Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: pricing...  (Read 3145 times)

framah

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1418
pricing...
« on: January 09, 2013, 01:21:50 pm »

Just wondering how much people charge for the work you do on the computer. If you get work that needs a lot of computer time, I assume you charge by the hour.
I wanted to get a sort of overview to see if I'm out of wack in my pricing.

I charge $60/hour.

Anyone?
Logged
"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."

bill t.

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3011
    • http://www.unit16.net
Re: pricing...
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2013, 01:56:03 pm »

I think that's at the low end for fine art printing, but about right for "seeing if you can do something" with the blurry, greenish picture of little Suzy and Granny.  Depends on your market.

There's a local guy who used to list $95/hr for "setup" on his professional grade, wide format inkjet prints.  That went according to the number of images being worked on, you only had to pay $80/hr for 4 pieces at once.  That was a one-time fee for new images.  But I just noticed his URL is up for sale.  Might mean something.
Logged

framah

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1418
Re: pricing...
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2013, 02:32:29 pm »

I had a guy brought a bunch of files with photos of his various building projects and he wanted me to create pamphlet inserts of these projects so I had to  go thru all of the 12 files and choose "the best" image (no help from him, just pick the "nicest one") for each  job and then add copy at the bottom..then print, mount and laminate one of each for his display wall.

It was alot of hours staring at the computer so that was why i was looking for a general amount for that type of work.

I still don't charge the artists enough for all the work I do on the color matching of their images before printing but I do make it up on the number of prints they want.

Anyway, thanks, Bill.
Logged
"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."

Chris_Brown

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 974
  • Smile dammit!
    • Chris Brown Photography
Re: pricing...
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2013, 02:43:16 pm »

I use a Mac iici running OS 7. It takes about 45 minutes to save a 250MB file. Using this set up, it's a no-brainier to charge by the hour.  ;)
« Last Edit: January 09, 2013, 10:45:33 pm by Chris_Brown »
Logged
~ CB

framah

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1418
Re: pricing...
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2013, 03:14:52 pm »

I use a Mac iici running OS 7. It takes about 45 minutes to save a 250GB file. Using this set up, it's a no-brainier to charge by the hour.  ;)

But you only have about 50 mb of ram and floppy externals, so there is that is well!! ;D
Logged
"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."

bill t.

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3011
    • http://www.unit16.net
Re: pricing...
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2013, 03:23:26 pm »

Hey, that's design work!  Charge more.  "Just pick the best one" indeed!  It took a lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop your keen aesthetic sense, so whatever you charge they're getting a good deal.
Logged

framah

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1418
Re: pricing...
« Reply #6 on: January 09, 2013, 04:43:59 pm »

Hey, that's design work!  Charge more.  "Just pick the best one" indeed!  It took a lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop your keen aesthetic sense, so whatever you charge they're getting a good deal.

"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."


I LOVE IT!!!! I'm going to put that on my business cards and invoices!

Thanks, Bill!! ;)
Logged
"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."

RFPhotography

  • Guest
Re: pricing...
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2013, 06:32:15 pm »

I charge the same hourly rate for shooting and editing.  I'm not going to disclose what that rate is.
Logged

RFPhotography

  • Guest
Re: pricing...
« Reply #8 on: January 09, 2013, 06:35:15 pm »

I use a Mac iici running OS 7. It takes about 45 minutes to save a 250GB file. Using this set up, it's a no-brainier to charge by the hour.  ;)

250gb?  How many image files do you have that size?  Bloody hell!
Logged

bill t.

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3011
    • http://www.unit16.net
Re: pricing...
« Reply #9 on: January 09, 2013, 08:36:36 pm »

250gb?  How many image files do you have that size?  Bloody hell!

I think Chris meant "gigabyte" with an "m".  The most ram you could stuff in a IIci was a whopping 128mb, which tended to limit your file sizes.  Standard drive was 40mb, yes that's an "m".  25 mHz clock.  An "m" again.  Not at all "LR4 Ready."
Logged

Chris_Brown

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 974
  • Smile dammit!
    • Chris Brown Photography
Re: pricing...
« Reply #10 on: January 09, 2013, 11:11:54 pm »

250gb?  How many image files do you have that size?  Bloody hell!

Oops. Yeah, I meant megabytes. Error fixed!   :)

In late 1990 I used PS v2.0 for basic background removal using the Lasso tool. What a PITA. I used a IIci with a removable Syquest disk. I forget its capacity. I received CMYK TIFF files from color separators, and while most files were 20–40MB in size, sometimes the project was a large box top for the product with a typical image size of 36"x14" @ 300 ppi. Some images took up to an hour to save to disk. And with only a single undo, I didn't save too often with those large files.

I was very grateful for PS v2.5 because it shipped with the mighty Pen Tool.

The point I'm trying to make, though, is that charging an hourly rate is not profitable when you're a fast, efficient worker. In addition, at some point the skill level predicates a level of mastery that would make an hourly fee appear inflated.

If you charge a flat fee per image, you are free to try things and experiment, which greatly improves the chances of producing better work. And at no additional expense to the client.
Logged
~ CB

framah

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1418
Re: pricing...
« Reply #11 on: January 10, 2013, 10:53:34 am »

Yeah, there are things I can do that i have done enough times before that I pretty much know how long it would take and can put a fixed number on it. This job wasn't one of them.
Logged
"It took a  lifetime of suffering and personal sacrifice to develop my keen aesthetic sense."
Pages: [1]   Go Up