Photography Pricing & Negotiating

What should you expect with pricing for your business photography? What are ways you can negotiate? Here is my "cliff notes" explanation of pricing.
commercial photography pricing and negotiating

The Basics of Pricing Photos for Commercial Use

I wish I could give you one price, but wait, there’s so much entailed. A professional commercial photographer should ask you a series of questions before forming the bid/estimate.

They will take into consideration what’s needed and how long it will take to do the shoot.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a clearcut answer. Commercial photographers vary on their day rates, and sometimes their day rates are also a different price depending on the size of company you are.

Being in the industry, and seeing what photographers have talked about for their day rates, day rates can be seen as low and cheap as $1000, and as high as $5,000 for those “famous” photographers who are typically have a photo rep.

In addition to the photographer’s day rate, there is pricing for image usage. This is a varied answer, and for insight on what to expect for pricing for photos, you can explore the articles on Rob Haggart’s Aphotoeditor website

Elements to a Photography Estimate

Here are some other prices to add in for your photography budget:

  • Director, producer
  • cost of talent/models
  • Cost of models attire
  • Hair/makeup artist(s)
  • Cost of location rental
  • Photographer’s assistants
  • Prop stylist, food stylist (highly recommended!)
  • Cost of props
  • Retouching
  • Equipment
  • Photographer’s equipment
  • Travel
  • Lunch
  • Image retouching

There are likely other things that might be seen in a bid, but these are the most common elements that you’ll see.

What to Negotiate on?

Talent/models – for companies on a very tight budget, you could also use your own staff who would be present to be models, if needed. This is not the best route to go, because they’re not professional models with patience and skill, but if you feel confident that you or your team member would be a perfect fit for the image, this will work.

Image usage – maybe you’ll only be using this image for two years, and after that it will be outdated and irrelevant. In this case, you don’t need to invest in an “image buyout”

Photographers assistants – while photographers have their ultimate, best assistants, maybe your shoot would not require a lot of production or extra hands. This is a decision made by the photographer, because they know best. But if you communicate with them about the level of simplicity or complexity of the shoot, then they might be able to source an assistant who has a lot lower rate. That assistant might not know the in’s and out’s of the photographers gear or mindset, but at least there will be an extra hand dedicated to helping the photographer.

Retouching could possibly be done by your team, or by the photographer’s retoucher.

Hair/makeup of models – if the model’s face will not really be close or recognizable in the images, then a hair or makeup artist might not be as critical. For people with long hair which might still be visible in the images, you still would need to make sure the visible part of the hair looks good, because hair can be one of the most difficult things to fix in Photoshop.

There are more items on a bid that could be negotiated, all it takes is just a discussion with the photographer. But, don’t come across as unreasonable or too cheap! Having all of these elements in place in your quote means that the photographer cares about every detail to create the images you need.

headshot of ling messer commercial photographer

Meet Ling, the photographer

Connecticut native. Idaho graduate. Previous Oregon resident. Cowgirl-turned-photographer.

Story-telling photography business owner since 2013. Videographer since 2018. Photography with artificial studio lighting or God’s sunshine.

Wife, dog owner, and friend of many dogs and people.

Have an upcoming project for a client? Let’s chat. Whether it’s Zoom, phone, email, or in person over wine or coffee, I’m game. 

~

Ling Messer

hello@lingmesser.com

860.245.1738

See my latest videos on my new Youtube channel!