Event photography rates
Out of context: Reply #12
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- vaxorcist0
Have you asked their budget?
Often a prospective photo client will ask a bunch of photographers "how much would it cost to do x" and X isn't too well defined, they get a bunch of highly random numbers....
If you follow various industry guidelines, your price will be WAAY more than their "uncle bob" kind of friend-with-dslr expectation....
So, if you do that, you'll have to explain WHY your rate is more than lunch money, and why you're worh it.... as well as spend a LOT of effort making sure they understand that you're trying HARD to find out what they REALLY NEED, not just what they think they need....
good luck, try not to let all this throw you off the deep end... .but lunch money clients are rarely worth it, just like in a web project....
If there are alternate revenue streams from this gig, that can be a good thing, i.e. you can charge the gallery itself X, but anyone who wants prints HAS TO COME TO YOU, rather than just print them from the files you give to the gallery., You can upload them to a web-based service like
and make money on prints, and re-use.
Make it clear to the gallery that if a PR agency wahts to use your images, they owe you the same rate they pay anyone else. This can be a delicate discussion, you don't want to sound like an asshole, but you need to get paid.