Photography: Hourly Rates
- Started
- Last post
- 7 Responses
- dan_dan_dan
I'm being asked more and more to pull out my equipment for small personal assignments--I need to start organizing my rates. What are your rates like? $175 an hour (hour minimum)?
- SirLawrence0
we don't have that. Cuz we seldom have a shoot that is done in anything less than a day. We use day rates, ranging from 1000 to 1500USD depending on usage of studio space or not.
for us it is the only way to assure we make money of it, as you usually spend more time setting up and testing vs taking the actual picture
- dan_dan_dan0
Thanks SirLawrence. You're right, it is hard to bill hourly since it takes 1.5 to 2 hours in before any quantifiable results.
Does anybody work an hourly rate + like a 1.5 or 2 hour minimum.
- ConceptHue0
Yup. I agree. Don't forget your travel expenses, etc. There is a lot of setup and work before the actual shoot that goes on.
If you are going to do it by the hour, make sure the first hour is more.
- dan_dan_dan0
I appreciate the response ConceptHue.
- caulfield0
don't cheapen yourself. Terry Richardson doesn't work for less than 200k, and that's just for getting the clothes off some girl under 18.
How easy is that?
- Visia0
yeah, I would even say that 1K is pretty low.
Day rates range anywhere between 1K and 150K.
- SirLawrence0
ours do not include material, and the studio usage is sorta limited, cuz we just have a set up in a spare room.
most our projects are on location, interior photos, that sort of thing. For these we ad travel expenses and all that.
Basically, clients think photography is pushing a button. While for some celeb photographers that is the case - may start a new thread here - you need to take in account lighting set up, test shots, backgrounds, composition testing, etc. all before you push the button for your 4x5 or 120 film.
Keep your expenses separate too = you will shoot much more then originally planned for. We once had this location shoot at an office, and were talked into 'quickly' making some extra pics of the CEO's brand new beamer... for free - no? If you base a sot list per photo (expenses) you can more easily obtain the additional costs. If your client understands that there is a difference between a shot and a photo that is ;-)