Architectural Photography

[Gigi1]

Hi all,

I don't know if this was asked before, but basically someone just called me and wants me to take pictures of industrial buildings that he's painted. Both interior and exterior shots.

I've never really done shots like that, mostly a portrait and events photographer, so I was wondering what's the going price or even how does one charge for that? Per building, per room, per shot used etc?

Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[mshockley]

Years ago I had an electrician need shots of buildings they had done. Needed night shots of fancy lighting, etc on industrial and commercial buildings. I knew they wanted to use the shots in their brochures and marketing materials.

I sat down and calculated a cost for the entire job. I took into account all expenses and my hourly rate to try and come up with a quote for them.

I am guessing your client wants to also use the shots for some sort of advertising, and I think you need to take that into account also when setting your price, but I'm no expert in this area. I'm sure others will be along to give you some good advise on pricing.

Just something to get you started thinking about.

[lonni]

I always charge per hour then per high res or web quality image and give a quote saying between x and y hours so they have an idea about what the job will cost.Its fair for both parties.

[wri7913]

Originally Posted by mshockley

Years ago I had an electrician need shots of buildings they had done. Needed night shots of fancy lighting, etc on industrial and commercial buildings. I knew they wanted to use the shots in their brochures and marketing materials.

I sat down and calculated a cost for the entire job. I took into account all expenses and my hourly rate to try and come up with a quote for them.

I am guessing your client wants to also use the shots for some sort of advertising, and I think you need to take that into account also when setting your price, but I'm no expert in this area. I'm sure others will be along to give you some good advise on pricing.

Just something to get you started thinking about.

You also need to consider what they intend to use it for as well. Their end use will also change the price slightly. I use fotoQuote to get a general idea of some of the costs involved related to how they want to use it for advertising. It's a good program that gives you a general idea of your local market pricing. The other option if you don't have this program is call other photographers in your area and just ask them if you know them well enough. Most other photographers would be happy to help you in this regard since we don't want people lowballing. If that happens, next time someone asks a different photographer to do this type of job they will say "so and so only did it for $400, why are you charging me $3000?? That's extreme example but hopefully you get the point.

[Jim Bryant]

Originally Posted by lonni

I always charge per hour then per high res or web quality image and give a quote saying between x and y hours so they have an idea about what the job will cost.Its fair for both parties.

Don't charge per hour!!!!!!!!!! Charge a creative fee plus expenses. You charge $50.00 per hour x 6 hours = $300.00. Me, I charge a creative fee of $1500 - $3000.00 and shoot for 6 hours. I then tack on pping fee, burning CD fees and/or emailing fees.