Commercial photographs are in high demand because businesses of all types need them for some purpose. Calculating commercial photography pricing though can be difficult occasionally. If you have attempted to research what fees to charge for this work, you may find the various price points recommended a bit bewildering. This is because commercial photos can be required in a wide variety of situations, from editorial spreads to corporate headshots, to everything in between.
There are a few pricing factors you ought to take into account, prior to giving a quote to a client. You need to know how many photographs are needed, and how much time you will have to spend on the job. Also, you have to determine the photos’ intellectual property value.
It is best to decide on a standard fee per image, depending on the styles of commercial photographs you provide. For instance, you could have a per image fee for marketing photographs, and a different fee for photos of eCommerce products. By doing this, you will have your pricing parameters calculated in advance, so you can give quotes to your clients quicker.
The hourly fee you charge should be based on your experience level, the city you work in (for instance, New York hourly rates will be more than the hourly rates in Portland, on average), and your intended yearly income. This fee should remain consistent for all your clients, although there will be scope to amend your final quote, based on your client’s budget.
Work out the quantity of time you will need to work on every stage of the project, from beginning to end. Make sure that you apply your hourly fee to all of this time. If you are photographing fashion models, you might need to allow for additional set up time. If you are doing a glossy magazine shoot, you will probably have to allow for additional photo editing time, compared to if you were photographing staff headshots for a company website.
It is easy to calculate the intellectual property value of your photographs, using one of the free online apps designed for this purpose. Your client just needs to tell you how big they want their file to be, in terms of pixel numbers. Commercial photography pricing does not have to be daunting. You simply need to understand all the elements of a commercial photographer’s job, and what they are worth. After you have familiarized yourself with these factors, you will have no problem deciding what your fees should be.
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