furniture shots, how much would you charge?

I was just asked to take 5 shots of different furnatures with some
accessories in it. How much would you charge for a single shot? Also can
anyone suggest equipments for this? maybe two 420ex flash and an st-e2
transmitter on the cam? please advise

what i have:
canon g3
420ex flash
contax TL30
tripod

 

Anytime I have done Furniture shots, it usually involved a 4x5 Camera, a lot
of Umbrellas and a lot of Polaroid's, because the client usually wants
the colors and textures to be very pleasing. If you have never done this
before I suggest you take one piece of furniture at home, try and photograph
it, to get something that looks like what you get in a flyer in the mailbox
everyday. Then after you get something nice like that multiply the time it
took you by about 5 times, because you will probably be going somewhere else
with all of your equipment, setting up, taking down. And then when it is all
done I hope you have a good custom lab who will get the color right for you.

Every time I get asked to do a job like this I start them at about $125 per
hour plus expenses. If they don't like that then they do not know what is
involves and at the end of the shoot everyone will be dissatisfied. I bet
you can count on every shot taking 1 - 1.5 hours after you are setup so I
guess you are talking about $200 per shot plus expenses.

I never like working for any client for whom cost is the biggest factor in
hiring you, so go for broke.

Good Luck

 

Maybe with my experience $75-100 is enough? I still have like 500 shots to
shoot for them on another project so i really dont wanna
charge them at a regular professional amount. Are you still charging them
for equipments you already have?

In a different project, how much would you charge for a shot at an ITEM if
it takes you 10minutes to setup? I am using a digicam so
lab processing isn't involved. Shots i take goes directly to my laptop for
editing and organizing.

Thanks for the Valuable info (you'll be getting a check soon hehee)

 

I guess you have to decide what it is you want to do, with your photography,
nothing takes 10 minutes to setup.
It takes the time to get there the time to get home and it is all your time
which if you really want to do photography the only
way it can be paid for is from the client. If you really want to just see
yourself published somewere then put some pictures
on the net.

I don't know what it is about photographers and artists who value there time
and talent so little, perhaps just because we do what
to do our craft so bad we will do it for nothing. Would you expect to call
the plumber and have him work for so little and say to him
well your tools are allready paid for. I don't think so.

My experiene in photgraphy is you probably won't make anything on the 500
shots iether and after the first 50 it will just be work.
If the client does not appreciate what goes into a good picture for the
first 5 then he isn't going to learn with 500.

I kind of have a standard line now, when clients are more concerned about
price, I tell them to look in the yellow pages and start calling around.
What they will find is commercail photogs who are in business, because it is
a business, and are probably charging what you really need to to
replace equipment, keep up with technology, run a business and eat. I do
photgraphy as a sideline because I enjoy it, but I also charge as much or
more
than some of the pros. I don't want to be driving the prices down, and I
have expensive tastes in equipment.

I got this lesson from a client once, Molsons Breweries, they were doing a
tent card of a glass of beer to sit on a table. He wanted one 6x7
transparency. This was about 20 years ago so when he asked me for a price I
said $400. I thought that would be an easy evenings work.

He said no couldn't accept that. he was looking for an $800 shot and would
be happy to pay that. He explained to me that he had a 20,000 budget for
the project with printing and everything else, his boss wasn't going to
thank him for saving $400 on the starting point and not have the best shot
he could get. He knew better than me what was involved, frosting glasses, to
get them just right, trying to get a head of beer to stay up just right, but
not run over the glass, keeping fingerprints off and etting beer to glow
from inside. I got the shot he wanted it was a lot of work, and we all went
away happy and he came back for more. Like I said if money is why people
choose me I don't want to be chosen. I'll just go back to work on the line
at Ford.

 

Thanks for the great wisdom. I'll keep this post for sure
..I think i have given them something they really like
because when i compared my work to a professionally done catalogue that they
had, minewas a bit better. I made it as my standard and improved it a bit.
Right now I see this as a learning experience but i will keep your advises
in mind for sure. Not just in photography but for every other career i
choose to pick. BTW if the client asks to pay for the equipment will they be
the owner of it? I plan to tell them i will pay for the equipments but will
ask for more rate. I wanna keep it thats why.

 

If I might be so bold, I'd like to jump in and add a thought or two. The
initial question was how much should you charge for "furniture shots" and my
answer would be "the same as you charge for any other shot."

In other words, for commerical work the hourly/day rate shouldn't change
whether you are shooting a chair, a grapefruit or a tiger. You and only you
know how much you need to charge per hour/day of your time based on your
location, expenses, etc.

The only thing that should change are your "expenses" which will include
assisstants, misc. rentals needed just for this job, disposables used for
this job. They should be supplying their own stylist and art director.

Hope this helps.

Jerry

 

I guess i wont tell them how much the work is until i fire test shots and
time myself?