pricing

Should you adjust your set?

No Comments

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

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

Perhaps the customer originally requested a five-year license for some business portraits 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. Or perhaps the work included a license for magazine advertising but the customer cancelled their advertising campaign.

Continue reading →

One lump or two?

No Comments

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.

Continue reading →

Photography Fees Explained

2 Comments

When estimating and pricing photography, commercial photographers base their price on the combination of a creative fee (also called a photography fee) and a licensing fee (also called a usage fee). Some photographers will list these two fees separately while others will combine the two into one number.

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

The licensing or usage fee depends on how the client intends to use the finished photography.
Continue reading →

Topic of conversation

No Comments

Why do people shop at dollar stores? Is it for the customer service, the wonderful store ambience or the quality of the products? It’s only because of the prices.

Why do people buy coffee at Starbucks? Is it for the customer service, the wonderful store ambience or the quality of the products? It’s certainly not because of the prices.

Consumers choose to shop at a particular store for a variety of reasons and price is not often the primary motivator. Instead, customers search for the best value for their money. Value is always in the eye of the buyer, not the seller.
Continue reading →

Reach for the top

No Comments

That Sears, Walmart and some grocery stores have portrait studios should be of no concern to commercial photographers. The fact that these stores do family portraits for as little as $7.99 and business portraits for $29.95 is meaningless.

Don’t worry about it.

These cheap photo stores are not your competition, unless you’re trying to do $7.99 children’s portraits and $29.95 business portraits.

Don’t worry that some other professional photographer charges $35/hour or that they give away all pictures and copyrights for $199. Unless you’re racing to run your business into the ground, this photographer is not your competition.

Your competition is the photographer who charges more than you because they have what you want.

Always compete up not down.

–Added April 2013: Sears and Walmart portrait studios shut down.

 

Split Decision

No Comments

Commercial photographers are sometimes asked if two (or more) customers split the cost of the photography licensing fee, can they both use the pictures?

For example, when a photographer is hired by a hotel to produce pictures of some newly decorated rooms, can the interior designer also use the pictures if the designer splits the cost of the photography with the hotel?

The answer is “no”.
Continue reading →

All the toppings

No Comments

Way back in my teenage years, I worked part-time at a take-out pizza store. Customers would sometimes say, “Give me a large pizza with everything on it.”

When I’d reply, “Okay, that’ll be $26.00” (or whatever the price was), the customer would gasp and quickly change to, “Just make it pepperoni and mushrooms.”

Wants and needs can be quite different when a price tag is attached.

What do you need?

A corporate photography customer recently asked for some photos of their Toronto office. The pictures were to be used on their web site and printed in a brochure. The company sent a list describing the ten pictures they wanted.

I sent a quote for about $2,800.

The customer e-mailed back and was quite shocked at the price. Why is it so expensive?
Continue reading →

css.php