What to Charge for Commercial Photography
Don’t charge what YOU think it is worth, charge what the client thinks it is worth.
A photograph of a truck hauling a brand new piece of equipment to a drilling site in East Texas.
No, it is not an amazing shot, and I will not be submitting it to any awards shows. It won't hang on my wall, or even grace the pages of my portfolio.
But I was paid $4500 for the photograph.
Because I AM WORTH IT?
Oh hell no.
Because it was worth it to the company I shot for.
This shot was important to them.
They needed to have me on site for over 6 hours because the exact timing of this delivery was impossible given the traffic and roads in that part of Texas. The location was fairly remote, with the crew on deadline. The truck would arrive and I would have exactly 5 minutes before they started unstrapping the gear.
In the oil business, time is money.
There was no redo of the shot. None of the other drilling sites in the area would give permission for the image to be done there and this rig was in the perfect area for the photo to be done.
Hours and hours of planning had been done in order to coordinate the delivery. They got the best and newest truck they could get, and they made sure the trailer was painted and in good condition. I had to do two shots (this angle and from the crane end), and they had to work. Period.
It was raining with snow flurries and the temp was hovering around 28 all morning. I was able to figure out the angles of both shots., get some markers ready for the truck to park between, and do some preliminary shots to test the lighting. At least what lighting I was afforded.
While I was there I shot a few more images around the site and learned a lot about the oil rig life. That is one of the perks of this job. (Those images would bring in an additional $1200.)
I had worked for this company for about three years and they knew this about me:
I never let them down.
I worked hard to deliver the images they wanted and more.
I was easy to work with and billed fairly.
I can shoot to la layout. (Note the empty area in front of the truck… Logo and presentation copy, baby.)
I always found a solution to whatever they threw at me.
I liked Texas — and the amazing BBQ.
There are a lot of photographers in Texas that could have done this gig They really didn’t have to fly me to San Antonio, put me up for three nights, pay for my meals, and take their time to chauffeur me around.
But the shot was worth it to them.
This was a big campaign to sell very expensive equipment leases to drillers and rig managers. Each sale would result in nearly 3/4 of a million bucks.
We had gotten all the beauty shots a few weeks before, but this shot was needed to round out the presentation and they wanted it to be included in the next pitch.
So… it was worth it to them to pay what probably came to $6500+ to bring me over to shoot it.
If they did not need this particular and specific photograph, they would not have commissioned it at all. (And no, Unsplash wasn’t around then. But then there is no way you would ever see a shot like this on Unsplash. It is not sexy, beautiful, or unique.)
I had built my reputation up with them to a point where they trusted me to get that important shot.
But it was the value of the shot that gave it a price point that they could get behind.
It is hard to measure our own “worth” (insert Wayne’s World incantation here…). What does it even mean, really? Perhaps we should consider it actually to mean what is our PERCEIVED value to the client?
The lovely young lady above is Christina. I shot this photo of her in Mexico as part of a calendar project for which I was receiving a moderate fee. Since the calendar was a spec project by the client, they were very careful with the budgeting and I understood. I also will say that I was happy with the medium pay rate. Never take the gig if you are not happy with the fee.
Previously I had shot her for our portfolios, a shoot where no money traded hands at all.
These “free”, or “test” images were instrumental in getting a gig for a travel agency that wanted to use her face in a travel brochure. She was going to be featured prominently as a ‘section guide’ page and they loved the soft hair and natural look that my work has always strived to contain.
This shot paid triple the entire calendar shoot.
Because I was worth more?
Because Christina was worth more?
Because they somehow thought that I was worth more?
Because it was Thursday?
Nope… because the value of the image was the fee charged to the client. They knew if it sold two or three more packages a month than having a mediocre photo it would pay for itself in a matter of weeks.
The value was in the image.
And what it could do for them.
Free images for our books, moderate pay for a calendar, great fee for the travel agency.
Same model, same photographer, same camera… none of that changed.
What changed was the value to the end-user. In the case of the portfolio shoot, we call that a test and the value is in Christina’s time and my time working together. In the calendar shoot, they didn’t know if their calendar experiment would work, so they had a lower threshold of risk.
Knowing what the JOB IS WORTH is more than some wondering what WE are worth.
In reality, if we charged what WE are worth… they couldn’t afford us.
Not one of us.
Keep shooting and I hope you are all prepared for the Holidays coming soon.
2022 will be the year WE make it out to be.
Make yours a good one.
Here are two additional articles I think you may enjoy.
Portrait Photography: Keeping the Subject in Motion
The Road: Image 23, Williams, Arizona
You can find me at www.dongiannatti.com and www.project52prosystem.com
