All language subtitles for 20 Business - Pricing for Commercial Jobs.mp4

Now that I talked about my editorial
pricing structure.

I now want to talk about my commercial
pricing structure.

Editorial is known to sell a story it's
one time in a magazine.

It might be

annual, it might be quarterly, it might
be monthly, but it's usually published

in that magazine or online in a digital
publication.

While commercial

and advertising,

one image usually represents a brand,
and it sells a product, or it sells a

person in the editorial space.

Much of that imagery is going to be
backed by a story, there's going to be

text, and is going to be a writer
involved.

While with the commercial work I'm
commissioned to shoot it's 100 percent

about the image itself.

These commercial images are often used
in local advertising, regional

advertising and even national
advertising.

It's not a one time use.

It can be a multiple time use.

Not only can it be used over and over
again, it can be used in different

mediums and on different platforms at
the same time.

Just imagine a magazine ad, a
billboard, a TV spot or a point of sale

countertop display.

There's a lot of pressure to create
these images, because these photographs

will become the most valuable marketing
assets that this company has.

Perhaps all year another difference
between editorial and commercial is

that in the commercial world, there are
teams of people that expect a higher

production value with editorial.

Many of these magazines live off paid
advertising space in that magazine from

companies that sell a product.

And because those paid advertisements
are their only source of revenue,

they're working with a lot smaller
budgets.

But in the commercial world, we're
dealing with brands that make a

significant amount of money by selling
a product or service.

And the difference between that in a
magazine is that they have the ability,

if they really have a successful image,
to make a ton of profit off your work.

And so it's important to break down
this pricing structure within the terms

of their budget, which can be hundreds

thousands, maybe even millions of
dollars.

To summarize all this, a magazine only
has so much budget to work with based

upon their paid placement advertising,

while brands might have

an unlimited budget to market their
product or service.

In the editorial world, the magazine is
looking to fill pages with both paid

placement advertising and editorial
content.

No matter how compelling or great my
image might be in that editorial it's

not going to make a huge impact on how
much money that magazine makes.

But in the commercial world, if I take
a compelling image, that company has

the ability to make a ton of money
using my image to sell a product or

service.

So now that I distinguished the
difference between editorial and

commercial, let me show you how I break
down my commercial pricing structure.

It all starts with a creative fee.

Your creative fee would be considered a
day rate, a half day rate, or any sort

of basic rate that's going to get you
out of your house.

The other component to this fee is the
license.

And this gives the client the right to
use the image in various mediums.

It's a negotiated fee based on numerous
variables.

Some of those variables include

medium, the quantity of use, the
region, and numerous different factors

and facets that play into this license.

With editorial, you might publish one
image in one magazine for one month,

and then you'll never see it again.

But in advertising,

this image might show up on numerous
platforms

at the same time and at different times
all over the world.

So we have to really lock that down
into specific variables in order to

properly quote the client.

For example, I might be contracted for
a client that wants to use an image

specifically for their blog, but later
they want to use that same image for a

billboard or a magazine, advertisement,
on a national scale, for a couple of

years.

Those two pricing Scales are going to
be completely different.

And you have to know the variables in
order to properly quote your client.

So to review, your creative fee is
going to include production,

you're consulting.

And also your equipment

it's going to be broken down by a day
or half day rate.

You never want to go hourly on your
creative fee.

And in license, that's going to be
within these variables that we just

talked about.

Those are the two main components.

Those are going to be your chunk of
your quote.

The third and final facet of building a
quote would include my expenses.

This would include studio equipment,
rental assistant fees, miscellaneous

expenses, as well as the post
production side, such as file transfer,

color, retouching and delivery.

It might also include catering, travel
expenses and anything else that needs

to be built to the client.

Now that you know these three
components, let's look at each one of

these in a little bit more detail.

When determining you're creative for
you, you first need to judge your

client.

You need to figure out how much they're
worth.

You need to look at their online
presents.

You need to look at their website and
need to look at what they produced and

what they sell and the service that
they sell.

For example, if it's Nike, or if it's a
woodford reserve or a bigger brand,

they're obviously going to have a
bigger budget than let's, say, you're

smaller entrepreneurial, or your small
business.

So at that point, you can charge a
Greater creative feed than you could

with a smaller client.

Unfortunately, there's no real set
standard, there's no science here.

Every project varies.

So sometimes you might have a very low
creative fee, and sometimes you might

have a high creative fee.

Your creative fee should be based on
how much you think you're worth, as

well as how much you think your client
has to spend.

If I was approached by a small, local
business with a small budget, I might

just charge 1000 or 2000 dollar
creative fee.

But if I was approached by a big brand,
a world wide brand, such as Nike or red

bull, that creative fee would be
significantly more.

