Business Portraits On Social Media

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Want more proof that business portraits are important?

A 2012 eye-tracking study showed that the number-one thing viewers look at on LinkedIn pagse is the person’s profile photo. There’s no reason why this behaviour might be any different on other social networking sites.

This study [link to PDF], produced by a LinkedIn competitor, examined how professional job recruiters viewed online résumés. The first thing recruiters always noticed was the profile portrait and it held their attention for about 19% of the total time spent on page.

This can be bad news or good news.
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Photography Pricing Resources

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Here’s some resources for learning to price commercial photography. But I’m not vouching for any of these. A photographer would be foolish to base their business practices on numbers from someone else’s web site. Use these for informational purposes and to help understand the underlying principles.

— The News Photographers Association of Canada Cost of Doing Business Calculator (CODB) is a good place to start. You may be surprised at your CODB.

— The Canadian Association of Professional Image Creators has a PDF listing suggested minimum usage fees (i.e. licensing fees only). Main page > Useful Resources > Resources > Reproduction Fee Schedule. The site has other useful information.

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What’s For Dinner?

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

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 for 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, didn’t know what pictures they wanted, and didn’t know how the pictures were going to be used. But she needed a price as soon as possible.
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Should You Adjust Your Set?

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The photo assignment has been completed and the finished pictures and invoice have been sent to the customer. But the customer’s plans have changed and they now want to reduce the usage or even cancel it altogether.

Should you, the photographer, reduce the original license fee and send a new invoice?

Perhaps the customer originally requested a five-year license but their plans changed and now they want only a one-year license. Maybe the customer initially wanted a license for sales brochures and web use but now they’ve decided to go web only.
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One Lump or Two?

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In the previous post, it was mentioned that some professional photographers will list their creative fee and licensing fee separately while others will combine the two fees into one number. Which method is better?

Combining the two fees:

• Some customers find a single fee easier to understand.

• The client doesn’t know how much each fee contributes to the total. This allows the photographer more wiggle room if they have to negotiate the creative or licensing fees.

• The client doesn’t know how much each fee contributes to the total. The photographer can benefit when relicensing the picture since the client doesn’t know what the original license fee was.

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Photography Fees Explained

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A commercial photographer sets their price by combining a creative (or photography) fee with a licensing (or usage) fee. Some photographers list these fees separately, while others combine them into one total.

The creative or photography fee depends on the assignment’s complexity, the time required, the photographer’s talent and experience, and their business overhead.

The licensing or usage fee depends on how the client plans to use the finished images.
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Sales tax for Canadian photographers

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For Canadian professional photographers (and other business owners), the federal government has published a brief GST/HST guide and a sales tax calculator. The calculator is titled “GST/HST calculator” but the results will also show provincial tax.

Current sales tax rates (these may change):

British Columbia: 5% GST and 7% PST

Alberta: 5% GST and 0% PST

Saskatchewan: 5% GST and 6% PST

Manitoba: 5% GST and 8% PST

Ontario: 13% HST

Quebec: 5% GST and 9.975% QST

New Brunswick: 15% HST

Nova Scotia: 15% HST

Prince Edward Island: 15% HST

Newfoundland and Labrador: 15% HST

Yukon: 5% GST and 0% PST

Northwest Territories: 5% GST and 0% PST

Nunavut: 5% GST and 0% PST

In British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec, the provinces which have both GST and a provincial sales tax, each tax is charged on the retail price only (i.e. there’s no tax on the other tax).

 

Please check the date of this article because it contains information that may become out of date. Tax regulations, sales tax rules, copyright laws and privacy laws can change from time to time. Always check with proper government sources for up-to-date information.

 

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