While the internet is primarily used for initial review of a portfolio, most commercial clients (or photographers hiring assistants) also want to see a print “book”. It’s an effective way to view a photographer’s attention to detail and presentation. I show a few examples of the portfolios we use but there are other styles to choose from. Unfortunately, I no longer remember where we purchased our particular cases but Dick Blick Art Materials is a great resource if you’re looking (search for “portfolios”).

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As I’ve mentioned a few times, I then write down our conversation in the form of a written estimate, complete with numbers and (very importantly) a description of the work to be done. By giving them a detailed estimate I’ve shown them how I intend to solve their problems. Also, if the parameters of the job change (and they often do) then there’s something to refer to, a baseline for the job that can be modified. I wish I had fully realized the importance of this when I was first starting a photography business.

The estimate is also important for me, it’s how I mentally walk through the job beforehand and begin the process of problem solving. It’s always easy when the new client describes their needs: “I just need you to come down here and take a few pictures and email them to me”. Sounds great, just pull a number out of a hat. It might be easy to agree to a fee of, say, $500, since it sounds so easy.

In order to write an accurate description of the job you’ll need to find some answers. It’s important to know the who, what, why, when, where and how of what you’ll be photographing. Here are a few important questions I ask any new client to help qualify them and assess their needs:

1. How did you hear about us? If it’s a referral then I can relate them to the needs of the person that referred us. Like-minded people generally communicate with one another. Plus, it shows the effectiveness of any marketing we may be doing.
2. Are you currently using a professional photographer? If they answer yes, then it’s assumed they understand the basic process of working with a photographer. If they answer no, then there may be more education and hand-holding involved.

3. This is an important one: do you have any existing photography I can view? They will often point me toward their company URL and I’ll take a look while the client is on the phone. I’ll ask what they like or don’t like about the photos. If they’re looking for higher quality, that’s great to hear. If they’re happy with their present quality and it doesn’t look so great, then I may assume that price is what they’re shopping for.

The most important thing for me when engaging any new client is realizing that I’m there to help them solve a problem. They need photographs and they’ve called me, so I’m thankful. I do my best to listen and fully understand what they need. Sometimes they know what they need and sometimes I have to guide them. The most important thing after the conversation is getting it all down on paper, so everyone has the same understanding and expectations.

Clear communication at the beginning of a job goes a long way toward achieving a happy ending.

Last week I referred to Blinkbid software and how it greatly aids thinking through a job. Here’s a screen capture from the soon-to-be-released new version. How ’bout those numbers?

Most of our clients come to us by way of referral. What’s the best way to market yourself? Do a good job every time out and the referrals will come in. Many of our new client relationships begin with a phone call they’ve placed to us, often in a hurry and under a deadline. They need photography, need it quickly and were told that we can get the job done. Our instincts are to respond quickly to help them out but we need to slow the process down enough to make sure it’s done correctly.

The client, though, may be pressuring you for a price on the spot. “Just give me a ballpark”, they say. I hardly ever give out a ballpark price. I respond to this request in one of two ways:

1. “I need to talk it over with my business partner, we always work together on this part of the process. Let me have your email address and I’ll get something down in writing and have it to you by noon. ” The beauty of this is that you don’t actually need a business partner but this can buy you the time necessary to think things through.
2. The other thing I may say is “pricing is all done through my software, I need to run the job through it to get the numbers together. Why don’t I do that and email something to you in, say, an hour?”.

This approach works 99% of the time, buying the time to ask proper questions, think things through and get something down in writing. If they absolutely, positively, must have a number at that very moment, I can pretty much assume that their major concern isn’t quality, it’s pretty much all about price. You may want to get your foot in the door with this client and be willing to do the job inexpensively in order to get future work and, hopefully, to raise your prices. This rarely pans out. If you do try to raise rates down the road they often just go back to their list of photographers and find the next person willing to work inexpensively. Just be aware of this going in.

Agreeing to a rushed price also often leaves the photographer backed into a corner. If you’ve ever taken photos as a favor then you know what I mean. When you do get on the job it can change and the client begins throwing curve balls and change ups. Once I’m on a job I don’t like to discuss money, I prefer to concentrate on photography. A well written estimate allows me to do this, even if the job appears simple at the outset.

In the “can I charge for that” post I talked about the basic charges our studio has for commercial work. Different charges for creative fees, file processing, delivery of images, crew, etc. Matthew B. asked if new clients ever balked at seeing this laundry list of charges. Yes, they sometimes do but I feel it’s necessary to give them a detailed estimate, especially when starting a relationship with a new client. They often don’t know exactly what they want or need and I help point them in a certain direction, based on experience.

Next week we’ll look at the questions we ask a new client in order to determine their needs and come up with an accurate estimate.