It'd be more like 10020000

dollars.

And if I didn't bid that much of a
creative fee.

They wouldn't work with me in the first
place.

I wish I could give you some hard
concrete Numbers, but unfortunately, I

can't.

I have to deal with this creative fee
with every single project.

Even though the creative fee is very
subjective.

The next section, which is licensing,
is very specific and scientific.

As we discussed briefly earlier, a
license fee is based on a number of

variables.

The basic idea with licensing is that
the more the image is used, the more

money I want to make.

And the more money the client makes,
the more money I want to make.

As well as you can imagine.

This can get very complicated.

But there are some variables and
parameters that you can have

to really guide you through this
process.

The thing you have to remember here is
that number one, you have to educate

your client about this.

Your client has to know what a license
is and what it means.

And they have to also understand these
variables before you can start quoting

and putting out these hard Numbers.

Some questions you want to ask your
client before anything else, before you

get into quoting is, how long will the
image be used?

Well used in magazines will be using a
billboard will they put it in print?

Will they put it on social media?

Where they put it on their website?

You need to determine the medium.

And then finally, will it be exclusive
to them only?

Will it be locked in to this client
only, or will you be able to relicense

this image to other clients in the
future?

All of these variables will
significantly change the value of your

license.

First let's focus on time period.

Time period is the amount of time the
image will be used.

Usually I offer a one year standard.

A lot of times clients don't even
really need an image for more than one

year because they're doing quarterly
campaigns, or they're doing yearly

campaigns.

Until beyond this year, they won't even
need to use the image again.

A lot of times, in a small market,
though, i'll offer a two year, or

sometimes even a five year license.

One time period that you might be
pressured into, or a lot of clients

will ask, is perpetuity, which means
forever

you don't want to give this way at no
extra cost.

This is an extremely valuable license.

The next thing to consider is the
quantity of use.

Is it a limited or unlimited, or is a
buy out, meaning the amount of uses

that this image can be used in any form
of medium.

So if it's a limited means that it's
limited to a number of uses.

If it's unlimited, they can use it for
however much they want.

And then finally, a buy out is when
they own the full copyright and can use

it in perpetuity.

A buy out can be extremely valuable and
extremely expensive for a license.

So you need to keep that in mind.

Up next is the exclusivity.

Is this exclusive to that client, or is
this industry exclusive?

Or is this non exclusive exclusive
means that this client is the only one

that can use this image?

Industry exclusive would mean that

this image can be used in other
industries outside of that client

industry.

For example, if I took a photo of an
Olympic snowboarder and I license that

to red bull, I can't go over to monster
and license that image to them, but I

could go outside of that industry to
say, sports illustrated, and license

that image to them.

But if I had a non exclusive license,

that means that I could take that same
image of that Olympic snowboarder and

sell that to monster.

The next variable is region.

And this tells us where this license
and where this image can be used.

Is it going to be used locally in small
town, or is going to be used

internationally on a big scale.

And obviously, if it's going to be a
national ad campaign, it's going to be

a lot more valuable.

So you need to know the region.

You need to know if it's international,

regional, or it's specific to a
country.

Next up is exposure or the market.

Is this consumer?

Is this trade, or is this editorial?

For example, if I did a project for
abarcrombie and fitch and they used an

image of mine,

would this image be seen by consumers
worldwide in one of their catalogues,

or would this image be seen by people
in the same industry on a quarterly

report?

And finally, there's editorial.

If abercromy and fitch wanted to use
this image in an editorial story,

that's where this license would come
in.

The next variable we need to understand
is usage.

How will this image be used?

Will it be used in advertising, or will
it be used in editorial?

I think we all know what advertising
is, but with editorial,

a brand could use that image in an
editorial context to advertise their product.

For example, I could take a photograph
of a model wearing all h and m

clothing.

It have the h and m, logo, and they
would use that for advertising.

Now h and m could take that same image
and apply that in editorial context.

So buried underneath an editorial
spread, it may appear to be an

editorial story,

but h and m actually pays for that
placement it's called an adventorial.

Generally, an advertising license is
going to be much more valuable than an

editorial license.

Next up is medium.

This plays a huge role in how much this
license will cost.

So I've made a list here of all the
options, and I'm going to read it one

by one.

First up, we have print.

Then we have newspaper, we have
magazine.

We have collateral

collateral, could be anything such as
brochures

or something.

That's an internal promotional use.

We have electronic, which could be the
little screen you see in the back of

the cab or the digital billboard on
Times Square.

And then we have internet, which could
be anything from social media to

websites to banner Ads.

So you might be completely overwhelmed
with all these variables that make up a

license, but luckily, there are tools
to help you with these Numbers, such

as, photoquote, photoquote, is a
software that allows me to plug in all

of these variables and it will give me
a range based on my region and market.

