“What Is Your Photography Rate?” How You Can Best Answer This.
The question that I receive in my Instagram DM's or in my email most often.
"What’s your rate?"
So how do you respond?
There's no wrong or right answer, but over the years, I've found what works for me.
Potential client: “Hey! We love your work, and wondered what your rate would be for a full day shoot in May? Thanks!”
Me: “Hey! Thanks so much for getting in touch, and the kind words. I'd love to put an estimate package together for you - Before that, I need to ask a few questions tailored to you and your requirements. Please send me your email address, and I'll send you the estimate the coming morning. To give you an idea, shoots with me usually start at around $X. Thank you"
Potential client: “Great, our email address is _____. We look forward to hearing from you shortly.”
Why do I mention what my starting rates are? If someone messages, and sees that I start at $1000 per day, and their budget was $500 max, they won't bother replying to my message & would save both of us time.
The next stage in my process would be to send the potential client an email, where I ask most of these questions (unless they've already given me some info in their original message/email).
Hi _____,
Thankyou for your message on Instagram about shooting together. As discussed, before I can give you an accurate estimate, I need to ask a few questions to better understand your shoot.
Please could you let me know:
What is the total budget for photography, if you know it?
How many final images will you need?
When would you like to shoot, for how long/how many day and what date would you need the images back by?
How many products you would need shot?
What kind of post production would you require? Just basic cleaning and grading, or full retouching on all images?
How you plan to use the shot images? (ie. social media, website, POS, etc)
Do you have a mood board with inspiration images?
Any other key information that you think I might need to know.
As soon as I've received your response, I'll get to work on an estimate for you.
Cheers,
Sehaj
I very, very, very rarely go straight in with a rate. Each photoshoot, especially in Fashion Photography is so different, and has so many different deliverables, that it just wouldn't make sense for me to have one “fixed rate”. Some clients need 10 images that are graded quickly, others need 60 fully retouched images shot over 3 days. The cost of both of these shoots would be massively different to one another.
I can assure you, if you take the time to create an accurate, planned out, and well explained estimate; the client will know what they're getting, and where every penny of their money is going, and you will come across far more professional.
That’s all folks, I really hope that this article helps you better answer the next time you'll get asked: “What is your rate?”
