taking a job ... need some help.

[IgsEMT]

true. i think i'll skip these kind of threads in future ;-) do my blood pressure no good at all.

YOU TOO

 

[gsgary]

It's funny how many people post on the forum, but never read anything.


Oh, yeah, you'll want to have a signed contract as well.

Do you mean me :blushing: thougt it was just an engagment shoot i still wouldn't shoot that many

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Do you mean me :blushing: thougt it was just an engagment shoot i still wouldn't shoot that many

You know what they say...if the pants are comfortable, feel free to walk around in them.

 

[wgp1987]

As usual people assume and think they are the all mighty of photography and try to put down those who ask a simple question that becomes torn out of context.

I have two 8gig cards so IF I WANTED TO i could fill 16gb worth of photos.

If you wish to look at some of my photos ... flickr.com/photowgp

I know how to take great photos and it is possible i cant provide the same quality as someone who has been shooting for years but will give better results then a fool with a P&S camera and i am beyond a beginner .... so i feel that with my knowledge and ability i could charge for my services and give great results. It never hurts to try ... i know for a fact that all of you are not the "photography gurus" you were when first starting so in the future just remember at one point you were in my shoes.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

So, do you have a contract for them to sign?

 

[lucypaddydog]

It's funny how many people post on the forum, but never read anything.


You are so right!

 

[Romphotog]

In my opinion, I would rather use a few 2g cards instead of two 8g ones because if one of your 8g cards gets corrupted or damaged, you lose all those photos. Compared to if you only lose one 2g card you still have the other cards.

I've heard that advice plenty of times. However, using that logic why not go down to 512mb, or 1GB, instead of 2gb? Surely, when 2gb was large people said all photos could be lost, so go with 4 512mb instead.
BTW, if shooting RAW wouldnt you fill up a 8gb pretty quickly?

 

[Romphotog]

If you wish to look at some of my photos ... flickr.com/photowgp
I know how to take great photos and it is possible i cant provide the same quality .

flowers, bees, and a crayon. ok. and how does that qualify you to take wedding photos? I sure would not hire you to do my wedding based on those pics.

 

[gsgary]

As usual people assume and think they are the all mighty of photography and try to put down those who ask a simple question that becomes torn out of context.

I have two 8gig cards so IF I WANTED TO i could fill 16gb worth of photos.

If you wish to look at some of my photos ... flickr.com/photowgp

I know how to take great photos and it is possible i cant provide the same quality as someone who has been shooting for years but will give better results then a fool with a P&S camera and i am beyond a beginner .... so i feel that with my knowledge and ability i could charge for my services and give great results. It never hurts to try ... i know for a fact that all of you are not the "photography gurus" you were when first starting so in the future just remember at one point you were in my shoes.

You should be ok then if there are bees and flowers

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

He'll be fine. He has a 5DmkII.

 

[HannahRebekah]

Hey, cut the guy some slack, there's more than just bees and flowers on there. The action shots are pretty good, so you should be fine, so long as you can deal with lower lighting well.

 

[fiveoboy01]

What does "up to" 16G mean?

Technically it could mean you're going to shoot 2G and that's it.

Regardless you said you were going to supply him with an edited version of all the files.

Just a warning, from someone who's shot 1400+ shots in 5-6 hours at an airshow... Sifting through them, tossing the badly exposed/composed/focused ones, getting the good ones narrowed down and then doing post processing is a lot of work but more importantly it takes a TON of time if you're putting any effort into it.

Keep that in mind when giving your pricing.

 

[IgsEMT]

hey, at engagements and wedding, there are flowers, you can take some GREAT pictures of those

But seriously, do you have a backup gear (owned, burrowed, rented)?

 

[Sw1tchFX]

16GB is alot of space, and after 4 hours, i bet everyone is going to be at least a little irritated, and probably hungry or thirsty. 4 hours is a long time to be shooting continuously.

Also, 16GB is alot of pictures to sift through and edit. It's like what fiveoboy said, your post production is going to take you a few hours to do if you're going to give them all the pictures edited if you're going to do more than just assign color profiles.

Based on what's on your flickr page, i bet if you really do spend 4 hours shooting and finish with 16 GB, with each file being say...35MB, you're going to be spending at least 6 or 7 hours JUST EDITING about 468 pictures...

That equates to 78 images per hour, which means you're doing really rough, minimal editing, which means you're doing at least 10 hours of work for $30/hour.


For $300, I think as a photographer, and a client, everyone would rather you shoot say..100 pictures at most, spend about an hour or a little more shooting, spend time doing sound editing, and delivering quality images to them.


Quality over Quantity.



On Monday morning, i'm going to shoot some portraits for a friend who's graduating college. I'm going to be bringing some muffins, some water, i'll arrive an hour early to scout out some places, we'll hang out and talk a little, shoot for an hour, and if it's a good day, will deliver probably about 5-10 solid pictures of her. it will be pretty modest. But it's the concept of quality, which I know she'll be more appreciative of as opposed to this run-and-gun motor-drive for 4 hours and slap together some rinky-dink color adjustments across 500 pictures and give em a disk.


It's the Craigslist scenario:

I shoot your wedding for $200, all day, you get a disk a couple days later with all the pictures on it.

$50 I shoot senior portraits for an hour, at the end of the session, i give you the memory card so you can do whatever you want with the pictures.

 

[DerekSalem]

the temptation is there to expand the offered package because you want the work.
but i wouldn't take too many photos for 300 dollars...or offer too much in the way of formats and versions. 16gigs of shots is 750+ shots (i don't know if you have a FF cam or an APS-C DSLR.) you'll have to individually appraise most of these, spend some time getting a feel for the best look, then PP the selected ones (sized for web, 100% size for print..and printables are bigger and slower to PP.) etc etc. it's all hours of your time. planning the job is 1 hour. attending is 2 or 3. appraissing is 2. test editing is 1. pping is 3 or 4. supplying the end-product is 1. chasing payment is 1. so that's potential 13 hours skilled work and associated admin for 300 dollars. then the customer says ''yes these are fine but can we have...'' which another 2 hours or something. $17 per hour isn't enough fee.

if you think in terms of $50/hour (which is dirt cheap) and you agree to spend 2 hours at the party, then the rest of the task will cost you $200 which is 4 hours work. considering admin and payment that leaves nothing left (of $300) for your editing time. take 100 pictures maximum. choose 10-15. PP and supply. that maybe take 4 hours..and extra $200. your price is light by at least $200 IMO. $500 for 15 post-produced shots including RAW masterfiles and PP'd 100% size JPEGS.

and even these costings ignore real-world business expenses (bills, insurance, transport, promotional budget, cost of tools etc). this is why professional services need to be very expensive!

I agree with some of the things you said, but 100 shots? Absolutely not. That would be a massive ripoff.

I'm a firm believer in doing your best no matter what the expected outcome. Just because he's only being paid $300 doesn't mean he should do a half-***'d job. Limiting yourself to a small number of shots purely because you don't want to spend too much time in PP is absolutely ridiculous and *TERRIBLE* business practice.

Take as many pictures as you feel comfortable with. Make sure to try to get the best composition and perspective possible...but don't feel limited in how many pictures you take. I'd expect around 200-300 pictures in a 4-hour event, but anywhere from 150-500 should be acceptable.

I've easily taken 300+ in 2 hours depending on the event.