The cool coolest thing about this
software is that it's built by

photographers.

It would be nearly impossible to
remember all these variables, but this

software does it for us.

You could purchase this software for
130 Bucks on, photoquote, dot com.

If you're just getting started.

I wouldn't worry about buying that
software just yet.

But know that if your image will be
used in any sort of advertising or

commercial space, you need to be
compensated for that use.

That's how all high end photographers
make a lot of money, is licensing their

work.

Before we move on from licensing, let
me give you a quick example of a

license fee.

This image here was shot for zalon and
spa for their winter campaign.

Cecilon in.

Spaw is a local salon in Louisville,
Kentucky.

And they wanted to use this image on a
local billboard for one month.

So let's look at every line on this
license

first.

The amount of time was one month.

The quantity was limited, meaning that
they were only going to use this image

for one time only.

The exclusivity was exclusive, meaning
that I could only license this image to

z salon in spaw,

the region was local.

It was only being displayed on a local
billboard in louville, Kentucky.

The market was consumer, so it was
going to consumers who would visit z

salon and spaw.

The trade was advertising,

meaning that this was advertising use,
this was an advertisement,

and the medium was finally print.

And so the cost for all of this ranged
between 1200 to 1800 dollars.

And because I am in a small market, I
landed on the low end of this range at

1200 dollars.

So not only did I make money on the
creative fee in the production end, but

I also made a lot of money on just
licensing one single image.

One final quick example of another
license

is a magazine advertisement.

For this image, I shot this for the
voice of louville.

It was actually for an editorial

but the CEO approached me and wanted to
license this image in future

advertisement in the same magazine.

So we drafted this license, and here's
what we came up with.

The time was one month.

The quantity was limited, meaning that
they could use this only one time.

The exclusivity was non exclusive,
meaning I could license this image to

other people.

The region was local, the market was
consumer,

the trade was advertising, and the
medium was magazine.

And taking all these variables.

We came up with this pricing range
between 61200

dollars.

And again, because I'm in a local
market, I ended on the low end at 800

dollars.

So now that you understand the creative
fee and the license fee, let's move

into the expenses of, your, quote, at
the beginning of your career, your

photoshoots are not going to be that
expensive.

It might just be you and your camera
and your subject, but as your

photography career advances, you're
going to start incurring a lot of

expenses, and you can pass those on to
your client.

So the first expense that you might
incur is an assistant fee.

And so an assistant fee basically
covers a light and grip assistant or a

production assistant or just helping
hands on set.

Those assistant fees are usually built
on its flat rates,

and they can vary from 200 to 600
dollars.

I rarely work with less than two
assistants, and I'm going to pass that

fee on to my clients.

So I don't take that out of my creative
fee.

Next up is going to be your studio and
equipment rental.

So how much does it cost to rent your
studio, or how much will it cost to

rent someone else's studio.

And included in that is equipment.

Will you need a medium format camera?

Will you need a specific piece of
equipment?

And in all of that can be built to your
client.

I've heard of photographers charging
for every single piece of equipment

that they're bringing on set or in a
studio.

But I actually don't do that.

I don't think it would pass in a small
market.

But I do charge a rental fee for
specialized pieces of gear, such as a

generator or a medium format camera.

One thing I always make sure to include
on my quotes is a studio rental fee.

I pay monthly for my studio, and I make
sure to pass on that expense to my

clients, especially my commercial
clients.

Next up, we have to consider travel.

I travel a lot for my projects.

There is one line that will include all
travel expenses, which would include

your flights, your rental car, hotels,

food and any other miscellaneous
expenses while you're traveling.

There are other expenses to remember,

these are people such as hare makeup
and styling.

Unless that's otherwise negotiate as a
client provision,

then you're responsible for taking care
of these expenses.

And this would fall under expenses as
well.

Another side of expenses that we
haven't talked about yet is the post

processing.

So not only do I charge for retouching,
I also charge for file transfer, for

color grading and finally, delivery to
the client.

So to break it all down, file transfer
includes the time it takes to import

the image,

to call the images down, then finally
proof those images out to the client.

So basically you could think of it like
this.

All of this takes time.

So it's not going to be a part of my
creative fee.

It's going to be part of my expenses,
so I can build my client for it.

Next up is the retouching.

And this is typically everything that
Jordan is going to be taken care of.

That includes the skin and any
composite work.

Next up is the color grading, where I
take over and color the image.

This does take a significant amount of
time.

And then finally, the amount of time it
takes to upload these images to my

server, and then the delivery of the
client.

All this requires time.

And time is money.

So I have to build this to the client.

I know this might be a little
overwhelming, but in the next business

section, I developed three potential
jobs.

And I'm going to show you how I charge
for each one of them