What’s for dinner?

Over the past three weeks, I received four inquiries for corporate or commercial photography services.

One request was: “We need a photographer for a conference in Toronto. We don’t have all the details yet but we need your price asap.”

The second: “We are a construction company and we’re looking to have professional photographs taken of an upcoming project. Could you please provide a basic outline of your pricing and what it includes.”

The third: “We’re looking for a photographer for tomorrow from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM. What do you charge?”

The fourth request, to cover a corporate event, included only the date, time and location. When I phoned to ask for more information, the public relations person said she couldn’t give out any details, she didn’t know what pictures they wanted and she didn’t know how the pictures were going to be used. But she needed a quote as soon as possible.

All of these requests are like asking a restaurant: “What do you charge for food?”

Like a restaurant menu, photography services can be almost unlimited in possibilities.

Commercial and corporate photographers need to know the who, what, where, when and why of a photo assignment because they all affect the price.

The cost of a restaurant meal or a photography service depends on:

• Restaurant location (downtown hotel or roadside diner?) =  location of photo assignment.

• Level of quality and service (high end or fast food?) = production value of photography.

• Talent and creativity of the chef = talent and creativity of the photographer.

• Food ingredients required = photo equipment required.

• Amount of food = number of pictures requested.

• What meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner?) = what pictures (portraits? products?)

• Purpose of meal (casual lunch? anniversary party?) = picture usage.

When contacting a professional photographer to inquire about pricing, it’s important that the customer has as much information as possible about what they want. If not, the photographer will have to ask the customer a number of questions to help narrow down the menu.