I just tried to respond to a post about Nat Geo rates (National Geographic?) but got a warning that the last post in that thread was over 120 days old, so I should start a new thread. So, that's what I'm doing.
One of the posters linked to an
article on editorial rates published by format.com. I took a look and was pretty horrified by how low those rates are. This is in part due to my brief career as a freelance illustrator from 1987-1990 (before drawing comic books, then art direction in video games), and because the costs involved to put together a photo shoot far exceed the expenses involved in making an illustration.
Examples:
1) the lowest fee I was ever paid was $160 for each of 10 illustrations for Restaurant Business magazine. The illustrations were printed at no more than 10% the page area and each took no more than an hour to make.
2) The average fee I remember for spot illustrations (1/4 page to less in size) was $500, but this was sometimes as high as $900.
3) Time magazine paid $1800 for an illustration that went across the top half of two pages. Not sure if that counts as full page (surface area) or double page spread (it covered two pages). Typical fees from Time were $750 for a spot, $3,000 for a cover.
To make the illustrations, I rarely had to spend more than $10 for supplies. A photo shoot, as everyone here knows, is far more expensive. Many of my test shoots have cost around $3,000, which sounds like a much higher figure than even Vogue will pay for two days' work.
More recently, I was paid $300 for a 3/4 page portrait photo in a bicycling magazine. I took it because it was my first editorial sale as a photographer. Advertising fees on the other hand, make more sense. I've only done one advertising job as a photographer, but was paid $2,800 for each of two images. On the other hand, I have been paid more as an illustrator for book jackets and as a fine artist.
I am curious if illustration fees have also gone down, or if illustrators are paid more than photographers. If so, why? It costs a lot of money to produce a decent photo shoot but practically nothing to make an illustration. At one time, I might have thought that the uniqueness of an illustrator's style could explain the price difference, but after learning more about photography, I doubt that is the case.
In the end, after a full year of lockdown inertia, I am wondering whether it makes any sense to pursue editorial clients. I use only Phase One and Broncolor gear, none of which could be paid off in a reasonable amount of time shooting editorial.
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