I want to say that I used to struggle with creating estimates and remembering what to charge for until I began using Blinkbid studio software. Blinkbid helps me create estimates by storing all of the potential item charges and providing me with a list that makes this process much easier. If you sell your photography and need to organize the estimating / billing side of things, download the free trial of Blinkbid and give it a whirl. Plus, they’re really nice people and are extremely helpful. Personal service means a lot to a studio like ours and we appreciate what they do.

As for actual prices to charge for commercial photography, one of the best resources is FotoQuote. They guide you through a number of questions to help determine what fair prices are for your photography and specific usage.

Keep in mind that we do modify this list for various jobs and different studios have different ways of charging. This is really to provoke thought and to show that many steps are involved in putting together even a simple shoot and that all of those steps do have value. This outline is for a relatively simple shoot: say, a day spent shooting 6 interiors in an office building.

FEES

• Setup Fee – this could also be called pre-production fees. This is the cost we’ve put into answering questions, creating an estimate, and packing the equipment up to take on location. Basically, the planning and preparation costs.
• Scouting Fee – did we make a trip there to scout the location? This has value.
• Creative Fee – the cost to create the photographs. In commercial photography we avoid using a “day or hourly rate” because there are intangibles we bring to certain jobs that add value. Reducing it down to an hourly rate gives the client an incentive to cram more shots into a certain time period, not a good thing for commercial photography. For that reason we separate time from value when estimating and billing creative fees. We’re not there to fix something that’s broken, we’re creating something new, and that needs to be taken into consideration. I will say, though, that knowing your cost of doing business and the income you need to generate in a day is needed to understand pricing. This is a big topic for further exploration another day.
• Digital Capture Fee – sometimes we charge a nominal fee, $1 or $2 for each capture taken during a shoot. On most shoots this is built into the creative fee. If the client seems at all disorganized then this fee goes in to deter them from having us shoot a million needless shots because they are ill-prepared to make a decision. It takes time and money to organize all of those files.
• Usage Fees – what are they using the photographs for? If it’s for web use only then this fee is smaller than if it is for web, brochures and billboards used worldwide. If the images are used widely and are seen by more people then that makes them of inherently higher value. As we provide photography of higher value, we should be compensated for that higher value (as explained on the ASMP website).

CREW

• Digital Assistant – only one assistant will be needed on this job. They used to be called “first assistant” but the job responsibilities go way beyond that now since the assistant handles the computer and file organization, also.

DIGITAL

• Digital Web Gallery – an html web gallery from the shoot is created and posted online for the client to review images.
• Digital Image File Prep – once the client has made their photo picks from the web gallery, we process each file out from RAW for a flat fee per file. This includes basic spotting and color-correction.
• Digital Post Production – charges for retouching, outlining and compositing, sometimes charged per hour and sometimes per specific service.
• FTP File Transfer – delivery of the final files to the client via FTP. In the past we had CD / DVD burning and delivery charges, now it’s mainly via FTP. We either upload to their FTP site or ours, providing a password protected folder containing a .zip file(s) of images for download.
• Archiving – we no longer charge for archiving a client’s files, though we used to, since there are costs involved in maintaining such an archive. Though we have backups for everything we no longer guarantee that service and that’s why we eliminated the charge. Less liability that way.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Meals – lunch
• Phone / Fax / Cell – a basic, small charge to remind clients that these things need to be paid for
• Travel – depends on distance

That’s the basic list. Along with Blinkbid software and FotoQuote, these books are my go-to resources for determing business practices and pricing:

• Pricing Photography by Michal Heron and David MacTavish
• ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography.
• Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington

- Jim T.

I’ve probably mentioned before that it’s much easier for me to make a purchase decision for my business than for myself. A business purchase must go through pretty defined justifications, including (primarily) return on investment (in other words, making money). By looking at the numbers I can decide whether it’s worth it or not worth it to purchase that new camera. For personal decisions it becomes more about the fun factor, then I bend and twist the numbers however possible to justify the expense. Hey, I’m just being honest here.

Recently, I’ve watched a number of young photographers start their own part-time photo businesses. I see how difficult it can be just starting out. Take wedding photographers, for example. Wedding photography is a large market and it supports many photographers, which is a good thing. The large number of photographers migrating to shooting weddings has increased the competition, though.

Three years ago it seemed marginally acceptable to shoot a wedding with a Nikon D70. Then the D200 came along with greatly improved low light capabilities and it was a “must have”. Now we have the D300, which has amazingly low noise at higher ISOs. So every year it seems to be in the best interests of wedding photographers to upgrade their camera equipment. There’s no reason to believe that will end any time soon, especially with Sony rolling out their full frame 24 megapixel chip this fall.

