Price to shoot a football match?

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rebelpaul

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Hi all, I've been approached to shoot a football match, it's a Sunday league side that is renting a championship stadium to play their league rivals, their requirements are a shoot and aprox 30 discs containing all the images!
The question is how much should I charge?
 
Hi Rebelpaul;

A few questions I would have:
Are you the sole photographer?
Are they looking for T&I photos?
Are they only looking for action shots?
Are you providing them with high resolution photos?
How much time will you spend on PP?
How will the photos be used?
Are you keeping your copyright to the photos?
What is your deadline to deliver the CDs?

By your name I assume you are shooting with a rebel camera, what lenses do you have?
 
Providing the CD means little if not no chance of print sales so you need to make all your money from your fee. As once they have the images on CD they will be uploaded to facebook, coppied and sent to all corners of the globe and maybe even printed.

You will be covering everything so team shots, action shots and presentation if there is one with the team shot and the trophy after. They may want dressing room shots, player shots in the press room with the boards at the back of them used for TV interviews it all depends what access they will have to the stadium how far things can go. I have been asked for all sorts of shots.

I would look at making £200+ in print sales from such a job but if you ask for thet they may turn round and say no so you need to work out what you think you can get away with after all they have hired a football stadium for the game so there must be money there somewhere. Even when I have sold a disk of images people still buy prints but I have never done a disk for everyone.
 
Its gives a warm feeling to hear that they want so many disks...Normally they would just want one disk and copy it to hell....

I think a price per disk would be the way to go here. or a price for the job lot
 
Little John said:
If you price per disk they will turn round and buy one and copy it.
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Exactly what I was thinking. A per capita price may well be easier at £5-10 ea.
I'd be interested to see Tony's view on this!
 
Hi all thanks for your replies, The camera i will be using is a nikon d3000 with 18-55mm and 70-300mm lens, i will shoot in raw and most of the processing will be done in adobe raw. The teams fund the match by dividing up the cost of the stadium hire between the players so there is not a budget as such.
I am not a pro so i think i should price it to reflect this, the shots will include a team photo for each team and maybe some dressing room shots plus action shots from the pitch. The team also has access to the stadium bar after the match for two hours which i would attend and get a few shots.
They have had a similar event before at another club where a tog was included and they mentioned that they only recieved 2 discs which they had to copy, the reason for offering just dics and not prints is to keep the cost down for them.
I will keep the rights to the images but i will place no limits on them for the use of the images.
There is not a deadline to produce the discs and i will be the sole photographer.
 
rebelpaul said:
I will keep the rights to the images but i will place no limits on them for the use of the images.
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Unless im being thick here that makes no odds then surely you having the rights if you have said they can do what they want with the pics.

Anyway charge what you feel the only draw back with making a post like that on here is most of the people do it for a living or a second job ( that's not having a dig at anyone) So you will probably get prices that reflect that. (that's still not having a dig). Depends on how close you are to the team & club at then end of the day.

£200 for all your time before the match the match itself and in the bar after wards sorting all the pics pp etc out burning the disks no doubt doing a cover for each one. Then the time waiting to get money.
 
joker2006 said:
Unless im being thick here that makes no odds then surely you having the rights if you have said they can do what they want with the pics.

Anyway charge what you feel the only draw back with making a post like that on here is most of the people do it for a living or a second job ( that's not having a dig at anyone) So you will probably get prices that reflect that. (that's still not having a dig). Depends on how close you are to the team & club at then end of the day.

£200 for all your time before the match the match itself and in the bar after wards sorting all the pics pp etc out burning the disks no doubt doing a cover for each one. Then the time waiting to get money.
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The reason i want to keep the rights is so i can still use the images myself as im wanting to put together a portfolio to show the type of things i can do, i do not earn a living from photography at the moment but am hoping to be able to have it as a second income and in time maybe earn a living only from photography.
 
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Thats fair enough then good luck hope it works out for you keep us updated
 
joker2006 said:
Thats fair enough then good luck hope it works out for you keep us updated
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Will do thankyou all for your help ive decided to charge on the basis of the number of players and charge £5 per player as it is local to me and it will hopefully result in repeat business.
 
whats the stadium andi s it a daytime match? have you photogrpahed in the stadium before?
 
KIPAX said:
whats the stadium andi s it a daytime match? have you photogrpahed in the stadium before?
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Colchester community stadium, will be 3pm and in the summer.
Ive not photographed there before.
I might grab some arty arcitechture shots of the stadium to use too.
 
rebelpaul said:
Colchester community stadium, will be 3pm and in the summer.
Ive not photographed there before.
I might grab some arty arcitechture shots of the stadium to use too.
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haaa right.. was wondering if it was a bigger stadium wiht high stands.. you can end up wiht a pitch in bright sunshine but half of it in almost darkness (in camera settings terms) because of the shadows from the main stand.... but i dont recall a problem at colchester :)
 
Well Colchesters new ground does have fairly high stands though but I will be able to get right on the edge of the pitch and have good access.
 
