Dance Competition Photography

[Anthonykuziaphotography]

Hi all,
I am looking into some advice for pricing an event for a dance studio. I am going to be shooting 4-5 dance competitions for them. They would like to have me on site for the competition for approx 8-10 hours. I will be doing action shots during each performance for the day and uploading them to a site for parents to download. The competition head wants to offer all the parents free downloads of the action shots. She would also like group photos at the end for each studio. My question is should I charge an hourly rate? Or should I charge one flat fee and travel time etc added in? I did some research and what I could find is charging a minimum of 1200-1500 for the day since everyone will be getting their images and wear and tear on equipment. She is not looking for any editing just clean sharp action shots. Any advice with anyone is this area of photography would be helpful and pricing. Thank you in advance.

 

[jeffW]

First you need to figure out your CODB and not just the production costs for this one day but what it requires to run your business for the year. Second you really need to look through all the work required. No editing? there is always some editing time involved: downloading, culling, eliminating the bad, backing up, uploading, answering questions, etc...

"The competition head wants to offer all the parents free downloads of the action shots."
Because the org is charging the parents and wants to show value for their entree fee??? That doesn't mean you should work for less than a fair price. It also means that unless you have 100% (not 90%) coverage some parents are going to be mad - how many second shooters are you going to need to hire, what is their cost? What does your web hosting cost?

Without knowing your own CODB and more details of the project how can any number given online have any relevancy? I personally wouldn't do it for less than $5,000 is that high is that low maybe I'm adding hazard pay for being around a bunch of germ carrying rug-rats.

Point is you need to think through a lot more of the production than just showing up with a camera to delivering none edited files. And someone on the internet can't do that work for you.

 

[Designer]

My question is should I charge an hourly rate? Or should I charge one flat fee and travel time etc added in?

I'm not a pro, but I've been in business.

I would do a combination of hourly plus product (the pre-determined shots), and add in (written into the contract, of course) any extras that might crop up, such as working over the allotted time, retaking some shots, editing as per instructions, ordering and delivering prints, etc.

 

[tirediron]

Time-wise, I would be at $1000 - 1200, and maybe $20/student for product. The one thing I would not budge on is the processing. I would NOT let anything out without at least basic processing (colour-correct, straighten/level, and crop).

 

[vintagesnaps]

Get on American Society of Media Photographers - Homepage or PPA and look at their links to pricing guides. And learn about how to license usage, do contracts, when releases are needed (including for under 18 year olds), etc. etc.
Pricing Guides - ft. Licensing Guide, Paperwork Share, and more

I've done sports/events, and this type thing is a lot - a lot of work and a lot of hours. It takes a lot of experience to be able to do, and needs a lot of expertise in how to do everything involved.

This is what comes to mind that it's necessary to do -
-ahead of time set up a password protected gallery for families to access their photos,
-go early and figure out where to set up/vantage points and when and where events will happen,
-keep track during the event to make sure you've gotten every single participant,
-set up group photos having figured out where the lighting looks better (which can be iffy at these indoor events) and knowing how to arrange participants efficiently.

Usually when this is done at events there's more than one photographer/assistant/second shooter to cover it all. Very often the photographer provides the photos directly; if this studio owner wants to provide the photos at no charge to her students & their families, take that into consideration because you won't be making money selling photos/prints (unless it's set up for people to order additional photos later).

In sports these days at higher levels there's often a photo on a team's website before the game's even done, so there's an expectation a photographer can provide photos without needing post processing. But for this, you need to allow post time & work (and include that in pricing) to go thru all the photos, choose what will be provided, double check that you have every participant, etc. even if post processing is minimal. If dealing with low or uneven lighting in the studio that could mean a need for more adjustments in post.