Price for photoshooting a car?

[chrisbrown]

So, after posting my first pics in the off-topic section of a bmw forum i'm a member of, a guy liked what he saw and wants me to shoot his progression and completion of a supercharger kit he will be installing in january. i am located about an hour and a half away from where i will be shooting which means a few tanks of gas since there will be more than 1 trip. what kind of price should i ask of him? this will be my first photoshoot.

 

[skieur]

So, after posting my first pics in the off-topic section of a bmw forum i'm a member of, a guy liked what he saw and wants me to shoot his progression and completion of a supercharger kit he will be installing in january. i am located about an hour and a half away from where i will be shooting which means a few tanks of gas since there will be more than 1 trip. what kind of price should i ask of him? this will be my first photoshoot.

Find out what is generally charged per mile or per kilometre in your area and charge accordingly. Add in expenses for lunch and anything else you paid out of pocket for, related to the job. You are charging for 3 hours travel time per round trip, plus photography time plus time for postprocessing/printing or whatever. After all this is calculated, you add in and consider the use and rights wanted for the photos. Local public relations is different from extensive advertising or use in a publication that is widely distributed for example. You also should have some kind of contract signed by the purchaser related to price and use of the photos.

skieur

 

[chrisbrown]

Thank you for your reply. Good advice. I have asked for $15/hour including driving time since it is my first shoot, and added $25 per trip as it's a 160mile round trip and gas is $3.15 here. Sound reasonable?

 

[dpolston]

Chris, I have to ask you this and please don't misunderstand where I'm coming from. But do you really think this photo shoot is worth it? The reason I ask is because I doubt that I'd drive 3 hours round trip, for several trips to capture this kind of event. I'm sure that the car photos you did are good and very professional looking, but I just don't see that this is worth all the effort unless you have nothing else to do.

For me, taking client photos is one thing but travel expenses is an entire new ballgame. Especially if these photos would only take a few minutes to shoot at a time. How hard is it to take photos of an engine upgrade anyway? And I don't mean that to say that engine photos aren't technical by any means. I just think there might be other opportunities closer to you and this opportunity, although nice and exciting (because the client sought you out), might not be the portfolio "holy grail" that you think it could be.

Just think about it. I think you'd be selling yourself short on those prices and if you were to charge real money, he couldn't afford you.

My vote... pass on this one. Keep shooting, but let it go. Again this is just my opinion and I have been doing this (business) for along time. Word from the wise.

 

[chrisbrown]

I appreciate your honesty and concern. He just contacted me saying he agrees to the $15/hr. He misled me on the location of the photoshoots. He lives in Columbia, SC(where i thought the install would be) but it is actually going to be in Charlotte, 20 minutes from my house. What kind of license will I need if the pictures will be used for a magazine or a promo for the company who is installing the kit. This is my first photoshoot so I'm not too familiar w/ licenses yet. Also, could someone show me what the contract should look like?

 

[jack lumber]

Chris, I have to ask you this and please don't misunderstand where I'm coming from. But do you really think this photo shoot is worth it? The reason I ask is because I doubt that I'd drive 3 hours round trip, for several trips to capture this kind of event. I'm sure that the car photos you did are good and very professional looking, but I just don't see that this is worth all the effort unless you have nothing else to do.

For me, taking client photos is one thing but travel expenses is an entire new ballgame. Especially if these photos would only take a few minutes to shoot at a time. How hard is it to take photos of an engine upgrade anyway? And I don't mean that to say that engine photos aren't technical by any means. I just think there might be other opportunities closer to you and this opportunity, although nice and exciting (because the client sought you out), might not be the portfolio "holy grail" that you think it could be.

Just think about it. I think you'd be selling yourself short on those prices and if you were to charge real money, he couldn't afford you.

My vote... pass on this one. Keep shooting, but let it go. Again this is just my opinion and I have been doing this (business) for along time. Word from the wise.[/quote

Exellent logic dpolston, and I applaud you for sharing this sage advise.
Chris, I dont mean to take away from your photographic skills, but your friend would be better off buying an inexpensive digital p,s and take 1,0000s of photos, than paying what your time is really worth.
KEEP SHOOTING!

 

[Alpha]

I appreciate your honesty and concern. He just contacted me saying he agrees to the $15/hr. He misled me on the location of the photoshoots. He lives in Columbia, SC(where i thought the install would be) but it is actually going to be in Charlotte, 20 minutes from my house. What kind of license will I need if the pictures will be used for a magazine or a promo for the company who is installing the kit. This is my first photoshoot so I'm not too familiar w/ licenses yet. Also, could someone show me what the contract should look like?

$15/hr seems a little low if you're willing to just sign over the photos to him. I would license them for personal use but retain all publication and copy rights.

 

[chrisbrown]

He agreed to $15/hour(including driving time) + the cost of license and gas. How much should I charge for the license? He said they will be for his own personal use.

 

[Alpha]

Well then you don't need to charge any extra, if he only wants them for personal use. If that's all he wants, then that's all he gets. Stipulate in the contract that you retain copy and publishing rights (i.e. he cannot publish the photos without your permission, you get to collect royalties or payment from any publisher, etc). Make sure to go over it with him first. If he wants publication rights, then I would re-negotiate the price. You'll want to specify under what circumstances you retain rights. That is, he'll probably want to post them online, which technically constitutes publication. I'm sure that would be okay with you. On the other hand, publication in a magazine, or by some larger auto industry player online is something you would want to get paid for. You could just reserve all publication rights in the contract and ignore the fact that he's posting them online, but tell him that you will call in your tab if they are published anywhere else, per your discretion. You could also, as I mentioned earlier, specify what kinds of publications are freely permissible, and what kinds you reserve rights for. This is a safer bet, and more clearly spells out the usage rights to your client, to help reduce any confusion.

Regarding that, there's something else to consider pertaining to how your client might possibly react. A lot of people are under the impression that publishers are not willing to pay (either them or the photographer) for photos, and therefore your reservation of publication rights may get in the way of the photos being published. This is categorically untrue of any real publication.

 

[chrisbrown]

Ok. Thank you very much Max. Very detailed. I will get a contract written up. This will not take place until after the 1st of the year. I'll have some more practice put in by then..Thanks again.