Sample forms for AP business

[aramsdell]

Could anyone post sample forms they use that might help me get started right. I'm not going to be full time but I don't want to sell myself or anyone else short doing this either. Average price list for residential and architectrla and say parties and # of shots/ how delivered etc. would be helpful.
I just did a bunch of shots, at an orchard of their corn maze and then the main bldgs, on Sat AM when there were a lot of customers to be seen.
I gave the owner a disc of all the shots in full 7.1 MPixel res. and 6 8x12
enlargements from Walmart(~$3 each) in exchange for use of these in a portfolio for advertising. I also gave him a bill for $225.00 then a no charge for advertising clause in it for future tax purposes.
Enough of the advertising( I was on channel 13 last night twice Portland, Me. with 2 photos and my name on the screen and a thank you...
I'd like to start charging commensurate with what I do and what I provide.

Any help in the forms dept. would be appreciated.

Alan Ramsdell soon to be doing business as
MAINE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY SERVICE (MAPS)

[MLaBoyteaux]

I've talked to a couple of other operators and they're using FotoQuote software http://www.fotoquote.com/fq-overview.html

I think Jeff Scholl at http://www.gravityshots.com uses it too.

There are several approaches to pricing, but seems the standard way is to figure up your annual operating costs and divide it by how many jobs you did (or think you'll do) to come up with how much it costs you to do a job. This becomes your "session fee".

What the customer purchases are the rights to use your image. It's kind of like when you buy a music CD. You don't "own" the music, you're purchasing the rights to use it for a specific purpose (personal, not commercial).

Image rights are set up the same way. The rights to use the images is what the customer pays for. So it depends, are they going to use them on a website? Brochures? In a magazine article? Are they going to sell them? Do they just need a large print? Another aspect is the rights are purchased for a specific period of time, say for 12 months. If the customer continues to use the image beyond that, the rights need to be purchased again (income for you) or re-negotiated (either way, more income for you!)

So basically, you'll have a session fee of say, $200 to cover your expenses and then the rights for the images which can vary. In this example, if you're not making $200 per shoot, then it's costing money out of your pocket to provide your service.

It comes down to how much do you think your service is worth and what is it costing you to do business. Do you want to break even or do you want to build up some profit for next years insurance and maintenance?

Most operators will not give the client full res images without a watermark unless the customer buys the full rights to the image.

We're going to purchase the FotoQuote and FotoBiz because it will provide us with all of the contracts and pricing and photo management in one package. We're still new to the pricing aspect ourselves and trying to find a balance between what we have to have to do a job and what the market will bare.

I was doing a shoot for a company that installs artificial turf at a local high school. The Athletic Director was excited about the images and inquired about doing some photos at an upcoming game. When I told him we needed $200 to show up, he suddenly wasn't so interested. That's the way it goes. If I'd have told him $100 he might have gone for it, but then, it would be like taking $100 out of my pocket to pay for the job. That business model doesn't work for long.

[MLaBoyteaux]

Take a look at what this company charges for their stock photography http://www.lightrayphotoimagery.com/stockphotosprice.htm.

Then look at some of their photos. They're nice.

If you're producing a descent product for your client, you should be compensated fairly.

[DebianDog]

Wow FotoQuote has a Mac version. I feel special today :)

[aramsdell]

Thenks MLaboyteaux,

Al Ramsdell.