There’s also the “Uncle Bob” factor, the wedding guest that comes along and wants to show you his (more expensive camera than yours) camera. So while it’s a competitive race that I, as a commercial photographer, am not quite as immersed in, we’re all involved in the chase.

Also realize that a new camera is part of a technological chain including software and computer hardware. What peripheral costs will be involved when upgrading a camera? Will you need new software that runs best on a new computer processor? A $2000 camera upgrade may end up costing $5000 when all is said and done. You have to decide if it makes more sense to eke out another year from your present camera or if it’s time to buy. Would you feel better with that money in your pocket or with the pleasure of having a nicer photographic tool to work with? If the camera will upgrade your end product, allowing you to charge more, then it will more readily pay for itself. Or if it makes your job more enjoyable that may justify the cost.

Here are a few random lessons I’ve learned when making business purchasing decisions:

1. Quality lenses are one of the best investments you can make. They should last through many generations of cameras.
2. If you’re starting a business, figure a way to start out as inexpensively as possible while still purchasing quality products. That way, if it’s not working, you can get out of it easier or change the course of direction. The world is changing rapidly so build in some flexibility.
3. Make sure business purchases fit in within your “big picture”. Will the purchase continue to serve a purpose, even if you advance to something better? Is it part of an expandable system?
4. Continuing education, learning to use your tools better, is always a good investment, regardless of whether you have the most expensive tools or not.

I’ve been more profitable as a business by adhering to the above…it took me a while to learn, though. Time and experience are always the best teachers.

Today I’d like to share a letter from a reader. Questions like this are always welcome and they give genuine purpose to what I hope to accomplish with prophotolife.com. This young man is the future of the profession…

Hi, my name is Matthew,
I’m 17 years old, and a Junior in High School.
I’ve been taking Graphic Editing and Graphic Design classes for a few years, and photography has caught my interest. I love cameras, I think they’re incredible. I started saving up for a Canon Rebel XTi, and I should have the money for it by next week. I’ve been using an old Canon full manual film camera for the past year, and I’d like to know what kind of classes / college I should be looking into. I’ve been looking into Portraiture, and it seems interesting, but commercial photography seems to be where I could make a career. I’ve been talking to my counselor about a couple colleges, but none of them seem to catch my interest.
I’ve been watching your videos and you give some really useful advice.
How long have you been interested in Photography? What college did you attend?

The fact that you are planning this far ahead bodes well for your future. I’d like to be concise with my responses but that’s a lot of ground to cover…it’s all very important ground and they are all great questions.

Random Photo School Assignment Q: How much light does it take to fill in shadows and add detail under a shady deck? A: The back of this house received only partial sunlight and was a nightmare of harsh shadows. In this case a 4,000 watt second Norman power pack with strobe head was used under the deck and another 4,000 watt second Norman pack with strobe head was aimed directly onto the house for fill light. Mother nature provided the rest.

I picked up my first camera at 16 years of age and it’s probably safe to say we’ve had similar initial experiences with photography. At that point, for me, it became a life-long passion that turned into a profession.

As for college, I never attended school beyond graduating high school in 1982. As the son of a truck driver and a coal miner’s daughter, my upbringing in rural West Virginia pointed more toward hard work than continuing education. This was at a time when college wasn’t a necessity in the photographic world. As a matter of fact, for commercial photographers it was more like a craft where apprenticeships (photo assisting) were recognized as a common point of entry. A year after graduating high school I packed my motorcycle and headed to Columbus, OH, with $20 and a determination to become a photographer. Looking back now at the past 25 years it’s been a great journey that has ultimately led me to my current business, Daylight Photo.

Today, though, I feel a college education is a near necessity to make it as a commercial photographer. Now it’s vital to understand digital technology, software, computers and post-production. In the fast pace of today’s world there’s not as much time to learn these things “on the job” and technology is constantly evolving. This makes college more important than ever.

As for recommending specific schools, it’s hard to pinpoint just one or two. For a list of top photography schools visit this great resource at photopreneur.com . They concentrate on sharing business information with photographers and have some very helpful articles.

I will throw out some school names, though. When I was younger the two most recognized sources for a commercial photography education were the Brooks Institute on the west coast and, undoubtedly, the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York (the home of Eastman Kodak). They should still be considered near the top of anyone’s list. One of our photo assistants attended the Hallmark School in Massachusetts and received an intensive, practical ten month commercial photo education there. I must say he really learned his stuff in this “real world” based educational environment.

Being located in Cincinnati, OH, we’ve hired talented graduates from OIP&T (Ohio Institute of Photography and Technology) in Dayton, OH, and they have all arrived with very practical skills and a well-rounded understanding of what is required. My studio makes the occasional presentation at OIP&T and their students are always welcome to visit Daylight Photo (hey, Dave, when are you bringing the next group by?).

