on 28/08/2003 14:18, jonathan pollock wrote: > 2) The next question is to do with costs to the client. They know what to > expect with conventional photography but in my limited experience they do > not know what to expect when it comes to digital, only that it should be > cheaper! > > So how does one charge for shooting digitally? So that one can recoup this > investment on top of all the other associated costs of running a studio.
Hi Jonathan It's a common misconception that clients and indeed some photographers (!) have that digital is necessarily cheaper. IMHO, this is simply not the case when providing digital files that can equate with film...the investment costs are greater initially and so is the depreciation so one's return on investment is less good than it was with film-based equipment (mind you, there's almost no second-hand market these days for older kit). Depending on how you plan to operate, you could be shouldering a lot more responsibility for the quality and spec of the files you provide. If you send press-ready files out, you have effectively taken over the role of the repro house in addition to the role of photographer. As far as I am concerned, if that is the case, then you should be fairly remunerated for that extra responsibility - I am assuming of course, that one would not supply press-ready files unless a proper calibrated and profiled work-flow was set-up, but again, that costs money too. The biggest problem I believe is that 'digital' means so many things to different people; a client may well believe that digital should be cheaper because they've bought a �300 camera that plugs straight into their printer! Within the digital arena, you could have a file from a �300 camera that is perfectly acceptable for use at some small size or you could have invested upwards of �40k on the best high-end digital capture kit around. I charge more for digital than film because I take responsibility for the files of the pictures I produce. I have spent time and money making sure that the equipment I have operates to its best and that I know how to operate it so I feel that my clients are getting a better service because of that. In fact I know my clients think so too because they've said so! It is difficult to estimate because of other factors like what do your competitors charge?, what will the market bear? where will you place yourself in the market?...all those sorts of things on top of the usual cost base and return on investment stuff. I have found that telling my clients as much as possible about every step of the process has made some of them realise what goes into it - I say some of them, as some are interested, some couldn't care less they just want the pictures! Finally, (a nod to Neil B and Thomas H and others), the need for some kind of industry standard practice or recognition as proposed by Pro-File is still there mainly because 'digital' can mean so many different things. regards Nick D -- Nick Dunmur�Photographer =============================================================== GO TO http://www.prodig.org for ~ GUIDELINES ~ un/SUBSCRIBING ~ ITEMS for SALE