Being 3pm at the Weston Homes, if it is a sunny day your have the majority of the pitch and players in darkness and the stands (background) in full sunshine - difficult conditions. The sun sets behind the largest main stand (West Stand). Let's hope it's a dull day.
 
And if anyone has any tips on shooting football they would be gratefully received.
I'm planning on going to a couple of games just to get my eye in and see what works and what doesn't.
 
rebelpaul said:
And if anyone has any tips on shooting football they would be gratefully received.
I'm planning on going to a couple of games just to get my eye in and see what works and what doesn't.
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eh?
 
rebelpaul said:
Sorry does that not make sense?
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Your going to shoot a football match in a stadium that turns out will have massive shadows (possibly) and your using a d3000 with a 70-300 lens.. you havent shot football before?

Sub standard equipment (for this task) , no experience..and your asking how much you should charge..


I just presumed you already knew what you where doing..
 
No I made it clear in my replies that I was by no means a pro which is why I was here for advice, I clearly stated that I'm not a pro so the price would have to reflect this! I also said that it's not untill the summer which means I will have time to get along to some games to make sure that I know which shots I want and how to get them before I do the job I was asked to do!
 
rebelpaul said:
No I made it clear in my replies that I was by no means a pro !
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a pro photogrpaher is someone who makes a living from photography.. many amatuer photogrpahers are better than pro photographers.. not being a pro means its not your living.. it doesnt mean you havent shot football before. I know a lot of amatuer football photogrpahers who have top end equipment and can shoot fantastic football but wouldnt know what to charge.. becasue they are not pro..

so you have from now until summer? to figure out how to use your equipment to shoot football and the very real possibility (as its summer) that you will have a half dark half light stadium... and you have to be good enough to charge...16 weeks? can be done but i would suggest you start now and do a game a week :)
 
I appreciate what you have said, I was thinking that I could draw on my experience photographing motorsports which has similar challenging principles, ie fast moving, often low light or even at night and also at distance and the added obstacles like catch fencing to contend with.
 
rebelpaul said:
I appreciate what you have said, I was thinking that I could draw on my experience photographing motorsports which has similar challenging principles, ie fast moving, often low light or even at night and also at distance and the added obstacles like catch fencing to contend with.
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Exactly what I thought when I first shot a game of football, coming to it from equestrian sport. After all horses are quicker than humans aren't they?

I was completely wrong- and that's taking into account the fact that I had a sports camera (7D) and a 120-300/2.8.

Out of interest, did you pitch to them or did they approach you?
 
I was approached by the coach of one of the teams who is a friend, I've not led anyone to believe I'm better than what I am and even with my lack of experience as in photographing football I think £100 is fair! It's less than £5 per player.
 
Ok guys here is what I have decided to do.
I have contacted the coach and said that due to me being novice and the possibility of challenging conditions I will do the shoot for free, if the images are of a usable quality I will put together a watermarked proof disc and then if they decide they want the images I will provide the discs at £50 per team but if they do not then its not cost them anything.
Do you think this is reasonable?
 
That sounds better to me seeing that it states you effectively have no experience and theres nothing to lose.

If it works out then its a bonus, you gain experience and some hopefully nice shots and they gain some images for taking a flier on you.

I'd still want to get as much practice in before hand personally just to reduce the chance of having to explain that they were all rubbish :)
 
There will also be another kind photographer joining me to shoot the match so I'm sure between us we will get plenty of usable images.
Many thanks for all your comments and advice.
 
rebelpaul said:
Ok guys here is what I have decided to do.
I have contacted the coach and said that due to me being novice and the possibility of challenging conditions I will do the shoot for free, if the images are of a usable quality I will put together a watermarked proof disc and then if they decide they want the images I will provide the discs at £50 per team but if they do not then its not cost them anything.
Do you think this is reasonable?
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You're such a rebel Paul :lol:
 
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rebelpaul said:
Ok guys here is what I have decided to do.
I have contacted the coach and said that due to me being novice and the possibility of challenging conditions I will do the shoot for free, if the images are of a usable quality I will put together a watermarked proof disc and then if they decide they want the images I will provide the discs at £50 per team but if they do not then its not cost them anything.
Do you think this is reasonable?
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Much more reasonable then if you do find you have made a pigs ear of it you are not in the position of having to justify a fee,might I also suggest that you spend every Saturday at the club who asked you practising like hell to get used to shooting what is a very difficult sport
 
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