Pricing for product photography

[athompson]

I am a web developer/designer and I have a client who has asked me to quote for providing product images for their online web store. The items are cosmetic-type products. There are about 600.

What would/are you charging for this service?

Thanks in advance!

[suerenee]

If it were me I would look at a per hour fee.

[timbertoes]

A lot. A heck of a lot. $3 no editing, to 7K edited comes to mind after some quick calculations of time vs 600 products.

consider if on average, it took 15 minutes per item just to photograph.

[d2creative]

I usually charge per product.
I come up with my fee based on my hourly charge, including editing, divided by how many products I can shoot in an hour. Usually the first one takes the most time, but then once the lighting and everything is set, the rest go pretty quick.

[Steelsun]

I do all my product shooting (which is most of my business) by an hourly fee.
Figure in ALL aspects of the work: Setup, picking up / dropping off the products you are shooting, the actual photography, post processing, final product delivery, and especially (and easy to overlook) record keeping (linking the image number with the product number and name).

What I usually do is have a sample shoot where I do about 5 products similar to what the client wants. Time how long it takes me to shoot and post process those 5 images. Extrapolate that to how many products the client has, then add in the other time factors (delivery, etc). Voila.
Give this as an ESTIMATE to the client, as the actual amount may (will) vary either way.

And make sure you have a signed contract before you start.
Also make sure you get a good idea of how they want the product displayed (basic white background, straight on, angled, multiple shots per product, etc)

I've done this for electronic & machine parts, jewelry (the hardest!), and sports memorabilia.

A way to make the setup and shooting a little faster: group similar shaped products together one after another -i.e. all the lipsticks together, flat compacts, etc. That way you can pretty much set up the lighting for one of each type, then just swap them out quickly (less than 5 minutes per product).

For 600 images, you can easily spend 30 hours doing this.