I was under the impression (at least a decade and a half ago when I was getting paid to shoot), photographers charged for rights and usage of images, not "day rate". Maybe that's something old or just something that came about in the US. Any APA or ASMP members around that can comment and get me up to speed in the 21 century?
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I would agree with this, being a 20+year member of APA, the term "day rate" should be stricken
from photographers vocabulary. Estimate how many days it will take to shoot and give a creative fee, but do not break it down and describe it as a "day rate". You should have already worked out what you need to survive based on your overhead.. so you know what your break-even "daily fee" has to be or else it is charity work or has some other value to you, but those are your numbers, price by the job, not by your time..
I did a shoot once and we were done by 2 in the afternoon.. the shoot was over and the client enquired about it being so fast.. I told them that it took me 20 years to develope my skills and shoot the way I did, otherwise we would have to work til 7pm. They were happy with that and left. Believe me I have spent way too many nights working "until it was finished".
I price all commercial jobs on usage rights and gauge the image value to the client.
Usually the usage will determine the value of the photograph.. General Motors national campaign vs the local chain of bike shops regional newspaper ads and website..
magazine work is different and if you want editorial you have to play along with that. It has value to me so I weigh it differently than a commercial shoot. I feel that in this age of increased ease to produce pictures and the devaluation of the images we create it is essential to get a handle on the value of the work, both for the client and yourself. It use to bother me being undercut by someone who undersells the shoot, and worse were the marketing managers who couldn't see the visual difference and went for the lower bottom line.. The reason you see the job going to the highest bidder is someone is pushing for a particular photographer and they get their way... and they knew the real value of the shoot and had that budgeted. If you want to estimate with the big boys and girls on a national/international shoot then you had better do your homework and price for everything..a good artbuyer can look over an estimate and see in a moment that you are out of your depth, they will not risk a shoot with you even if the numbers are lower and cheaper for the client.