# How much to charge ??



## fabioftc

I am a Student of photography  in New York , and my  my neighbor is building a online store of jewelry .
 He asked me to take a pictures and post on his website. 
 I need help in knowing how much should i charge him ? 
 How can I charge him , by hour, by item, picture ?
Please give me idea as follows:

 Hour:$$
 Items:$$
 Bulk:$$
 I never done this before but I kind like the idea . 
 Also to get I would like to get better idea How many good pictures ready to be upload on a site. can be done in one hour . this way i will know how am I doing ? 
 i am used to take landscape shots, and I have a D60 nikon. is that a good camera for jewelry?

 if so what , what kind lens should i used?

 so please help with any suggestion . 

 Thank you 
  Fabio


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## Shaneuk

You're thinking as a complete amateur here. 

This is the most common mistake with beginners. Don't just think about price, the more you do this the les you will be listening to your client. 

First find out exactly what you are dealing with, everything he wants, so how long you will be there, how long you will have to spend post processing, does he want prints?

Then once you have that figured out, work out how much it will cost you. (Forget about your time for now, just the money you will have to pay out. ) If your going to buy a new lens purely for this, don't charge him the full amount for it. You will gain that back with other jobs. 

Once you've got that worked out, have a price for your time, now as you're a beginner, this shouldn't be much, probably about 5-10 dollars per hour. 

Then give him a quote, so your price for money you have to spend + time. 

I hope this helps.


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## fabioftc

Thank you Shaneuk  i will follow your advice. 

  my client offer me $ 2.50 for each item .  since i am beginner I don,t if is a good price.
  The good think is I can earn a portofollio which is good for me .
  if I take for item I was thinking to do like  4 item per hour.
  in your opinion how much should I calculate by item ?
  Do you think that is fair.
  His jewelry is silver with semi-precious stones.

  Thank you 
   Fabio


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## gsgary

fabioftc said:


> Thank you Shaneuk  i will follow your advice.
> 
> my client offer me $ 2.50 for each item .  since i am beginner I don,t if is a good price.
> The good think is I can earn a portofollio which is good for me .
> if I take for item I was thinking to do like  4 item per hour.
> in your opinion how much should I calculate by item ?
> Do you think that is fair.
> His jewelry is silver with semi-precious stones.
> 
> Thank you
> Fabio




So that is $10 per hour, nor worth getting out of bed for


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## NoelNTexas

Jewelry is all in the lighting/reflections. Have any of that?


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## epatsellis

fabioftc said:


> Thank you Shaneuk  i will follow your advice.
> 
> my client offer me $ 2.50 for each item .  since i am beginner I don,t if is a good price.
> The good think is I can earn a portofollio which is good for me .
> if I take for item I was thinking to do like  4 item per hour.
> in your opinion how much should I calculate by item ?
> Do you think that is fair.
> His jewelry is silver with semi-precious stones.
> 
> Thank you
> Fabio


Holy Crap!! even with the decimal point shifted one position to the right, I couldn't do it for that, it can take an hour or more to light one piece, especially with stones, where I typically use a combination of softer lighting with very specular lighting for the stones, to give them that sparkle. No was would I do it for 2.50 a pop, unless there's a lot of them, not even at $25 a pop.


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## Derrel

$2.50 per item would be considered a very good rate and fair compensation....in 1933...


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## alencooper

There is no right answer to this. All company, photograph, photographer, print run, the usage depends etc.etc. Check out this site, try to get an idea of pricing.


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## buddy_h

hey, I'm in the same boat as you. but I've been doing some research. In discussions at both my schools (NYIP and AI Pitt) 2.50 to 5.00 an image is not bad for online product photos. I hear these other guys saying that's a drop in the bucket, but how long have they been doing it? We're just starting out, my porfolio is pretty slim, and I've only been freelancing for less than a year. I got an offer this week to do ongoing work for an online seller of guns and gun parts. A simple setup of 2 constant lights, umbrellas, and a tent for the small stuff is all I'll be using, and I'm taking $3.00 a shot. He's a high volume seller, and I can do about 200 in a shor week. I'm not going to complain about $600.00 a week. Once you have a setup, you can pretty much keep it as is, and fire off the shots quick. Hey, this is comming from some of my teachers, so I'm not blowing smoke. Keep it realistic, and you'll do good.


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## KmH

So, buddy_h.

How much do you charge for the use licensing?


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## vfotog

fabioftc said:


> I am a Student of photography  in New York , and my  my neighbor is building a online store of jewelry .
> He asked me to take a pictures and post on his website.
> I need help in knowing how much should i charge him ?
> How can I charge him , by hour, by item, picture ?
> Please give me idea as follows:
> 
> Hour:$$
> Items:$$
> Bulk:$$
> I never done this before but I kind like the idea .
> Also to get I would like to get better idea How many good pictures ready to be upload on a site. can be done in one hour . this way i will know how am I doing ?
> i am used to take landscape shots, and I have a D60 nikon. is that a good camera for jewelry?
> 
> if so what , what kind lens should i used?
> 
> so please help with any suggestion .
> 
> Thank you
> Fabio



you're a photo student, but judging from your questions, it sounds like you haven't gotten to product photography yet in any of your classes. The skill set is entirely different from landscape photography. It sounds like you don't have the technical skills yet to do this, let alone take on a paying client. You're asking about your camera and lens; do you have the appropriate studio space and lighting to shoot jewelry? And since this is all new to you, do you have sufficient post-processing skills to "fix" the images to make them pro. commercial quality?  $2.50 an image; you could work in fast food for that. And if you do have to spend time correcting your learning mistakes in post, you'll be extremely lucky to get 4 images per hour when all your time from setup to shooting to post  is factored in. OTOH, it sounds like you and your neighbor are quite a match cos he's hiring a photographer based apparently on knowing you and not on your studio portfolio.  If your images suck, it won't help him sell his product. If you do decide to take this on, you want to have everything down on paper in case he's not happy with your learning on his dime with his new business venture.


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## KmH

Well the OP started the thread almost a year ago, and was last active on the forum 06-30-2010 09:44 PM according to their profile page.

But your info may be helpful to someone else. :thumbup:


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## vfotog

KmH said:


> Well the OP started the thread almost a year ago, and was last active on the forum 06-30-2010 09:44 PM according to their profile page.
> 
> But your info may be helpful to someone else. :thumbup:



hope so..  there were a couple of recent posts so I didn't notice that the OP was old. wonder what happened with this project.


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## Jason_Moore

yes. this post was helpful. i wanted to expand my photography business and had the same questions.


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