Pricing - modelling head shots and advertising
Pricing - modelling head shots and advertising
Author
Discussion

DamianBlades

Original Poster:

1,935 posts

225 months

Sunday 25th October 2009
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Hi just been contacted to do Two modelling shoots and I was wondering how pricing goes?

Scenario 1.

A guy wants to become a model so needs some head shots doing.

Scenario 2.

A singer wants head shots, album artwork with heavy pshopping, promotional work and website stock.

Whats the average price for this sort of work. still have to work out how many hours it will take and maybe how much travelling but what should I ask for?

Personally I was thinking £300+ for scenario 1 and pushing £1k for scenario 2 or have I over shot or under sold myself? Money hasn't been talked about yet.

Ed_P

701 posts

299 months

Sunday 25th October 2009
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What I usually do for this sort work is to provide a written estimate for:

Proposed time on site - (x hours @ £y per hour) plus
Post-processing - (x hours @ £y per hour) plus
Mileage - x miles @ £0.40/mile

I'd add a % contingency figure too, based on the levels of (un)certainty around the commission.

I quote £50/hour upwards, with a minimum of 1/2 a day. These rates obviously vary depending on photographer "status" and location. I'm in the Midlands and £350/450 per day plus expenses has never presented a problem. Perhaps I should up my rates!

Also, you will obviously need to confirm the "deliverables", e.g. up to n full-sized post-processed JPEGS supplied on CD or whatever.

Ed ...

Ed_P

701 posts

299 months

Sunday 25th October 2009
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Also, you might want to consider how you are going to licence the images, but that's another topic!

stigmundfreud

22,454 posts

240 months

Sunday 25th October 2009
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well places in london cost around 700 to 1k for a modelling portfolio but that includes hair and make up but typically lacklustre results

Bob_Defly

5,873 posts

261 months

Monday 26th October 2009
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stigmundfreud said:
well places in london cost around 700 to 1k for a modelling portfolio but that includes hair and make up but typically lacklustre results
lol laugh

jon-

16,534 posts

246 months

Monday 26th October 2009
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With the greatest respect, if you're going to start taking money for photos please make sure you can deliver the results. From your posts here you've only got the single flash and the only model shoot you've posted were of a guy in a car park.

I'm sure you can deliver some good results off the bat, but if you want to build a reputation in your local area you need to be bang on. Perhaps consider doing some shoots for free just to get an idea of what soft of light modifiers work for what sort of photo, and to build up your lighting kit.

john185k

2,249 posts

243 months

Monday 26th October 2009
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I agree with Jon above, my first two full weddings I did for free - just to give me the experience and time to develop my skills.

Best of luck mate.

Simpo Two

92,851 posts

295 months

Monday 26th October 2009
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Well, see what you can get - the answer is in whatever they're prepared to pay for.


Here are two to watch out for:

'I can't afford to pay anything this time but I will next time, honest'.

'£100! I didn't think it would be that much. I mean, there's no film to pay for. I'll get my mate to do it for nothing'.

Everybody wants to quit their day job and be a photographer. Four years in, I feel like a veteran!

andy-xr

13,204 posts

234 months

Monday 26th October 2009
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You can always graciously decline. I do, quite often and for a number of reasons.

Some because I dont want to shoot the person, some because I dont want my name associated with what they want photos of, some because I dont have the expertise to make them look less of a pig than they already are. I'd never tell them that of course, I'm just busy that day hehe

If I was a pro photographer it'd be different, the good thing about being amateur/hobbyist is you can cherry pick what you want to do rather than doing what you have to do to pay the mortgage

Simpo Two

92,851 posts

295 months

Monday 26th October 2009
quotequote all
andy-xr said:
If I was a pro photographer it'd be different, the good thing about being amateur/hobbyist is you can cherry pick what you want to do rather than doing what you have to do to pay the mortgage
I kicked one wedding enquiry into touch when the chap said he thought 40p/mile for travel was 'ridiculous'. That told me he was liable to be trouble later on; frankly I'd rather have the week off!

Another guy worked for some kind of consultancy, the strap line of his e-mails saying something like 'Working to Motivate and Get the Best out of People'. When he asked for a considerable discount, I asked him to consider what it would do for my motivation to work really hard. Strangely, he didn't seem to understand...

Results and price aside, weddings are all about personalities. I prefer to work with nice people smile