How to Price for Commercial Photography

Aug 4, 2015

Topic: Commercial Photography, Pricing & Sales
Time Investment: 7 minutes
Suggested Product: Commercial Licensing Course

 

Unlike personal portrait or retail photography, commercial photography should be approached differently.  Figuring up what to charge and quote for a commercial job can be stressful and overwhelming.  

This article is to guide the process for the best quote possible. Keep in mind while going through the steps that each job, market, and factors will be different.

 

What is the job?

Knowing all aspects of the job will help create an appropriate quote.  Commercial jobs can include head shots, environmental office photographs, and product photography.

Prior to a quote being provided to the inquiring company or client, information needs to be gathered to ensure the quoted rate is beneficial for the photographer and competitive for the local market.

Questions include:

  • where will the job occur
  • what is the intended set up
  • what is the intended use of the photographs
  • what or who will be included
  • what is the main goal of the photographs

 

What is your cost of doing business?

Your costs of doing business (also referred to as CODB or COB) are all of the expenses needed to be covered in order for you to break even.  Having this minimum amount provides a baseline for all pricing, portrait and commercial.

These expenses include overhead costs such as the following:

  • domain
  • hosting
  • utilities
  • business debts
  • rent
  • insurance
  • professional fees
  • cost of goods

The list of costs for every photography business will vary depending on business plan, geographic location, and niche of photography.  These costs will help to formulate the creative fee for the job and will be included in the quote with the license of use fees.

 

What is your license of use fee?

Now that the CODB and creative fee have been established, just to get in the door for shooting, the license of use for the photographs needs to be evaluated.

Unlike in personal or retail photography, commercial photography licenses demand a higher rate as the images are not being used for personal enjoyment, but rather, they are being used in a commercial manner.

Questions to determine license rate:

  • type of usage
  • file adjustments
  • processing requests
  • length of use
  • location of use

License rates can be provided as one rate per image or one rate per license of use for the image.

For example:

Photographer A intends to photograph head shots for a local law firm.  These are quotes for either of these two methods.

Per Image= $250 per image

Per Use: $250 per license use on image.

If Client wants to use Image A, the licenses could be broken into billboard ($500), social media ($250) and print use ($250).   Therefore, Image A would cost the Client $1000 for one image with these three license uses.

These numbers are merely for example and will vary depending upon the outcome of the job.

Whichever license rate is chosen, this amount can be folded into a project job rate and provided to the client. It is best practice to break out the rates on any invoices and outline within the legal contract accompanying the transaction. See more below on legal documents.

 

What costs does the job incur?

Costs of the job are beyond that of a minimum and creative fee.  These costs are specific to the individual client and are unable to be translated across all clients.

Costs could include:

  • materials needed to fulfill the job outside of existing equipment and materials
  • travel to location
  • request for specific image processing

Identification of these extra costs should be made prior to submission of quote and acceptance by the client; however, one can include in legal documents a provision accounting for increased fee and/or reimbursement to photographer for any extra expenses incurred in the course of the job.  This provision should have an approval process between the Photographer and client.

Always have a local attorney review and/or draft any specific provisions you intend to include in your legal documents.

 

Example of a Final Commercial Quote

Job: 12 head shots plus 10 environmental shots at law firm 14 miles from the Photographer’s Studio.   Intended use of images is for website and print use. Standard processing for the high-resolution files that will be delivered electronically via download.  Time for shoot will not exceed two hours.  If exceeds the two hour mark, a $250 fee per hour will be invoiced.

Creative Fee: $500

License of Use by Image  $250 each

Extra Costs: None

Final Quote:  $6000

Numbers are not true indication of what should be quoted. Engage in the specific calculations per job.

 

What legal documents or contracts do I need?

Every photography relationship should be governed by legal documentation and thorough discussion between the parties.  Commercial photography demands the use of legal documents as the price and stakes are higher.

The following is a list of legal commercial photography contracts needed:

 

What if the client wants copyright?

The request for copyright transfer from Photographer to client can seem absurd to many photographers, but this is not an uncommon request in the commercial photography field.

If the decision to transfer copyright is made, it may be accompanied with an agreement licensing the Photographer the right to use in marketing purposes such as use in portfolio for obtaining future commercial jobs.

 

Tools for Calculation

 


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