Camera Labs

Hi,

I'm doing a small job for someone soon and need to know what sort of price I should go for.

I've never really done anything like this for money but i'm doing some commercial pictures for my Uncles Coffee Shop website.

He needs 6 images for his website, i'm not sure what to charge though.

I'm thinking of buying a Canon 50mm f/1.8 to do the job with - which will be a lot better than my current lenses. I was hoping to get my money back on it so I'd need to ask about £70 for the job - is that reasonable?

Thanks guys,
Jack

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Jack McIntyre
17, NE England, Student.
Canon EOS 350D + BG-E3 - EF-S 18-55 F/3.5-5.6 - Canon 70-200 F/4L!.
www.imagetwist.co.uk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackmcintyre - Wildlife Photostream

Hi Jack,

£70 for 6 images (digital for web use) is on the top end for an unestabilised photographer. I'd be suggesting half that because of the following factors: 6 images doesn't take very long to fill - you'll probably end up taking <100 photos of which you should have little workflow after the shoot. And the cost might not be justified if you don't have a calibrated monitor for sRGB.

If in doubt fall back on being paid for time: £20-50 per hour is the usual ballpark OR get quotes from local photographers and use those as your estimates.

I hope this helps, and good luck.

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Nikonian

http://www.edtangphotography.com
http://journeysintophotography.blogspot.com/

Big Bump!

I've nearly finished this job - been out on two trips and overall there are around 18 images.

I'm still unsure what to charge - its quite a big job and I was there for a few hours each time working around all the customers.

I don't want to charge him a large ammount since he is my uncle and I still want a relationship with him afterwards.

Any advice?

_________________
Jack McIntyre
17, NE England, Student.
Canon EOS 350D + BG-E3 - EF-S 18-55 F/3.5-5.6 - Canon 70-200 F/4L!.
www.imagetwist.co.uk
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackmcintyre - Wildlife Photostream

Better time management.

The reality in your example is that the amount to charge will be disproportionately low to the hours you put in, and I think you know this.

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Nikonian

http://www.edtangphotography.com
http://journeysintophotography.blogspot.com/

You can't charge him for the extra hours you needed because you were inexperienced. As with everything the first time you do something it'll take much more time than the second time. The third will be faster still etc. etc.

If I were you I wouldn't charge him anything. Tell him you appreciate him giving you the opportunity to do this and that the only thing you would like is him to spread the word that you are available for photography jobs. But only if he really likes the result and thinks the quality of your work is good enough so he feels comfortable recommending you.

And then I would end by remarking with the right amount of subtlety that if of course he would feel compelled to make some kind of contribution towards the cost of the lens you purchased specifically for the job that then it would seem impolite to refuse such a friendly gesture.

I wouldn't be surprised if you would get more out of this job with this approach than you had hoped for.

Ben
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When in doubt..... Press the shutter.

I'm about to take some pictures for a webpage soon too, and my plan was to charge ~5£ a photo plus transportation payed if i need to travel. I think thats a pretty fair price considered that im new in the game.

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Jake

Canon EOS 400D + EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS + EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS + EF 50mm f/1.8
My Photos - My webpage (danish)

Ed is bang on here as usual.

The first job I took was a huge one, I earned well over £600 as I recall but it took me 2 full days shooting, a couple of days to select the right images from ~4000 shots, several days preparing them for contact sheets, several days final editing once the orders were in .... As you can see my hourly rate was appalling, however when I do the same shoot early next year I will be much more confident in my work so will probably only need to be at 2 of the events if I choose. My work flow will be greatly improved so will take less than 1 day rather than over 1 week and I possibly have an extra job out of it as there's an additional show this year.

Weigh up your options, feel glad that you have a new lens that you only had to pay ~£35 for (that's a cheap lens by any standard), ask your uncle for a link to your website if you have one and if not ask for an email link to try and get you additional work.

If the images are good and your uncle doesn't mind ask him if you can submit them to a microstock site, they could then go on to earn you some more money - it really depends on whether he minds the images possibly popping up on other peoples websites etc.

Congratz on your first paid job!

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EOS 5D | EOS 40D | 28-80 L f2.8 - 4 (took a swim) replaced with 24-105 F4 L IS USM | 70-200 L F2.8 IS USM | 17-85 | 70-300 | 100mm USM Macro | 50mm 1.4 | 50mm 1.8 II | 2x Extender | 100mm Macro USM 2.8 | 3x 285HV Vivitar Flash | Cactus V2s Wireless Trigger system | 430EX

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