For those that charge, how much can you make per shoot?
- Thread starter aljames
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Please listen to this and don't ruin aerial photography by making it a race to the bottom. Set your rates so that it makes fiscal sense for your situation. The upper limit should be as high as you can get. If someone wants you do do an aerial shoot for $200, let them spend the $1200-$2000 instead on one of these platforms, learn to pilot and maintain it; and plan and execute an aerial shoot. You are not doing yourself or anyone a favor by selling your services short. The video game space is impossible to get into because we've trained the population that mobile games should be free. And free is not even the bottom. In the acting world desperate aspiring actors actually PAY to audition.lutece7 said:
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aljames said:
I hope my drone last more than 50 flights too. But i bet, if you are in drone business long enough, that might not be such a bad number of flights you can expect to get out of your drone. What do you think that number is? 70? 80? 40?
I spent $2000 on a nikon 14-28mm 2.8 lens 6 years ago. I use it all the time in my architectural business, i have recouped its cost dozens of times over. I have $2000+ in my vision + system. There is no way it is going to give me as much return. So, i have told my clients that if they want aerial photography from my aerial UAV , they will have to pay a premium. The cost of operating it is much higher than my other photography equipment. I havent had any problems yet. But i am convinced that my vision is going to die or get lost after dozens of jobs, not after hundreds of jobs, like my 14-28 lens.
I dont want to put my portfolio up on this site, because i am afraid of FAA trolling this site. If you suspect that i am not all that i say i am, so be it. I have been doing good work. My only source of income has been commercial photography for 30+ years. Ad agencies, magazines, design studios, web developers, corporations, commercial real estate brokers, architects, construction companies, aviation, and industrial clients. UAV photography will be a small percentage of my income. But i love it. And it keeps others from sniping my clients.
Personally, just me, i think you can only charge for commercial flights when you are a pro at flying AND filming/photography.
I mean, you can buy the most expensive DJI out there, put the most expensive camera under it... but that doesn't make it worth the shots.
I love the movies in the video section, but most of them are crap if you look at it professionally.
People that are not in the business shouldn't even be doing this for "some extra cash".
I read prices here of $350 and all, with those prices you blow away the people that actually know what they are doing AND deliver much better quality.
I am not a film/photographer at all, i love just flying my DJI, love making little clips, doing pretty on the editting part, but would never ever do this for money.
Simply because there are professionals out there.
I am in kind of the same situation with my own company, work fulltime in the music industry and there are tons of people out there that offer my service for cheap. TOO cheap.
We have a saying: If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys......
I mean, you can buy the most expensive DJI out there, put the most expensive camera under it... but that doesn't make it worth the shots.
I love the movies in the video section, but most of them are crap if you look at it professionally.
People that are not in the business shouldn't even be doing this for "some extra cash".
I read prices here of $350 and all, with those prices you blow away the people that actually know what they are doing AND deliver much better quality.
I am not a film/photographer at all, i love just flying my DJI, love making little clips, doing pretty on the editting part, but would never ever do this for money.
Simply because there are professionals out there.
I am in kind of the same situation with my own company, work fulltime in the music industry and there are tons of people out there that offer my service for cheap. TOO cheap.
We have a saying: If you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys......
Musicman said:
Totally with you Musicman. I had the same problems with so called musicians (when I still worked as a pro musician),asking less then a third of what the normal rates were, only to be pushing buttons and playing midi files and sounding like crap. That's actually what the current music culture has come from
. But you are right. Even having a lot of experience as a SLR photographer since the early eighties I am still learning to shoot decent aerial stuff. Would not dare to ask money for it (yet). Nice avatar by the way
lutece7 said:
Hey I didn't for one second suspect you not to be the real deal, sorry if you took it that way. I was just curious to see what kind of quality to expect from someone charging a premium for their work. That was all. I respect that you are doing this at the high end and agree rates should equal the expertise and investment involved.
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I apologize for being defensive, aljames.
I also forgot to mention that every job i get usually requires a couple of dozen emails. That takes time i dont get to charge for. Neither do i get to charge for all the time i have to spend packing up all my camera, grip, and lighting equipment. Dont get compensated for that.
