What’s Your Preference?

wisemanleo · #1 (**permalink**) 10-24-2008, 03:37 AM

You're interested in photography. It's your passion. You love it, you have the eye for it and your Facebook buddies or Flickr contacts look forward to seeing your photos everytime. You've been doing it for free because it was just your hobby, an expensive one at that.

Then comes that e-mail. Somebody or some group love your style and want you to be their photographer. But what do you do? You don't have a website yet. You don't have an online store where people can buy your photos. After all, this was just a hobby. How much do you charge? Do you charge a shoot fee + fee for each print? Model releases? Contract stipulations?

As you may have guessed already, this is my situation right now. A martial arts club caught my work and want me to do some photos of their fighters for use on their website and to make some new calendars for the 2009 year.

But instead of advice, I want to hear your experience. Your story. Your solutions and your actions and how you were or weren't succesful at it, and what would you do next time if you were doing it all over again.

Let's hear it!

waffles · #2 (**permalink**) 10-24-2008, 04:35 AM

I'm not counting the sports stuff for the paper. Mostly because I've got something more along the lines of what you're facing.

Black tie event honor donors to Winthrop's different art departments. It's a big deal. I get the email asking if I want to do it and freak out. With sports stuff I can have a bad day and as long as I get one or two good shots I'm fine. But I need these to all be spot on. Even if they're not expecting that, I am.

I talked to the guy who recommended me (a Vice President at the school), and he tells me that if things go well they might look into using me for other things. Combine that with a fortune cookie I got that said "You will continue to take chances, and be glad you did" and the $200 I'm getting for the job and I jumped on it.

Maybe if I had the chance again I would have tried to get a little more money for it. But when you consider that I would have been doing a volleyball game that night and I'm seeing it as a paid internship type thing, it's not that bad. Plus I don't have to worry about prints or anything. Just take the shots, edit, and hand them over on a CD. Or two, which is more likely with the way I shoot things.

FullAperture · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 04:50 AM

Luky for me my first paid shoot was for a friend who had already specified exactly what he wanted and I was able to give him exactly that. He knew where to find me and I went to work with him.

Things I learned from it.
If you're goint to replace the background I recoment setting a solid backdrop.

If using natural light, make sure you have enough time before it sets. Watch for clouds in the horizon.

Invest in some off cam strobes.

wisemanleo · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 04:51 AM

I suppose a CD would do the trick. There's no telling whether I'll get another shoot offer or not, so if this was the only one in a while, it would be kind of a waste to start a website/online store and invest in some more equipment.

Offcam strobes...eek, kinda out of my budget now.

The setting will probably be inside the martial arts club, where there's fluorescent lighting. I was thinking maybe a single speedlight pointed upwards might be sufficient to capture the action shots with the 18-55mm kit lens. For portrait, I'd use the flash the same way, and switch to the 50mm f/1.8. Straight forward, nothing crazy.

JoesPhotos · #5 (**permalink**) 11-11-2008, 05:52 AM

First paid job?? Well mine was for a buddy of mine on my dart team. He and his fiancee both played in the dart league. When they announced their wedding I told them I would take pictures for them. It was 2004 and I had a Cannon A1 at the time and let a "friend" borrow it, he proceeded to leave it at his girlfriend's and she kicked him out & he never got the camera, three lenses, flash and several filters back. Still haven't seen any money from that one.

So I searched for a price and realized I would need a new camera. I searched the net and found what I thought was a decent price and bought a Nikon D50. I charged them $350 1/2 what the camera cost me. So it was a win win situation. They got married outside along the marsh in Murrells Inlet. Beautiful backdrop to some great pictures. Things went perfectly. Took over 700 pictures. They loved everyone of them. Since he was a friend I gave them two copies of each CD. 2 for Wedding and 2 for Reception. I asked them to load them to their computer and let me know if there were any problems. Well 4 and 1/2 months later she called me and asked if I still had her pictures. I wasn't perusing a career in photography and I deleted the SD cards and I was like NOPE. I had put them on my hard drive but after I didn't hear from her I deleted them to make room. The 2nd disc of the ceremony was BLANK!!! It was all the post ceremony pictures of the wedding party etc. I was devastated and she was heart broken. I talked to a buddy of mine that had more experience with Digital photography then me and he asked if I had reused the card. Fortunate for my dart buddies I had NOT. I was referred to a website that had a program to "undelete" the photos. This was in the days before everyone had a recovery program.

