Some Questions about Event Photography

[d2creative]

I have an opportunity to shoot a store's grand opening. I'm trying to give them a price but I'm not sure what options I should offer them. It's a bicycle store. All i know is they want me for 4 hours to shoot the pro athletes, customers hanging around, and a group shot at the end.
So i have my time to think about, that's the easy part. What other deliverables should i offer? A certain number of processed pics? Prints (delivered later, not onsite)? Anything else? I haven't done anything this open before so I'd really appreciate some advice and quickly. I need to get back to them asap. The master plan is to get to shoot the store and crew for real at a later time for their new website. But they need help with this first.
Thanks!

[RandySmith]

Dennis -

There's probably going to be multiple different strategies for this, so mine may or may not work for you or anybody else for that matter, it's just my approach.
Some thoughts I would consider:

How long will I be there taking the photos.
Would I want to charge a flat fee, or per hour basis.
How elaborate of photo's do they want ? Just candids, formal portraits, etc.?
Would I need to set up studio lights ?
Would I need an assistant ?
Do they want prints printed on-site or will they wait for prints ? Can they guarantee a certain number of print orders ? What size, etc. ?

I generally would charge a flat fee that fits for my targeted market. Then I would charge ala-carte for picture printing. I'm trying to go away from "package" pricing, I know it's done a lot, but I would rather my prices be fair/competitive and they just order each print as they want.

Hope this gives you a couple of thoughts anyway.
Randy

[d2creative]

Thanks, Randy.

It's a 4 hour job, no lights other than my SB800 on camera, mix of candid/posed photos, no assistant and I'm not offering prints on site. So i'm with you on charging a flat rate and then extra for prints if they want them. I have a feeling they'll end up wanting a cd of the images. Speaking of which, what should i tell them they will get as far as number of images? I don't like to just hand off unprocessed pics on cd, so i'm kind of at a loss for how long I'm going to have to spend post processing.

[LadyShutterBug]

your flat rate should include your post-processing time, but also should keep the client in mind and not overshoot their budget.

i'd offer a CD for a charge, and then ask if they want a set of prints (for which i'd charge enough to profit).

any prints after that can be ordered al la carte.

[d2creative]

Thanks, Kasey.

Also.... what size files on CD? Full size, high-res? Or do you only give them something like 4x6 sized images so they have to come to you for the big prints?

[ndsimm]

an hourly rate and images on a CD is usually what I offer. often, that is all they need since they will be using the images for publication or sending them to the corporate office so really HI res images while nice are not necessary, but probably closer to "mid-res"

[STP Images]

.

[d2creative]

Originally Posted by Paraquat

I hope I'm adding to the conversation, not hijacking it . . .

Not all. Keep'em coming.

[xjben]

You could sell a CD of high res images, maybe for say double or triple an average print sale for example. So, if most people would buy $50 in prints from you, maybe a CD of images for $150. I've looked at other event photographers (sports mainly) and in the $100-$200 range seemed pretty common for selling a CD of images.

[d2creative]

Ok, here's what I decided to charge. This is possible work thru a friend who's passing on my info. This is not really something I would look to do, but hey if they want to pay for my services I'll do it. So does this sound fair enough?

$150/hr
Includes all processing time and transportation to/from within a 30 mile radius.
CD of processed images suitable for web use and small prints included, delivered at a later date (usually about a week).

Prints are extra and NOT printed on site.
Large format prints and mounting services available.
Any digital retouching above and beyond typical color correction, sharpening, etc is billed at $75/hr after detailed discussion with the client.

[bigjon0107]

For a CD of images i have heard prices ranging anywhere from $150 to over $500, it all depends on how much you think you would be losing on print sales

[ndsimm]

$150 an hour is a good rate and about average...good luck

[d2creative]

Well, I got the job so hopefully all goes well next weekend.
Thanks again!

[Outlaw]

Congrats, Dennis! It's good to be paid that rate off the top without having to haggle with the customer. As always, please let us know how the shoot goes! You've been great about that with your past jobs, and I for one always appreciate it. It's one thing to get an offer accepted, another to do the job, and another to deliver the product!

[d2creative]

Sorry for not getting back right away but the shoot went well.
It was a grand opening for a new cycling store. The owner wanted more of a pj style as opposed to posed pics which was good.
This is definitely not my cup of tea. I found it to be pretty boring standing around the store for 4 hours, but I tried to make the best of it. Even used my lensbaby for a bunch of them. Here's a link to ALL the photos i gave them. I didn't expect them to throw every pic into a gallery but whatever. I guess they liked them. I was fighting noise, exposure and white balance issues but i think they came out ok considering. I don't know if I'd take this kind of job again but I am hoping to get future work shooting their store for their new website. What they have now is temporary.

Here's the gallery they put up...
http://www.sugarcycles.com/photos/gr...ing/index.html

And here's several of my favorites for those that don't want to go through the whole gallery...