Yet another 'unique pricing situatuion'

Bendr

Well, I'm just starting out and I got my first 'gig'. I took photos of a 5k run(Dogs and people ) the other day, I have about 530 photos and 2.8 gigabytes.

The guy who was running the event(I personally know him)used to work with another race management company, has just broken off and is starting up his own race management company. Anyway at the event, he was mentioning to me that he would like to get a cd with all of the photos, and now I've got an email asking me how much it would cost to get a cd with all of the photos on it.

So, this is the "tough pricing situation" I don't even know a ballpark figure. I don't want to go to high, because I would like to stay open as an option for future events plus I know him. If I went by the online price of individual downloads, we would be talking in the thousands of dollars. Obviously that seems quite a bit on the high side.

I was thinking I should ask him what he was hoping to do with them, as in advertisement for his company, or personal use?

Basically I want everyone to come away happy Can anyone help me?

Art Scott

Do what feels right to you....You have 500+ pics...howmany are REALLY good....are they good enough for advertising....were they shot in jpg or raw (this to me would make a huge difference.).....if jpg what quality (high or med resolution)(again this for me would be another decideing factor).....

How many hours of post processing have you put into this? What is your time worth....

Have you ever shot a wedding or anything of this type for pay??? here is how I did things....

A small wedding was worth about 350.00 (3 hours time total + 120 - 160 photos in a nice leather album (film days).....processing time approx 2 hours at lab.....so all in all I was getting about $70/hr minus all costs...which usually left me around $60 after materials..then figuring in camera and lens...i figured it took me down to approx $40.


This should give you an idea of what to ask.....

Unfortunately for me I am nearly as fast with PS as I was in a lab with film...so I cannot figure my Post Processing time into my work as I should.........

This was my basis for pricing commerical work also

It also depends on you location...where i am located Weddings are now bing done for as low as $199 by the studios that are built into the 1 hr labs...and it is hurting the Wedding / portrait photog business severely

Hope this helps

rdlugosz

It really depends on what he plans to do with the photos. Any thoughts here?

Maybe you could get into an arrangement where you shoot the races & he makes you the official photographer for a percentage of total sales. In this case he'd be including your web info in the race "handouts" that go to the participants; you put the pics online (with a big watermark!) and people order them.

Depending on how much of a cut he wants and how much potential business he'll bring you (are we talking 1 race or 20?) you may want to take that into consideration when pricing images he purchases for advertisement. Good luck!

wmas1960

I too would say what feels right to you. In this day and age with Digital photos and the fact that they can easily be copied, distributed and transmitted through email and the net, and reproduced from the files that you give on a CD or DVD, realize that your opportunities to sell future copies will be dramatically reduced. Unlike the old days when you had the negatives and when someone wanted a reprint they had to come to you, now they can freely do any duplication themselves, and distribute copies to friends or other participants and cut you out of the loop. Pursuing your rights in that case, might become more than it is ultimately worth so, keep that in mind.

Therefore, you may have a couple options. First, when you give the copy of the CD, don't put the highest quality images on the disc. Depending on what the Client has in mind, you might consider lower resolution images in a size that is appropriate for use on a computer or for posting on the web. Say 1024x768 .jpg or something like that, of a medium level of compression. These images might fulfill the needs of the client without giving them the best, printable quality. The client would be able to email to people, make small 3x5 or 4x6 prints.... post on the internet or use as walpaper on a computer. To get full size or high quality publishable or printable copies, that would leave you in the loop for the client to still come to you for prints or higher res images and you can then charge appropriately.

Otherwise, based on what you said, and this is what I generally do now with my sports video and photography, I would figure what the time and effort was worth to you. Figure what you think would be fair and would satisfy you for the job that you performed and charge that. How much time did it take you, how complex was the setup or equipment, did you need help or an assistant or rent special equipment... Figure how much you need to charge to be worth your while.

When I distribute copies of my work, I know that once the copies are out there, my income dries up. Considering you took the pictures as a promotional gig to get your foot in a door, and for a friend, think of what that might be worth and you might discount your rate with that in consideration. Main thing is that, realize, you will need to get your full benefit up front. Once the copies go out, now in the digital world, there is an increased chance that future orders will decline as people will trade or copy among themselves. One way that I combat this to some extent, is that I hold back delivery of all copies till a reasonable time has ellapsed to get all interested orders in. After a couple weeks and I have collected all advance orders, I then deliver all orders at the same time. Experience has shown that once those copies have gone out, barring a defect or two, I have never heard another word from anyone. I have gotten one or two further orders but basically nothing. So, you need to get your full payment up front and expect to wash your hands of the entire project. Anything further that does come in, will then be icing on the cake.

wmas1960

rdlugosz also adds some good points.


Where I mentioned the thought about giving low res images on the disc, see if there is some opportunity for you to shoot future races, post the photos and sell copies to the participants. You could give the organizer of the event the disc of photos that can be used in their promotional needs, in exchange for an agreement for sales of all copies to the participants. I have not, yet, pursued the online sales systems but it has caught my interest. Posting the photos and letting people order what they want would provide you with another, potential, stream of income. When pricing your quote to the client, take that into consideration also.

Bendr

Wow! Thanks for all of the excellent points.

It's a tough call, I'm not sure how much he's expecting, hopefully he's not expecting something like $20...

Another thing I wanted to point out, is that I have posted the photos online on my smugmug page, so that people can purchase prints, gifts, and downloads.

And I did have some cards that got put in the "goodie bags" for the participants, Along with handing them to a few people who sounded interested... So hopefully I get some sales there.

Ben