I also have an advisory position with one of the schools on the photopreneur.com list. Currently I serve on the advisory board for the photography school at Antonelli College, located here in Cincinnati. In our bi-annual meetings I get to see all sides of the photographic education question. We all (photographers, educators and students) are doing our best to adapt to quickly changing times.

Random Photo School Assignment Commercial photographers don’t look at this and see a window, they see dozens of surfaces (different textures of glass, many cut facets and shiny metal). The basic techniques for lighting glass were used here with four monolight strobes providing the light.

So, with that all said, where should you go to school? If you want to make a happy, sustainable career out of photography it involves more than just having great photo skills. If the school concentrates only on technical skills, for example, that might not be adequate preparation for the real world. These are the questions I’d ask of any photo school:

• May I speak to recent graduates? What are the student success stories?
• Will I be receiving a degree that might translate into other job opportunities? A diversity of skills is becoming more highly valued.
• Do you have a healthy co-op or internship program?
• Do you offer an integrated approach to evolving forms of electronic media? Looking forward, I believe photographers possessing the most commercial value will also understand how photography integrates into evolving forms of content delivery: the internet, video and audio.
• Are there business-specific courses, including business ethics?
• Do you have a personal relationship with national and / or local chapters of professional photography organizations? Do you work closely with the professional photographic community?

I’m sorry I can’t tell you where to go to school, Matthew, but I can try to tell you how to start thinking like a professional photographer (do you know the story about giving a man a fish and feeding him for a day or teaching him to fish and feeding him for a lifetime?). I’d also suggest looking at this list of professional organizations and contacting local photographer members, asking them about school information that might be specific to your geographic area. You’ll find most members are helpful when they aren’t too busy to respond.

As for the Rebel XTi, it’s a great little camera, Canon is a wonderful company dedicated to helping professionals (and budding professionals) and it comes with really nice software (DPP), right in the box. What’s not to like? Just be aware that they’ve already come out with the next model, the XSi, with some new features. The XTi is being discounted now, making it an even better buy than before. New camera models help keep the economy churning. It’s hard for me to personally keep up with what’s going on so sites like photographyreview.com are great resources for camera-specific information.

Thanks again for the questions, I hope this has been a help. If any other readers can help Matthew out I hope you’ll leave a comment.

And welcome to the world of photography! Keep us posted…

- Jim T.

]]> http://www.prophotolife.com/a-letter-from-a-reader-decisions-decisions-about-a-photo-education/feed/ 8 http://www.prophotolife.com/what-they-might-not-teach-in-photo-school/ http://www.prophotolife.com/what-they-might-not-teach-in-photo-school/#comments Wed, 12 Mar 2008 12:00:40 +0000 Jim Talkington http://prophotolife.com/2008/03/12/what-they-might-not-teach-in-photo-school/

If you’ve read all of the business responsibilities sections and are still with me then it’s obvious you really want to be a professional photographer. There’s no way around it, if you’re going to survive (and thrive) in business then you have to understand how business works, whether you’re running a bakery or a photo studio.

All of this learning doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a process. My particular process has involved a lot of mistakes, I readily admit. I’ve taken chances and made some bad decisions, things I’m lucky to have survived. And I’m still learning and taking chances and, occasionally, making bad decisions. But that means I’m learning and am in the game. You can’t win if you’re not actively in the game.

The full title of this entry is “what they might not teach you in photo school (or what you should have paid more attention to, if they did)”. The title leaves this particular entry ripe for tips and tricks about Photoshop, establishing pricing or getting new clients. I can think of lots of beneficial tips but those will come shortly. Right now we’re still in overview mode (tomorrow is the last entry for the ‘six keys to success’ overview).

Instead, I want to talk about setting goals and expectations for your career. Realize that many people would like to make a living in photography. A surprising number seem to think it’s going to be easy. Here’s my official statement on the state of professional photography (you’ll hear me say this often):

As a professional photographer with 20+ years of experience, I think it’s easier than ever to make extra income with photography. There are tools available that make it pretty darn accessible for most anyone to start a part-time portrait or microstock photo business. But, truth be told, I also think (and this is my opinion) that it’s more difficult than ever to make a truly good living in photography. There aren’t a lot of full-time staff photographer positions and many photographers are competing for the ones that do exist. As a result, more and more photographers are deciding to start their own business, either part- or full-time.

If you are one of the entrepreneurs ready to start your own business, really look at where you want to go and diligently research the steps necessary to get there. Are you prepared for the fact that it might not be easy? Are you willing to study, learn and put in the work necessary to achieve your goals? I’m confident that you are. Why else would I spend my free time writing about this?