17y.o. first job. how much?

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

Hi all.

I am 17 years old. I have been asked to help shoot a local school end of year formal (not by the school, by the photographer) and he asked me how much i want to get paid. I HAVE NO IDEA ! As i work in a camera shop i asked one of the people that i work with their opinion and she first said $50/hr and i was like W H A T ! ! ! ! ! then she said don't do it for lower then $25/hr, even at that i still think im asking too much of him, i mean i do know him alitte, its not just some random. We start at 2.30pm and go around the town photographing the year 12 students last day as a class, then at 7.00pm the final Disco starts and goes till 11 i think but we wont be there that long.. unless i personaly want to stay longer.

What do you think. Before today mum was thinking id be looking at maybe $100 for the evening. but with $25/hr thats at least $300.

[nathanbarlow]

you have to remember that it is more than jsut the event night - there is sorting and PP afterwards. Unless the photog wants to do this, you will have to do that too.

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

Yeah. true i guess. I plan to shoot them in RAW + JPEG.

Any other opinions?

[krossk]

For the time and work you are describing, $25-$50/hr is not as outrageous as you think - regardless of your age. If you want to be a photographer, you have to be able to see yourself as being worth what a photographer is paid. If you have confidence in your ability and can deliver, then don't let your age undermine your ability to do the job for what the job is worth.
Besides, once you set the expectation level low, it's much more difficult to raise it later.

For comparative purposes, look at it this way - approx. 8 hrs of multi-location shooting formals, culminating in a dance party (most likely) in low/poor light. That sounds a lot like a wedding to me. Would you shoot a wedding for $300???

[CaptainNH]

Firstly, congratulations on getting a paid gig!

What exactly does "help shoot" entail. Is it a second shooter or an assistant role?

There's a big difference between being responsible for getting the shots and the (still very important) role of carrying bags, setting up lights, changing lenses, backing up cards, etc.

There are two ways of looking at this too - the monetary value of your time and effort, and value of the experience you're likely to get out of it. There are lots of people who work second shooter or assistant for nothing just for the experience (I'm not suggesting you do this!!).

Looking at it from his side, it's his gig, he marketed himself and won the work, (I hope) he has paid for appropriate third party insurances - (nothing worse than burning down a school hall with an overheated strobe!), gear to pay for, and he has to deal with the PP and orders and printing and the like.

I don't know where I read it, but I have read that somewhere in the region of 10-20% might be about right for a second shooter, which assuming he's charging somewhere in the region of $100/hr [plus whatever he can make from the prints], would put you in the $20/hr region.

$160 might not seem like much for 8hrs hard work (and believe me, it will be mentally and physically draining), but also think about how he's going to pay you - cash?

[krossk]

Captain raises some good points - I initially read the OP as being contacted by the dance to shoot the event. Certainly if you're not the prime photog. then the rates would be adjusted accordingly. And if the experience is worth more to you than the $, then you may have a case for some concession in that regard. But do be aware that once you establish your "value" (perceived by what people pay...) as low, it's much more difficult to raise it later on.
(Don't ask me how I know this )

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

Yes i shall be a second Photographer, not a "carry it all person" LOL. Yes he does have insurance... some what a large one. Well if you all think thats reasonable i might tell him 25/hr then.

[FriedChicken]

Shoot RAW. Shooting RAW + JPEG just takes up space unless you don't have (good) post processing knowledge/software.

I wouldn't necessarily charge $50 p/h... depends on the average prices over there (ie, what the photographer himself is going to be earning).

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

Hi all.

Did the job yesterday/last night, and it was awesome.

Bit tricky doing the outside shot in the day as there was NO cloud cover, and anyone who knows Australia will know how bright a day like that is. But we got some decent shot from what i have seen thus far. The shots indoors at night were pretty good too. We had a grayish coloured background that didn't seem to clash with a single person for the "formal shots". Once people started to get a bit of alcohol in their system and start dancing around a little i took off to the D-Floor and got a few random shots of people being people, drinking helium from ballons and all that stuff.

We had 3 camera's between then two of us.
* Canon 30D
*Canon 5DmkII
*Nikon D90 (mine)

I Used the 30D and the D90 for the outside shots so i could have a nifty fifty f/1.8 and a 18-70mm (i think), whilist the boss man used his 5DmkII and a 70-300mm.

When we got inside later on, I only used my D90 and the nifty fifty i had borrowed. This lens made it so uber easy to get a good photo. As it could focus fast at 1.8, but i had it set to 3.5 for most of the night to take a photo, to ensure i got at least someone in focus whilist on the D-Floor. Meanwhile the boss man was using his 30D and his wide-telephoto to get the 'formal' shots.

Between the two of us. we would have taken at least 1700 photo i reckon, but thats just how it goes.

To the money. which was the whole point of this thread. He paid me $150.00 AUD for the night. Which i thought was "on the money" . I didn't really expect to earn anymore then that, nor did i really need to.

Now to have a decent look at all these.. lol.. well all the ones i took anyway.

[Dirt_Bike_Ryda]

Some times you can tell a story with a few pictures. these two almost do.

First one. It appears they are all talking about something. One could think the girls are speaking about a guy saying "did you see that sexy guy over there?"

The Second one. They could all be thinking "very nice" or something along those lines.