# Low budget car photography... suggestions please?!



## msgbmd2001 (Oct 23, 2012)

Hey guys. I was just approached by an owner of one of those buy-here, pay-here car dealerships. He wants someone to come in and take pictures of the cars for sale to put on their website. 

This is the *definition* of low-budget car photography but I have NO IDEA what to charge him. These would be a-basic shots (front, rear, driver side, passenger side, interior, etc) with no expectations of a jaw-dropping, artistic image. Sigh... work is work but I don't know where to begin with pricing. 

I know you guys preach CODB and never say "you should charge $X"... but if this was offered to you, how would you set your pricing? Per hour? Per car? Per photo?


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## 12sndsgood (Oct 23, 2012)

Still so many variable. how would I price it? is this a one time deal? is this something that would be reoccurring? is this something i can do in a single day? or are we talking multiple trips? are we talking moving cars out of there spaces, or just shooting cars as they sit? How much do you need to charge an hour to make a profit?


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## tirediron (Oct 23, 2012)

_*How*_ would I charge this?  Assuming it was basically the same set-up for each car, and nothing too complicated, I would likely quote him a price per car based on five-six finished images per car, and assuming that it would be several cars at a time, I would estimate 30-40 minutes total per car, so for _*ME*_, $50 - 65/car.


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## msgbmd2001 (Oct 23, 2012)

Yes!!! So many variables. I am assuming this would require consistent trips... when new cars come in, new pictures need to be taken. Their website has 20-30 pictures per car. And like I said, very basic photos. I'm sure a monkey with a point-and-shoot can do this (and has been doing this!!) ..... wait, I'm about to become that monkey!!! 

The dealership is about 3 miles from my house and I don't see the images requiring much post-production work... as from the photos they have now, I'm sure their expectations are not sky-high. I don't see hours upon hours of LR4 work, even for 20-30 pictures per car. But this is a paying job and I don't even know where to begin.

I like the idea of charging per car instead of per hour or per photo.... Makes it simple for me and the dealer in my opinion.


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## 2WheelPhoto (Oct 23, 2012)

Look towards bottom of this blog for on location car photography ideas

Car Studio Photography Set-ups - Core77


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## msgbmd2001 (Oct 23, 2012)

Awesome blog... thanks for sharing!


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## fmw (Oct 23, 2012)

Just charge your normal hourly rate, whatever that is.


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## Light Guru (Oct 23, 2012)

Charge per hour not per car.  If you charge per car they will start wanting more and more per car.


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## runnah (Oct 23, 2012)

Give them one price and then when they get the photos tell them that it is actually a much higher price.


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## Designer (Oct 23, 2012)

Definitely NOT per photo.  You will end up doing way more work, and getting paid less.  The owner will decided to only purchase one photo per car, leaving you holding a dozen more shots that he is not going to buy.

Yea, I think CODB+P&O is your starting point.

If you want to give him an estimate, divide by how many cars you can process in whatever time frame you think is required.


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## msgbmd2001 (Oct 23, 2012)

All great advice guys... thanks a bunch! Let's see how this goes tomorrow.


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## Tony S (Oct 23, 2012)

It's a car lot selling cars, they are not looking for art quality images.  ONly something that shows the car nicely, charge too much and they are back to taking pictures with the old P&S.  I would say an hourly rate and show up once a week to get the new cars on the lot.


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## 12sndsgood (Oct 24, 2012)

I agree, especially if it is just a buy here pay here type lot. They have been doing it themselves and could continue to do it themselves if your too expensive. i'd quote them an hourly rate. do it on a per car basis and they may want you coming out to do single cars as they come in. ask for a trial run and blow them away with photos. id do a bit of editing to get them some good shots. if you have done a lot of cars before you should have some presets made up and be able to rip thru a bunch of photos quickly. esp if your using lightroom.


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## msgbmd2001 (Oct 24, 2012)

I don't have any presets for cars but creating them will help with getting thru the images quickly! 

You guys are amazing... thanks!


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## 12sndsgood (Oct 25, 2012)

for something simple like that where your not doing major processing, i'll just take the first typical file. adjust everything and save that as my preset. or in lightroom just sync that one to the rest. so i may take 5 minutes on the first car shot. and then maybe a minute each for the rest making sure nothing glaring stood out. only thing you may have to do is do an exterior preset and an interior preset.


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## msgbmd2001 (Oct 25, 2012)

12sndsgood said:


> for something simple like that where your not doing major processing, i'll just take the first typical file. adjust everything and save that as my preset. or in lightroom just sync that one to the rest. so i may take 5 minutes on the first car shot. and then maybe a minute each for the rest making sure nothing glaring stood out. only thing you may have to do is do an exterior preset and an interior preset.



Great! Thank you


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