charging rates and signed usage agreements?

[Kamakazi]

Hello Everyone,
I have been a hobby photographer for a few years now and have very recently decided to whole-heartedly dive into creating a "business." I have a few clients already lined up, however, I am a little iffy on a few (rather important) things.

There are very few photographers in my area (very small town ND) and I honestly am unsure of what to charge for a shoot and final images. I am doing 3(ish) hour shoots and providing 30-40 final images on a personal flash drive.

I also feel as though having clients sign a "usage agreement" would be a smart choice. This simply would state that the client has rights to use the images giving that they will not alter the images in any way.

So my question for you all is, what is your practice and would you be willing to share some examples of your usage agreements and rates (either on the thread or in a private message, I understand that some people may feel private about that sort of information).

Thank you in advance!

 

[tirediron]

First and foremost, I rarely sell digital files to retail clients and when I do, they pay through the nose for them. In order to determine your rates, you need to figure out your costs; this includes hard costs such as insurance, fuel, 'phone bill, etc and soft costs such as projected equipment replacement, and similar things which will cost you money, but don't have a fixed, definable cost immediately associated with them. Add to this the amount of money you want to put in your pocket and divide by the number of shoots you intend to do in a year... presto you have the amount of money you need to charge per shoot.

FWIW, for three hours on-site, and 30-40 images on a flash drive, I would probably bill out at about $2600.00.

Because I rarely sell digital files, my normal usage is simply a line on the bottom of the invoice which states that I retain copy and usage rights, and the client may not copy or alter the images.

Where I do give away digital files is when I'm doing TF* shoots for personal projects, working on new lighting or concepts, etc. For that I use this:

1. This is an agreement between <Name> (‘the photographer’, DBA “<Business Name” in <Location>) and

___________________________________________ (hereinafter ‘the model’), and applies

to images created on ______________ at _____________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________( hereinafter “the images”).

2. The model consents to the use of the images, by the photographer in any legal manner and at his sole discretion and without consultation. The model agrees to hold harmless the photographer and his assigns and to waive all claims to the images, and any rights to compensation from their creation, sale or use. It is understand and agreed to that some of these images may be used by the photographer for marketing and business promotion purposes as well as peer review and or published or displayed for other purposes.

3. The model will be provided with high-resolution, fully retouched digital copies of those images which meet the photographer’s standards (typically but not guaranteed to be one image per pose, and between two and six images per session). The model may use the images for non-commercial purposes, but must not alter them in any way except for minor cropping. The photographer retains copyright to the images.

 

[KmH]

Can You Make a Living Doing Photography?

Photography businesses don’t fail because their images aren’t good enough. They fail because the photographer didn’t take the time to learn how to properly run a business.

The first thing you need is a business plan. A well researched and written business & marketing plan is how you determine if a new business has any chance of working.
How To Build A Business - Business Planning - North Dakota New Business Registration

If you're charging money to provide a service both your town and the state are likely to require that you register your 'business'.
The state will want you to collect and forward to them all applicable sales tax they are due, and you would be subject to use taxes too.

John doesn't charge as much as I did, but basically I needed an average sale of $1500 per hour of shooting for my business to just break even.
If you don't have a studio, only shoot part-time, and have business management experience you might be able to keep a photography business operating and pay yourself a small salary with an average sale of $400 or so.

Note too that pretty much 75% of a retail photographers time is usually devoted to doing business management tasks. In other words, only 25% of a retail photographers time is available for actually doing photography and photography related tasks.

Business skills like accounting, marketing, salesmanship, promotion, and having some experience running a business is more important than having photography skills to keep a retail photography business going.