The business side of photography
Many photographers fail to understand that a client’s budget determines their work. In an ideal world, it would be the other way around. But sadly, the ideal world and the real world don’t often intersect.
Don’t confuse “work” with “effort” or “creativity”. The latter two should be independent of the client’s budget. Whether the budget is $1,000 or $10,000, the photographer has to put forth the same effort and creativity.
Continue reading →
When it comes to pricing their work, photographers need all the help they can get. fotoQuote and Blinkbid are two common software tools used.
An overlooked tool for editorial photographers is Editorial Photography Estimator. The free version is still available but not the commercial version which included data for advertising photography. A new edition of the commercial version was supposed to have been released in 2011.
It’s very important to remember that Editorial Photography Estimator (EPE) is from 2001 and its numbers are out-of-date. However, the underlying concepts are still valid. Editorial fees, for both assignment and stock, are based upon the circulation of the publication and that publication’s ad rate for a full-page colour ad.
Continue reading →
The usual way for a commercial photographer to quote a job is to provide the client with a price for the requested photo assignment. But another method is to provide the potential client with a few variations of their proposed assignment along with the corresponding price for each variation.
Wedding photographers have always done this. For example, a wedding photographer might quote: $6,500 for full-day coverage plus a large album and a DVD; $3,500 for half-day coverage and one album; $1,500 for two hours coverage and an album of small prints.
Continue reading →
Sometimes a potential client will ask a photographer, “What day is good for you?” or “When are you available next month?”
The photographer should never answer with something like, “Oh, any time is good for me” or “I’m open on the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 25th and 28th of next month.”
Both of these answers suggest that the photographer is sitting around doing nothing. While this may very well be true, there’s no need to broadcast that business is slow. If a restaurant has no customers, something must be wrong with its food, right?
Continue reading →
While viewing a news web site tonight, there was a survey asking readers a question and the possible answers were: Yes, No, Undecided.
Why would anyone take the time to respond to a survey and then answer “Undecided”? It’s like a student raising their hand in class to answer a question posed by the teacher and then, saying, “I don’t know.”
Why did the survey even offer the third option? If everyone chose “Undecided”, the survey would be meaningless.
What does this have to do with running a photography business?
This past week, I turned down three jobs. :-(
Two jobs were turned down because their dates, six weeks from now, conflict with days that I’m holding for tentative assignments from another client. Two definite jobs turned down in favour of two possible jobs. What was that saying about “a bird in hand” ?
Perhaps photographers shouldn’t accept tentative jobs too far in the future, at least not without a deposit.
Continue reading →
A very long post for photographers learning to negotiate photography fees.
“Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy a better quality of misery.” – anonymous
Three important points to remember when pricing photography:
1. Never give a price over the phone. When someone calls and asks, “How much do you charge to shoot this?” don’t give a price over the phone. You need time to get more information, figure out all the details and then determine the proper price.
