[vievetrick]

Local contractor is building a website. He is not he has hired someone. Actually someone I know and have done a couple of things for in the past. The shots will only be used for the website. I figured it out to be about 200 miles round trip to all the sites he wants shot. I have a couple of question or more like opinons or what have you done.

Milage I am thinking when coming up with my figure I should factor at least $.50 a mile.

I am stuck on price per hour or per picture?

Really I figure this will take I could be wrong but think about 8 hours start to finish. That includes drive time.

They also want me to do more work for them over time. Meaning they start a new job I go out get some before shots and then maybe during and finally after. So I am thinking anything I set for pricing will be something I will be using going forward.

I don't know any other local photographers I can ask or that would tell me what they charge.

I have read a bunch of other "What to Charge Threads" and all involved hard copie shots this is again website work so once shot I can upload and send off to the webdesigner.

Any help thoughts or comments appreciated.

Oh I live in the USA in Western Massachusetts.

Thanks in advance

[alohadave]

Don't lower your price because it's for web use, and not print. They are paying for a service, and that service is your time and expertise.

You can charge by hour, half day, or day rates. If they are going to pretty regular customers and you'll be travelling, I'd figure out a half day rate plus travel, and if you work eight hours, it's two half days to charge.

[vievetrick]

Thanks Dave. check your PM

[George Lama]

FYI - the IRS dictates what you can charge/get reimbursed per mile driven for work. In this case, you're already planning on undercharding. Per the IRS guidelines, the current standard mileage rate for business use is $0.55 per mile.


IRS Announces 2009 Standard Mileage Rates


I agree with Dave on charging for your service - that's the first thing you should do. You always want to get paid for your work first, then bill them for the usage of images once they've selected them. Whether they use 1 or all of them, you've already been paid for your efforts.



Here is a really basic outline of what I do for this kind of work:

1. Discuss with the customer what they will need, necessary details, etc so as to put together a proposal.
2. Determine what to charge for the service (travel, shooting time, post-processing time, related expenses, plus the per hour fee I typically charge). If this is an on-going job, I could suggest a contracted fee for the whole job instead of piece-mealing it.
3. Provide the customer with low res/watermarked online or print proofs for them to chose which images they want to use.
4. Bill the customer for the use of images they selected, provide a limited copyright release for said images, and deliver a CD with full quality images as requested by the customer.
5. Don't forget to charge tax where applicable. Never, ever forget to charge tax.

There are other details to consider, including what your limited copyright release will allow them to do with your images, but that's something you can work on once, then use it for future gigs.

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Last edited by George Lama; 05-02-2009 at 08:49 PM. Reason: The Tax-Man Cometh!