Comments on: Knowing When To Ask For The Money Is Easy; Knowing How Much To Ask For Is Hard http://blogs.photopreneur.com/knowing-when-to-ask-for-the-money-is-easy-knowing-how-much-to-ask-for-is-hard Marketing Your Photography Business Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:53:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: calvillo http://blogs.photopreneur.com/knowing-when-to-ask-for-the-money-is-easy-knowing-how-much-to-ask-for-is-hard/comment-page-1#comment-2264 calvillo Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:10:39 +0000 http://blogs.photopreneur.com.s28023.gridserver.com/?p=80#comment-2264 Flexability is the wrong word. Predicament works better for me. There's the value of the photo, that should be based on the experience/quality a specific photographer provides as well as how the photo will impact a business's sales. Surely a beauty shot of a product that's going to appear everywhere from magazine ads to transit stations to possible tv use is worth thousands of dollars. A photographer has to pay for equipment, insurance, business licenses, studio rental, marketing and all the other costs of doing business, as well as providing for his or her retirement. Consider the increased costs of digital gear, computers, software for the new OS, redesigned lenses that can handle 20+ megapixels of resolution w/o going soft in the corners, etc. and that this necessity of updating gear even to stay close to industry standards is new with digital photography. Previously, you could use your high end 4 x 5 or medium format camera & lenses for years, getting them repaired when needed. Studio rent goes up annually, as well as insurance and pretty much all your overhead costs. Photographers have to keep pace technologically in an environment where fees are sagging & competition is increasing. A lot of this increased competition with no idea of the value of their work. You can match their low bids or watch the jobs go elsewhere. Simultaneously, the Congress is undermining visual artists by passing the Orphaned Works bill. The current copyright law is a sieve. I recently was told that though I had a copyright pending and all the documentation to prove my case, I might not be able to find an attorney because the invoice amount wasn't big enough so that the attorney's cut would interest them. If I had estimated the job for that type of price, I wouldn't have gotten it. Professional photographers find themselves in a truly challenging situation. There's more of a demand for photography forever, but in an environment where photographs can literally be had for free or very close to that describing the situation as a predicament seems apt. Juan Calvillo Flexability is the wrong word. Predicament works better for me. There's the value of the photo, that should be based on the experience/quality a specific photographer provides as well as how the photo will impact a business's sales. Surely a beauty shot of a product that's going to appear everywhere from magazine ads to transit stations to possible tv use is worth thousands of dollars.

A photographer has to pay for equipment, insurance, business licenses, studio rental, marketing and all the other costs of doing business, as well as providing for his or her retirement. Consider the increased costs of digital gear, computers, software for the new OS, redesigned lenses that can handle 20+ megapixels of resolution w/o going soft in the corners, etc. and that this necessity of updating gear even to stay close to industry standards is new with digital photography. Previously, you could use your high end 4 x 5 or medium format camera & lenses for years, getting them repaired when needed. Studio rent goes up annually, as well as insurance and pretty much all your overhead costs.

Photographers have to keep pace technologically in an environment where fees are sagging & competition is increasing. A lot of this increased competition with no idea of the value of their work. You can match their low bids or watch the jobs go elsewhere. Simultaneously, the Congress is undermining visual artists by passing the Orphaned Works bill. The current copyright law is a sieve. I recently was told that though I had a copyright pending and all the documentation to prove my case, I might not be able to find an attorney because the invoice amount wasn't big enough so that the attorney's cut would interest them. If I had estimated the job for that type of price, I wouldn't have gotten it.

Professional photographers find themselves in a truly challenging situation. There's more of a demand for photography forever, but in an environment where photographs can literally be had for free or very close to that describing the situation as a predicament seems apt.

Juan Calvillo

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