One of my photographer friends, who’s heard my per-image pricing rant for years, got burned (again) using the outmoded day-rate/hourly rate system.
Unless you are photographing a time-locked event, hourly rates don’t make sense in the digital age.
So my friend told me, with a long face, that his longtime client demanded that he lower his price by $30 per hour or else they would outsource the work to India.
Although the art directors were not in favor of this action, based on poor results in the past, they knew the agency owner would do it in a heartbeat. So, my friend lowered his rate.
The client arrived a few weeks later for their regular two-day shoot. My friend usually doesn’t hire an assistant for the job due to the low rates. An assistant would be helpful since there is a lot of prep work for each of the products. This time the agency brought an intern to help with the shoot.
The photographer was pleased to have the support. The intern prepped all the products. All my friend had to do was light and shoot. They got the job done in a day.
Unfortunately, because he works hourly, he not only lost $30 per hour due to the agency demands, but he also lost an entire day’s worth of work. Why? He placed the value of the shoot on his time rather than the images.
Photography is much more efficient in the digital age.
I had an assignment during the same time period. We actually had to divide the studio space to accommodate both shoots. My shoot was much simpler: 35 metal parts on a white background. I got my assignment done in four hours (not including processing) and I earned six times as much money.
My client didn’t care how much time it took. If I needed to spend more time, I would have done so. I was on a roll and the light was landing just the way I wanted it.
I even took additional, detailed images that they loved and purchased. It didn’t faze them that they had to pay more because they saw the value in each image. Not only that, they sent more products to shoot because everything looked so good.
The sad reality is that most companies don’t place much value on your time. Honestly, minimum wage is too high for most companies. To suggest that your time is valued at $1,500 a day or $125 an hour is not going to fly. This is especially true if companies are not used to working with photographers. What can be justified is the $75, $125, $200, or $300 spent for each beautiful image created, which ultimately helps the company sell more products and services.
Retail clients think the same way about your time. I’ve had people looking for wedding photographers wonder why photographers can’t just work for $20 an hour like the rest of society.
Place the value where it should be: on your images. You never know, you just might make a living.
Rosh
Tags: clients, dayrate, per images pricing, photography per image, photography pricing
Wow I’ve finally found someone who agrees with me. I might even go a bit further. I mostly shoot portraits and I don’t charge for a sitting, unless there are special props or assistants needed. Clients pay higher rates for the pictures and they only pay for the pictures they like. It’s a riskless proposition for them and it keeps me on my toes. They often come in wanting one single picture but when it comes to the viewing they buy several.
You are right on. I even shoot weddings this way. (when I shoot the rare wedding)
Rosh
Very interesting post. I agree totally, it’s better to price your art (product), than your time. I often do this with portrait sessions.
Excellent. It applies across the board.
Two things support this:
It is natural to try to rush whomever is paid by the hour (think :your plumber) my photography suffers when I rush, I really do value the ability to stop and think instead of praying my reflexes are sharp at all times.
Hourly might be smart for one type of job ( I had a ongoing series for a hotel chain that consisted of many different shots, some took hours to set up, some just seconds) BUT from then on the client always expected me to work on an hourly basis. I don’t know if it is just me but I always feel the client making sure I’m not wasting his time so I do a lot less testing. I hate “how many pictures can you do in an hour?”
I do (in my mind) kind of figure out what I should be making in a day and use that figure to divide into the number of shots and all to often factor in the clients ability to pay.
Excellent point about rushing the photographer. You are absolutely correct.
Time is absolutely apart of the calculation, but that is an internal number for sure.
I always do this with our weddings. I guess the main difference being that the client pays for how many pages they’d like…. we already pre-design them so they have to choose the pages they don’t want….. as you can imagine this is certainly very profitable!
The system can be applied my ways. Great example.
I was thinking of doing sessions on an hourly basis (thought of the undesirable pressure) but have been shooting per image to begin with. My clients have said they wanted 4 or 5 images but have ended up purchasing more than that! Thanks for your article supporting this…I definitely won’t go hourly for this kind of photography!
Ree,
Good comment. I’ve found 80% of the time they purchase more. It more than makes up for the few times people fewer images.
Rosh
Photographers really make big money especially if they have fantastic portfolios, but they must learn to market the kind of business they are in at the same time learn what their values are.
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Rosh,
can you offer any more e-resources on learning more about this pricing system and or are there any online available samples to view ?
thanks for the great post
Matt
Hello Rosh
I must be the exception to this rule. My experience with per image pricing has always bitten me in the butt.
In the past a client has me quote on 20+ items to shoot but when I arrive out of the blue I hear. Well turns out we really only have 3 items not 20+
If I quote out for a half day or full day and they come up short they know this and realize it’s they blunder and they have to eat the cost. Usually though, when I quote out for a full day, I hear, well we said we had 20 but really have 30 or 40. We shoot all day, and then go into over time or even a second day
For me to do a per image quote, I would have to add in a minimum charge… just in case
Von
Hi Von,
@Matt I have a couple more postings on the topic, but I can’t think of a good resource other than some of the ASMP materials. Anyone else have thoughts?
@ Von – I’ve found in some cases, especially when I have out of pocket expenses I will include a minimum in the estimate and contract. Usually below what they request.
If it is twenty shots, I’ll say min 15. So if they show up with 3 – I still make the rate for fifteen and the rest of the day off. At worst I have a number to negotiate with. But, if they show up with 40 products we all win.
There are as many options as there are companies and you have to take them one at a time based on your gut and experience.
Rosh
Just had this work in my favor last week, and it’s not the first time. Someone I’ve done work for previously said he needed two images of something. Not a big deal, and it was very close to me. All in all I went out, got the images, and was done in an hour including travel time. Processing took maybe 30 minutes. Out of what I took, I showed four for him to pick from. He bought all four. This wouldn’t have changed the amount of time I spent shooting, but on the end the job paid twice what I expected. Can’t argue with that and going forward can’t imagine any other way of doing this.
Great example Chris.