First Paying Gig - How much should I charge?

There is a small concert promoter who is doing battle of the bands concerts
throughout the US with finals in Denver. I walked into one of his shows
just to get some pictures and, after sending him some at his request, he
liked them and wants to hire me for another Texas show. It is for two
nights from 7PM to 1AM. I estimate around 3000 to 4000 exposures all
together. Each band will get about 25 exposures or so on a CD. There are 16
bands all together. I just walked in there to get some pictures for my
local photograpy club contests and never expected to get hired. I have no
earthly idea what to charge. This guy is probably not going to pay
professional rates (or maybe he does... I don't know - just my hunch). What
would be a fair price to charge him that he won't blow me off?

thanks,
Jiim

 

tell hime the amount of work that is involved.
4000 pics
sorting them.
puting onto cd`s
maybe printing some out. (use one of those shops that do the prints while
you wait.... cheaper than printing your own)

start at 150gbp per night = 300gbp for 2 nights. if he haggles, reduce by
050gbp =250gbp

 

I'm not a pro and don't play one on tv.

Offhand if it's a shoot and run after giving him the CD's I'd charge at
least $100 per hour (and thinking of $200), plus travel expenses with a
$750 kill fee. (Consider the venue size, advertising that he is pulling
in and so on as a barometer to what you charge).

Don't forget he's paying for:
-your time (travel, shooting, editing, burning CD's)
-your ability (which we'll assume is at least decent)
-your capital equipment
-your attendant expenses (travel, CD's)
-your insurance (whether you have it or you're self-insured)

A 6 hour realtime shoot in band-decibels is GRUELING! I did a small
college battle of the bands a few years ago... arggh.

You might price it differently according to product (each CD for $100;
max 25 full rez images per CD).

You might make it a flat fee for two nights with a kill fee.

You might consider that you retain all rights and shoot for free. You
get experience and portfolio and if any of the bands want to use an
image (albums, web, posters) you can then charge $500 - $1000 for the
image use rights.

Talk to the man and work something out. What are his expectations?

Cheers,
Alan.

 

What is a kill fee?

 

wfear ear plugs, those foam ones, AND a sound attenuating headset;
like the ones the guys wear when they are running jackhamers. and i'm
not kidding, you will be working hard and fast, noise is very
fatiguing.

 

Freelance cancellation fee.

Once you're booked you're no longer available for another gig. So if
the customer cancels you at the last minute your time can't be marketed.
You agree to a kill fee in advance. This is to avoid sloppy bookings
and a reasonable compromise if the event (or the need for you as a
photog) is cancelled.

I put that in there although it is a bit much for us amateurs to propose
to a potential client as we likely did not have other revenue shoot
potential that day/evening.

Cheers,
Alan

 

Will there be any groupies?

This may sound like a fun night out, but to me it sounds like about four or
five days of work. Going through thousands, making 16 finished CDs with 25
pics each. No matter how you to, there will be cropping, resizing, cloning,
retouching, etc.

What are you worth?

Fifty bucks times 40 hours comes out to $2,000.

Will you have a bar tab? Will it be cash? Will he take taxes out of this?
Will it go on a 1099 form, and you have to cough up the taxes at the end of
the year? Are you going to need an assistant to help you change cameras,
lenses, memory cards? Or just to keep an eye on the rest of the gear while
you're taking pictures? How much will you have to pay that person?

And again, will there be groupies?

It's not a simple couple of nights of four hours work. Travel time, motel
costs, food costs, etc, etc, etc.

Steve

 

i just did an 11-hour shoot at house of blues recently, and i couldn't agree
more. i'm a musician by trade so i'm used to high s.p.l.'s (and used to
wearing hearing protection), but being subject to it from *front of house*
for hours on end is another thing altogether. stage volume is *nothing*
compared to what can come out of a group of 18" speakers out front.

if you start shooting live music on a consistent basis, i highly-recommend
these. expensive, yes, but worth every penny:

http://www.ultimateears.com/custom/ER-25_earplugs.htm

significantly better than anything else i've ever used.

i didn't start using hearing protection until a few years into my playing
career (1989 or so), which unfortunately resulted in mild tinnitus. i
wouldn't wish *that* upon my worst enemy.

well, maybe my WORST enemy.

 

How I wish there would be groupies. If I were a good looking 25 year old,
there no doubtedly would be but I'm a fat bald 45 year old so, I guess I'm
SOL! LOL!

It's a 45 minute trip over there and I carry a bag with an f/1.4 50mm, f/2.8
17-55mm, f/2.8 10.5mm fish-eye, and a shoulder soft case with an f/2.8
70-200mm. I use all four lenses during each set and, so far, have managed
with just the one bag and the lens case for the 200.

I called one of the photographers that does work for him whose pix were on
his site to see what he charges. That may have been a bad professional move
now that I come to think of it. The guy is 800 miles away so, he's not
competition, but it may not have looked very good.