Product Photography

Mohain

Mohain

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,150
Name
Guy Boden
Edit My Images
Yes
I've been asked to give costs to shoot approx 200 objects for a website. They will be objects like plates, bowls, vases, some jewelry, etc. all to be shot on a white background, all to be used for web only.

I don't think there will be any urgent time constraints as such. I've asked a 'packshot' company for a quote and they have given me a price of around £4k. I originally thought of halving what they would have charged but I'm thinking that's perhaps a little high to get the job (all things considered).

I recon once I'm set up it should be a pretty quick. I've not had that much experence at this sort of stuff although I've been doing a bit more recently.

Any thoughts?

TIA :D

Mohain
 
I have no experience at this, but:
consider how long it would take to photograph 200 items and any post processing (general clean-up of images). Do you have oppropriate equipment (other than camera). I would consider how much I would like to earn per day or hour and go from there. Leave a little room for negotiation. As it's your first, you can see how it goes, and price any further jobs on accordinly. One last thing I will say, as a student of psychology, we always underestimate time scales to complete things in.
 
I did some shots last year and I charged around £15 an image. Plus they wanted to be able to modify them if necessary. So, I decided on charging them a licence fee of £1 each per annum.

Which reminds me......
 
Ive just been asked to photograph 30 umbrellas for brochure and web, about 3 shots of each. I have quoted £1020.00 which to be honest is cheap. The work you will have to put into this will be much more than you first imagine so don't sell yourself short!!!
 
4k isn't that high a charge for that number of items. Even though it's your first time, I think at 2k your undervalueing yourself. 200 items is a hell of a lot work. I used to shoot products for a local computer company and did that many items once, and only once, it'll take you a lot longer than you think. I guess the items are for an e-commerce site so the quality of the pictures will need to be very good and this takes time. Even for a first timer I'd be looking for at least 3k if I was you.

Trust me 200 items is huge undertaking at a professional level.

Good luck with it :)
 
Well I've got access to, or could buy a, large light-tent and some tungsten lights. I've done a few product shots for the company I work for recently and after about half a day's set up I think I've found a pretty good set up for general product shots. Obviously there will be a certain amount of post processing per shot.

They have everything photographed already but it's a bit ropey and on all different backgrounds. The company who's quoting to rebuild the site/s wants to provide costs to reshoot everything to fit in with the new design, clean white b/g's etc.

Thanks for the thoughts so far. It is for a collection of e-commerce sites. I must admit I'm tempted to go in at less than £2k as I have a gut feeling that they won't want to spend the extra on photog when they already have some. Even if I went in at £1.5 I could get a 5D ;-)
 
yeah and if you went in at £3k you could get a 1d some thing or other
 
I think your charging way too little.

if you think about it 200 items if they were identicel thats 200 items @ 10 mins each (which is not very long to upack, position, photograph check image readjust position / exposure due to reflection from surface re photograph) thats 34 hours + 4 hours setup time thats without breaks or downloading images and retouching cropping and final tweeks to required file size's and your rights to use the images, I would say the 4K is nearer the mark.

and if any are decorated glass / etched glass items be perpared to spend longer on those shots.
 
Yes, 40 hours sounds about right. Will have a think about it over the weekend. Thanks a lot for the input folks :thumbs:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top