Architectural Pricing - Need Your HELP

[Frank Piechorowski]

Good morning everyone.

I'm new to this forum. I was told there were a few Architectural people on this board that may give me some insight.

I'm meeting with a customer on Friday who owns a construction company here in Memphis.

They want me to go around and shoot a number of their projects around town to get images to use on their website and to have some large prints made for their office.

Now, I've shot 100's of Architectural shots over the years, but I've never PRICED for them.

What are your thoughts on how you would price a project like this. I'm not sure yet how many properties we are talking about.

My initital thoughts are, because each property may need to be shot at a different time of the day for the sun to be in the right place to show it off, my thoughts were to go by the hour, with an hour planed for each property so I can pick what hour of the day I want to shoot each property at. I'm thinking of $150/hr for each and prints at my usual print rates. How much should I charge for the web usage images?

What are your thoughts on something like this. I meet with them to go over the properties on Friday morning.

Am I thinking about this wrong?

I can really use some insight from those of you with more pricing experience.

 

[nicolas claris]

Bonsoir Franck
As always pricing is difficult, particularly for the web usage…
I guess its depends of:
- the size of the images displayed
- the number of the images displayed
- the audience of the website - this is certainly the most difficult to determine, however looking at their website will give you a good idea of how they with use your images…
- and… what idea you get they're ready to pay !-)

For the rights for usage, I never charge less than 100€ per image for one year… but this is for occasionnal clients that wish 2 or 3 images only.

May I suggest some reading such as:
http://www.editorialphoto.com/resources/estimator/estimator.asp
http://www.apanational.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3289
http://www.sethresnick.com/price/price.html

hope it helps!

 

[Frank Piechorowski]

Thanx Much Nicolas. I'll check out those sites. I want to be sure I'm at least "In the ballpark"

 

[nicolas claris]

one more:
http://www.asmp.org/commerce/digital.php

 

[Kumar Brahmajosyula]

Architectural Pricing

Good morning everyone.

I'm new to this forum. I was told there were a few Architectural people on this board that may give me some insight.

I'm meeting with a customer on Friday who owns a construction company here in Memphis.

They want me to go around and shoot a number of their projects around town to get images to use on their website and to have some large prints made for their office.

Now, I've shot 100's of Architectural shots over the years, but I've never PRICED for them.

What are your thoughts on how you would price a project like this. I'm not sure yet how many properties we are talking about.

My initital thoughts are, because each property may need to be shot at a different time of the day for the sun to be in the right place to show it off, my thoughts were to go by the hour, with an hour planed for each property so I can pick what hour of the day I want to shoot each property at. I'm thinking of $150/hr for each and prints at my usual print rates. How much should I charge for the web usage images?

What are your thoughts on something like this. I meet with them to go over the properties on Friday morning.

Am I thinking about this wrong?

I can really use some insight from those of you with more pricing experience.

Frank,

I don't know what kind of images your clients are looking for, but one hour for each property?? Are your clients looking for photo-journalistic kind of photographs or architectural photography? And pricing by the hour? That depends on where you are located, I guess, but architectural photographers tend to bill by the project plus usage.

Please look at these two publications from the ASMP:

http://asmp.org/pdfs/arch_checklist.pdf

http://www.asmp.org/pdfs/AIA_ASMP_BestPractices.pdf

Have your clients got any professional photography done earlier? You might want to check out the prints hanging in their offices now. And I'm sure they will want to use the images for brochures, competition submissions, etc. If the projects are new, there may be other parties interested in the images - the owners, contractors. So price your work accordingly. And try to avoid billing by the hour. Take the hours into consideration in your quote, but don't talk about it.

Best,
Kumar

 

[Asher Kelman]

Frank,

I am slightly worried that they may think they are getting you by the hour to hand then over the files! I may be worrying for nothing. They are obviously a big company and have hired an Architectural Photographer before.

Find out what they want and allow yourself time to present a proposal in which you will list licensing to them your pictures of the projects and a price list for each separate use.

They may bot even realize what you could do for them! For example, cartain shots might even require a budget for special crane equipment to (like the devices used to lift workers up to cut tree limbs) to elevate you way high up to get the shot you want.

You may need to rent a particular camera or back.

The extra expenses (camera gear rentals, heavy equipment, lighting etc) and fees for the shoot should be payable immediately. Then they would pay for the use of each image per your schedule.

Asher

 

[Frank Piechorowski]

Everyone.

Thanx so much for you great advice. This is exactly the kind of information I needed.

 

[Asher Kelman]

Frank,

We wish you best of luck in your meetings. Please let us know what they expected and how you deal with this. Your lessons will be good for everyone.

Asher

 

[Frank Piechorowski]

Sure thing Asher.