Pricing on architecture shoot?

mr peas

Got a weird one here. A building contracter here in town wants shoots of their newest work, a clothing store in one of the forum shops at the strip.

I am unsure of how to price it because the representative that spoke to me states that it will not be used in advertising but used in their portfolios, which to me is a form of advertising.

Also, I think they want something similar to a 100% copyright release after the person I spoke to told me, "...don't copyright your image."

Lastly, they boasted about their previous photographer following all this criteria but would not disclose the amount of money they paid him.

I've had similar clients call me that sound like this, slightly off centered. I can't tell if they will use the images to fully advertise their company when they ask me not to disclose any copyright issues.

I feel that if I follow their criteria, I may get more work and money from them because they have a lot of new projects being finished. However, I dont wish for them to put my photos into their brochures and not be properly compensated for it.

What do you pro-dgrinners think?

dragon300zx

mr peas wrote:

Lastly, they boasted about their previous photographer following all this criteria but would not disclose the amount of money they paid him.

Then what happened to their last photographer? He prolly realized his mistakes and wasn't gonna make them again.

Here's the deal, the portfolio is advertising, that is the point of it. Always copyright your work in the meta data no matter what. It's ok to give them unlimited usage rights but they had better expect to be paying for them as well.

I'm the staff photographer (among other things) for an industrial contracting firm. I spend a good part of my time taking the photos you are talking about, seeing how they get used, and seeing the impact they have on our sales ratios.

Give them options prices on limited useage, and full usage. Let them choose. Or just give them the unlimited price up front and explain that because they want full usage of the photo this is the cost, even though they say now it's only for portfolio use, they may change their mind in the future and if they are getting full release you need to cover yourself for that chance.

Odd's are they are just trying to get it done really cheap and plan to use the photos in all of their advertising at some point.

mr peas

Ty my Nissan brother.
How is that Z32 doing now a days.

Yeah, thats what this feels like, I think they're trying to get me for cheap and use my images to go all out.

Their previous photographer, they stated, "moved to Minnesota".

I really do want to take advantage of this, but I don't want to be taken advantage of. I've dealt with crap-clients before that wanted photos for personal use and wanting to use them in online ads and what not, but are not willing to pay. Suffice to say, there's simply a lot of shady-cheap clients who think they can get away with this stuff.

Anyway, what do you think I should charge? I don't have an idea of a price range to start with.

Btw, I found this really nice site worthy of a bookmark about Architecture Photography Pricing:
http://www.asmp.org/commerce/comm_arch.php

dragon300zx

Haven't had time to work on the Z so really considering letting the parts go at this point and getting back to another one in a few years.

As far as pricing goes thats really hard to say cause I don't know what your market is like there. I know here it would depend on how many images they wanted in total but I don't see me letting even a handful (say 5) images go for full commercial copyright usage for under $500.00 (for an easy assignment). But without knowing the client, the market, and what not it's hard to say.

ChatKat

Good Timing on this thread
I did my first shoot of an interior today for a client of mine from my other business. I was very happy with my shots. We did not decide on a price except for an hourly rate for shooting. With set up and breakdown of my monolights, I was there two hours and got 75 images. I will cull them down to 20 and then we will do some PP on them with framing, adding her logo (and my copyright), and creating some vingettes of details of the space.

In a case like this, I am going to give the client full rights to use the photos - I will get some photo credit in the portfolio. I will be giving digital files (not full rez) and I will charge $75 per photo. The intended use is for website and a digital portfolio - with potential for a lot more work from the client and her collegues. I think that it's pretty fair since this was my first time doing this work.

dragon300zx wrote:

Haven't had time to work on the Z so really considering letting the parts go at this point and getting back to another one in a few years.

As far as pricing goes thats really hard to say cause I don't know what your market is like there. I know here it would depend on how many images they wanted in total but I don't see me letting even a handful (say 5) images go for full commercial copyright usage for under $500.00 (for an easy assignment). But without knowing the client, the market, and what not it's hard to say.