Best Business Practices for Photographers [57]
For an assignment to produce the executive portrait of the CEO for an annual report, the image may be as simple as photographing the CEO in his or her office at headquarters. Or, you could be working to create a setup on a factory floor or, say, in the instance of an environmental company, perhaps amidst the great redwood trees in the forests of California. In any instance, start with the baseline fees, add in the risk factor (is the image being shot on a rocking boat on the ocean, where you could fall in and waterlog your gear, or is it being shot in a corporate boardroom?) and then add in the time factor, which for CEOs is usually 10 to 30 minutes, plus all of your setup, breakdown, and travel times. Note that these fees do not include things that you bring, such as the lighting, cameras, computers, and so on. Although you may roll them all together into your photographer's fee and not include them as line items for whatever reason, you should still be factoring them in, whether as line items or as an all-in-one rate.
Consider next an assignment to produce still-life images of food or a new product. Many of these photographers will include in their photographer's fees the fact that they own a studio, rather than line-iteming it. I would encourage you to list this as a line item, which demonstrates to the client the value of the fact that you are using the studio you own. Listing it as a "studio usage fee" might be more honest than a "studio rental charge," especially if the client knows it's yours. If the client says, "Why am I paying a studio usage fee when you own it, like you own your camera?" the answer is, "Because the studio is not rentable to other photographers at that rate, and there is prep work that takes place before and wrap-up work afterwards when we utilize the studio."
After you've moved past that issue, let's look at the factors. Studio work can take a great deal of time, establishing lighting, small- or large-set work, pre-production, and then setting camera positions. Following that is set strike (that is, taking down large sets). Beyond that is the creativity factor, and that also includes the lighting and camera positions, of course. However, lens choice, focal length and depth of field, angle of view, product juxtaposition with other elements or a set, and so on are all big considerations.
A large production with multiple paid actors/models calls for you to be able to direct and interact with these people effectively, as well as create a scene out of thin air. You must be able to not only juggle all of the details (or effectively delegate them to a production manager or producer), but also make the magic happen.
There are countless other scenarios I could put forth, but what I am trying to do more than anything is to get you to begin to think about what your rate would be for those various types of photography. This is probably the single most important reason why—especially when you are just starting out—you need to take the information the prospective client gives you and then get off the phone, telling them you will call them back or send them an estimate after you have had a chance to think about everything that will go into the assignment. When a client says, "I need you to shoot a portrait of my CEO," or "I need you to take a photo of my new product," or "I need some photos of our company for a brochure," you need to start asking questions so you can understand exactly what you are being asked to do, and thus what you bring to the table and, in turn, what you should charge. Answers about creativity, time, uniqueness, and risk affect your photographer's fee; answers about how the photo will be used affect the usage fee; and the rest of the answers will affect your expenses, including pre- and post-production, travel fees, and so on.
In the end, you should be setting your fees to sustain and grow your business. The talent you bring to the table cannot alone be quantified by an hourly rate such as minimum wage or by trying to think about your job