Product Shoot Questions

[CypressPhotog]

I am shooting several products for a party rental company. They will be using these shots for their website and catalogue. I will be doing about 8 different linens and another 8 different plateware setups and 3 flatware sets.
Two questions:
1) How should I group the products...have all the plates together? all of the same pattern together? group a pattern of plates with a set of flatware with a linen I like? etc
2) How much should I charge? I will be giving them a cd with full res images.

[LoungeLizard]

I can make one suggestion for the first one. I would group them as you would use them! So, if they are themed, do a couple of place settings with each theme. Take a look at how www.orientaltrading.com does it for theirs.

[CypressPhotog]

Any suggestions on what I should charge the company?

[bondarnes]

I am not a commercial photographer although I do some occasional commercial assignments. So this is just my opinion. The first thing I would ask is what is the photography budget for this job. The second question I would ask is who is going to set everything up. They may know exactly how they want it arranged. Then I would ask them to show me some examples of what they have in mind. They probably have a competitor's catalog that they like. Also I need to know when they need this completed. What resolution do they want. When and how will I be paid? Now to the questions you asked.

Question# 1 Since you asked the question, I assume that you have never done table arrangements so you should hire a Table Stylist to do this work for you and add their fee to your fee.

Question# 2 You should charge for your time in the range of $100.00 per hour and up (depending on your ability) plus expenses (Table Stylist, Travel, Materials used, etc.) plus a reasonable fee for each image you put on the CD. You may also want to negotiate the different levels of rights to use your images. From the information you gave I would estimate that this job would take two to three hours and I would probably bill the company between $ 350.00 and $ 500.00. If it was a new client I would require payment on delivery of the CD.