
One thing quite a few businesses do, (although not sure about photographers) is they re-finance their assets, ie get a lease plan on assets they have. This enables them to raise capital.
this for example would allow you have have a bunch of cash (with repayments of course) on stuff you already own, this has another benefit too you can write off the whole of the lease payment against tax instantly
It is a shame your not based closer, I have a ton of work on, not all photography but lots of photoshop etc, i might o been able to pass some your way (sub you in) but its a bit of a pain to do longer distance.
I would suggest that you join some sort of photography association, something like the SWPP (though they might not be good for the aspects you are looking for prices on), but there are others which may be of assistance, and having initials after your name could persuade some clients.
Its an awkward position to be in. On the one hand, you can’t afford to undercharge for a couple of reasons. 1. You could get caught in a “rut” of sorts where you will always be expected to charge lower rates. 2. Despite what you might think, some prospective clients could feel that if your prices are low, so is your quality. This is all down to public perception of what the job entails and has been discussed on many threads previous to this one.
If you charge the industry norm, there could be issues over the fact that you are not doing this full time and fully professional photographers have a host of overhead charges (insurance etc. ) to recoup.
One option would be to charge the going rate, but while in negotiations, and on the final invoice, offer an introductory discount. This means that you can keep your price where you want it, the customer feels that they are getting a “bonus” per say, and it should give you the opportunity to build up a portfolio of clients as well as a portfolio of work.Remember also that each job will be different, so have a basic hourly rate (include post processing in this), prices for image size and then there will be the incidental expenses (mileage etc.). Make sure to detail these on your invoice.
Fair play to you if you are managing to get some work in the advertising / commercial side of things. I have been operating for about 10 months full time and although my weddings & portrait side of the business is doing fine, I have found getting into the commercial side of things a lot tougher. I’m picking up bits & pieces, but nothing to write home about. I don’t know if this is down to price, bad luck. bad marketing, or perhaps my shots are crap !!
P.S. – Saw one of your shots in the Fingal Independent this morning. Next time, see if they will include your website in the credit.
Regards
Kevin :
Kevin
to get commercial work, its not about marketing and advertising, its about who you know and being in the right place at the right time
I work with quite a few of the agencies, and the way they work, is they have a list of photographers and they start at the top and work down to find someone available at the price, style etc they need
so to get into these companies is by using contacts and going knocking on doors and meeting them, price is not generally the first issue, speed and quality then price seem to be how it works
Yes …..its a little bit about who you know and being in the right place at the right time.
The old saying comes to mind also; “You can have it cheap, fast, high quality. Pick any two”
I also see the coment about being cheap and giving the impression that the quality is poor. I was in that trap
for a long time. Quoting cheap to get the job ……. and not getting them until one day I was asked to quote by a Dublin company. To tell the truth I would have quoted ?200ir at the time but really did not want to do the job. During the day I was talking to another colleague who does specialise in commercial work and I just posed the question on pricing.
I took his guidelines and applied them to this quotation and it made the quotation ?1700ir. Sent it off and got
the job. So companies do have an idea of what the going rate is and anything much lower is dismissed as they
feel the guy does not know what he’s at.Gerry
Definatley right
Price to low and people think you dont know what your talking about
I have a friend who had way to much business, so he increased his rates by 25% to get rid of (what he thought) about 35% of the clients. Actually what happened was the ammount of work actualy went up by about 40%!!!!!
so then he just employed two people to cope with the workload and hasnt looked back since
Agencies nearly always work on recommendations, come to think of it so do we, would you book someone for a job from an advert in the golden pages???, no. What you would do is ring people you knew and ask them who to use
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