Pricing

[jazzodin]

Hello everyone, It's been awhile since I've posted anything but I'm back. A few months ago I asked your advise about how to go about getting into product photography. You guys gave me some great advise but unfortunately I haven't found a photographer who is willing to teach me anything without paying them an arm and a leg. So I've been slowly working away on building a portfolio and practicing as much as I can. Without warning in the last week I've been asked to shoot 2 products, which is great but my question is what do you guys out there do for figuring out a quote? Do you just use a base hourly rate and go from there? I realize there are alot of factors that are at play here but these are fairly straight forward shots on a white background. I'm not to worried on how to shoot them or light them I have all the lights and know how for that.....I'm just unsure of what kind of formula to use for coming up with a fair price for doing product shoots. Any thoughts or advise would be greatly appreciated.


p.s. I've been trying to shoot a perfume bottle and I'm having a heck of a time with the highly reflective cap on the bottle. It's a highly polished metal cap and it's like a mirror. I keep getting my own reflection in the cap. I've tried everything I know...even used a 70-300 lens so I was way back and sure enough if you zoom in you can still see me. How the heck do I stop this.

 

[bigtwinky]

I cant say much on pricing other than keep in mind the liscence for image use. Do you give them 1 year, life time,...? Charge accordingly.

As for getting yourself out of the reflective surface, the times I have used a light tent, there was a door that I could attach to the front and would zip closed and allow for only my camera to peek through. Are you using a tent or just some table top setup?

I know there are things like dulling spray that might be able to hide that reflection. I know it works for shine...

Krylon | Dulling Spray | KR1310 | B&H Photo Video

 

[LearnMyShot]

Cosmetics are tricky with reflective surfaces....get lower than the cap so it reflects over the camera and put a black card there so it sees the black and add your highlights on each side with white cards or tissue....take a look at my videos, it will give you some ideas

 

[alencooper]

So I usually events and pictures, but I have a gig through a friend for an introduction to select some product shots I shoot on the brink. It's basically a list of shots to 100 bottles in his shop looking for. His other work (and it looked like) and was curious if the product shots I did as well. Shots (hard only white seamless background, 1 softbox and maybe blow out the background so it is more important than a little) but it can not have 100 bottles. I usually shoot people and was curious. As soon as people charging / additional / images / event vs. product shots for less? My initial instinct is that even if I calculate the hours I should shoot. I'm sure if I reduce my rates since I recently moved to Hong Kong people really do not know what should I'm not here as well. Sounds like photogs here at the U.S. market due to the small size of charge. My initial impression about $ 500-650 for the job charges. Basically I am envisioning work about 5-8 hours (most likely) to shoot and process photos.</span>