First paid job - What to charge?
First paid job - What to charge?
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Discussion

Super Slo Mo

Original Poster:

5,374 posts

227 months

Wednesday 15th August 2012
quotequote all
I know it's been raised before, but I've had a quick look through the search facility and can't find anything about it.

I've just done my first paid Stills job (I'm a TV man usually), which is a fairly simple although not particularly inspiring request for some shots of the inside and outside of a distribution centre.

The snag is, although I know what I'd normally charge for a day's work in television, I've no idea what the going rate is for photography. Can anyone help?

The shoot plus the editing time will probably add up to less than a day's work, maybe only half a day depending on how long the editing takes.

I was thinking of either charging my normal (TV) day rate (around £320-£350, ex VAT), or dividing that by 10, and making it an hourly rate based on roughly how long it takes, assuming it's less than a day.

All ideas welcome.

Phunk

2,097 posts

200 months

Wednesday 15th August 2012
quotequote all
It totally depends what you are doing and where you are in the country.

For example, In Glasgow we have loads of idiots on Gumtree offering to do weddings for free / £50. So the realistic max I can charge for a wedding in Glasgow is £600.

Simpo Two

92,708 posts

294 months

Wednesday 15th August 2012
quotequote all
And how good you are/track record/portfolio.

Super Slo Mo

Original Poster:

5,374 posts

227 months

Wednesday 15th August 2012
quotequote all
It's a big corporate client of ours that we regularly do training/promotional/ego massaging films for at several thousand quid a go.


tog

4,949 posts

257 months

Wednesday 15th August 2012
quotequote all
There's a rough guide to fees on the NUJ's website. They say these are minima, but some clients still seem to think it's far too much rolleyes

Link

MartinP

1,275 posts

267 months

Wednesday 15th August 2012
quotequote all
Your TV day rate would be very cheap for corporate photography, IMO thats more like a half day rate.

Didn't the client ask for a price before you did the job?

Super Slo Mo

Original Poster:

5,374 posts

227 months

Wednesday 15th August 2012
quotequote all
Truthfully, they don't seem to care. They'll pay whatever I charge, but I don't want to seem to be overcharging, as there's a lot of work in the pipeline (both film and stills).

Thanks for that Martin (it's interesting, I might pursue the stills aspect a little more), I'll probably stick with my TV day rate for now, since we generally charge a 'day', since it's pretty much impossible to get two half days in Telly from two different clients. If we get more work out of it, I'll review the charges, obviously I don't want to undercharge since that does no one any favours.

jcosh

1,245 posts

261 months

Saturday 1st September 2012
quotequote all
MartinP said:
Your TV day rate would be very cheap for corporate photography, IMO thats more like a half day rate.

Didn't the client ask for a price before you did the job?
Agreed!

Super Slo Mo

Original Poster:

5,374 posts

227 months

Saturday 1st September 2012
quotequote all
The only snag is that I don't have the track record or portfolio to justify the rates you're talking about, I'm also based in North Staffordshire, and £6-700 a day is not really going to cut it.

Anyway, all told including editing it took me 5 hours or so, so I charged it at just over a half day (since we consider 10 hours to be a normal minimum day). Client liked the photos and was happy, so there's a lot more in the pipeline, plus of course, the usual film work we do for them.