I called my "client" and informed her I had good news and bad news. She asked the good news first, I told her I could get her pictures. Bad news she would have to pay me $50 for the program to do so. Gladly a "Ulysses S. Grant" came my way and she received two more copies of Wedding Disc 2. I watched over her shoulder as she uploaded them to her PC.

wisemanleo · #6 (**permalink**) 11-11-2008, 02:53 PM

Wow, interesting story! We can all definitely learn and take note of a few things there.

The first paid shoot is always tricky because more often than not, we don't have the infrastructure set up already to handle the transaction, contracts, developing, packaging and delivery methods, etc etc.

For my first shoot I will most likely go with full resolution processed photos on a CD that I can give to the client, charged at a flat price. How and where they develop the photos is there choice.

AristonPhotog · #7 (**permalink**) 11-11-2008, 11:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wisemanleo

How and where they develop the photos is there choice.

Hmm, this is where you start to run into problems if you have any desire in pursuing a career in photography. Let's say they go to Walgreens or CVS to get the prints made. Let's say they don't color correct properly, or differently from what you intended and the photos turn out like bad. Who do you think people are going about when looking at bad photos? The photographer. Granted handing over a CD is easy, but how long do you think those images are going to stay on that CD or on the computer. Brides and grooms lead busy lives right after marriage, and they may not have the opportunity to get prints made.

My suggestion is to give the couple a proof book of small prints from which they can decide what to have printed.

Think of it this way, if, God forbid, their house were to catch fire and they had to risk their lives to grab whatever they could, do you think it would be easier for them to grab a wedding album book, or their computer hard drive?

Just some food for thought.

hector49 · #8 (**permalink**) 11-14-2008, 05:59 AM

i know you are not looking for advice, and I don't have any experience with a paid job, and you likely have a lot more experience with photography than I have - but a couple of thoughts that came to mind are to shoot them on a black background with some good lighting - a white martial arts set up would stand out - possibly have them pose, or jump or something - might add some interest - would also look nice on a website (depending if it is an interesting website) and also could be something to frame in the lobby or entrance.
i share these thoughts as I really don't have any intention of shooting this style - and for some reason the first thought I had in my head was those awful hockey photos when I was a kid - standing on the ice, two hands on the stick, looking forward - so boring.
thats what I have to offer.

L.Wayne · #9 (**permalink**) 11-14-2008, 01:25 PM

My first and only paid shoot was kinda off the wall. A recently divorced woman wanted to remove the ex from a rather excellent family portrait. I was hired based on my image manipulation skills rather than strictly as a shooter. I took several photos of the painting from carefully measured heights/distances, then stiched them together to create an almost lifesized file. I had to remove the ex, recompose the remaining three figures, then recreate the background, and finally print a high res template for a portrait artist to work from. It took several days to complete, but the woman was more than happy with the results.

wisemanleo · #10 (**permalink**) 11-14-2008, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AristonPhotog

Think of it this way, if, God forbid, their house were to catch fire and they had to risk their lives to grab whatever they could, do you think it would be easier for them to grab a wedding album book, or their computer hard drive?

Just some food for thought.

Very true! I would personally much prefer to have control over the entire process, from shooting to developing. I suppose I can utilize an online store where I can up the photos and the client can pick and choose what they want. Develop, send, and bam!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hector49

...shoot them on a black background with some good lighting - a white martial arts set up would stand out ...

That's exactly what I was thinking! You should get into photography

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.Wayne

My first and only paid shoot was kinda off the wall. A recently divorced woman wanted to remove the ex from a rather excellent family portrait...

Haha, that is hilarious! She must have really hated the guy.