2nd shooter pay

Qarik · February 5, 2010

curious on your thought on this. What do you pay your 2nd shooters?

1) assuming they are rather new
2) assuming they have a bit of experience
3) assuming they have a lot of experience

The Mack · February 5, 2010

Qarik wrote:

curious on your thought on this. What do you pay your 2nd shooters?

1) assuming they are rather new
2) assuming they have a bit of experience
3) assuming they have a lot of experience

I have a great 2nd..
He gets $100 per wedding and dinner/lunch/drinks before/after on me.

zoomer · February 5, 2010

If my daughter does it I pay her the same $5.00 an hour she always gets for helping me (she is 15 now...may need a raise).

People who contact me wanting to second shoot to gain experience I do not pay. I have never used more than 2 or 3 of their shots to actually give to a client. What is that saying about a blind squirrel....????
I have never searched out a second shooter to hire.

If a person is second shooting to gain experience I wouldn't worry much about the pay. Experience gained would be the pay.

For a second shooter with lots of experience that you have hired and you expect to have contribute a significant number of shots he would probably expect to be paid some percentage of the wedding fee, 15-20% would probably be reasonable.

Kevin Kramer · February 5, 2010

My wife is my 2nd shooter.. she's free! haha. I actually treat her to an awesome dinner for being an awesome assistant.

Whenever I have downtime though, I'm always looking to 2nd shoot. I hate not doing anything with a camera on the weekend.

jeffreaux2 · February 5, 2010

$50...ish per hour.

Regardless of experience.

A lack of experience doesn't make it any less work.

My teenage daughter has helped me....but doesn't shoot. For her....usually $100 for her help. (gear guard.....moving light stands...dragging gear around for me)

tenoverthenose · February 5, 2010

jeffreaux2 wrote:

$50...ish per hour.

Regardless of experience.

A lack of experience doesn't make it any less work.

I'm closer to this amount. I pay what I'd like to get paid.

Matthew Saville · February 6, 2010

jeffreaux2 wrote:

$50...ish per hour.

Regardless of experience.

A lack of experience doesn't make it any less work.

My teenage daughter has helped me....but doesn't shoot. For her....usually $100 for her help. (gear guard.....moving light stands...dragging gear around for me)

However a lack of experience means I don't hire that person in the first place, usually...

Personally, I don't need "assistants" to carry my bags or fetch lenses; I mostly just need extra eyes, talented eyes to capture the candid moments happening elsewhere when I'm busy with the main moments of the day. So, I only ever "hire" people who have already shot with me a lot, and whose work I can trust, both for technical quality and artistic value. For 2010, I'm paying 2nd shooters $350 for up to 8 hrs.

=Matt=

The Mack · February 6, 2010

damn, I should come shoot w/ you lol

2nd shooter pay

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