I also forgot to mention that every job i get usually requires a couple of dozen emails. That takes time i dont get to charge for. Neither do i get to charge for all the time i have to spend packing up all my camera, grip, and lighting equipment. Dont get compensated for that.
Yes you're quite right. I charge a premium for my live music services and often when you ask for less, the perception is that you're not that good.
That could be getting into a grey area if the purpose of shooting the video is to bring traffic to your free site if it has ads on it.noiseboy72 said:
Keeper of Maps said:
There'll be no adds on my website now or in the future. So don't see that as a problem.
Not to disagree with the professionals out there, but as technology gets better and cheaper shouldn't the cost to hire a professional be cheaper as well? I don't understand why a client should pay the same price for a photographer and a helicopter because that's what the going rate has always been. One of the greatest advantages of this technology is it's ability to cheaply get a camera in the air. If you don't pass that savings on to your client the next guy will. It's up to the client if they want a picture/video only a few "professionals" might be able to tell wasn't taken by a "professional".
A lot of people seem to think (especially the pros) you're only a pro if you have a $10,000 camera. You see it in these forums a lot with people saying you can't make "real money" unless you have a octocopter with a dslr or better. I'm curious to know what your true margins are with that amount of equipment and personal. If you're puttng $30,000-50,000 in the air I imagine you're a pilot or you're paying a pilot to fly along with the camera operator. You have good liability and property insurance. Post production costs, advertising/marketing your business. Are there sales positions in video production? If so that would typically be 10% off the top.
With all that said there is a huge market out there for what I will call "less than professional" aerial work. No Realtor with a $500,000 listing will pay somebody $10,000 to make a 2 minute video that looks like a TV commercial. But there are plenty who will fork over a few hundred dollars for a unique video to help market the home. I disagree with those that feel this is a race to the bottom. This is creating a new niche for photography / video production.
A lot of people seem to think (especially the pros) you're only a pro if you have a $10,000 camera. You see it in these forums a lot with people saying you can't make "real money" unless you have a octocopter with a dslr or better. I'm curious to know what your true margins are with that amount of equipment and personal. If you're puttng $30,000-50,000 in the air I imagine you're a pilot or you're paying a pilot to fly along with the camera operator. You have good liability and property insurance. Post production costs, advertising/marketing your business. Are there sales positions in video production? If so that would typically be 10% off the top.
With all that said there is a huge market out there for what I will call "less than professional" aerial work. No Realtor with a $500,000 listing will pay somebody $10,000 to make a 2 minute video that looks like a TV commercial. But there are plenty who will fork over a few hundred dollars for a unique video to help market the home. I disagree with those that feel this is a race to the bottom. This is creating a new niche for photography / video production.
The actual pros - people doing photography for a living - know that what makes a pro is REVENUE and JOBS - not equipment.
There are lots of photo hobbyists out there with $10K-$15K in camera gear. Last time I was in Africa, half the **** tourists were carrying $7,000 Leicas and $4000+ Nikon lenses. I felt poor with my D7000+70-200/2.8. Some of these hobbyists do a few jobs here and there, playing photographer.
But the real pros are people who SELL. They might have a cheap Rebel and crap lens, but they actually sell, sell, sell. And if they're good at selling, even if their work is weak, the clients are usually happy, and it becomes a job for them.
Drone photography is not going to be any different. If you sell, sell, sell, you will get clients and you will have happy clients and you will be a "pro" if you want to. It doesn't matter what equipment you have. It only matters how good you are at positioning yourself and filling a need out there.
In other words, Pros are people who make a living from it. Most of it is not fashion photographers taking glamorous photos of sexy models for thousands of dollars per day. Most of it is low-end work of baby pics, high school/corporate/wannabe model portraits/headshots, wedding photography. If you look at photographer income statistics, it's very depressing and most photographers are making peanuts. Too many photographers chasing too few clients.
There are lots of photo hobbyists out there with $10K-$15K in camera gear. Last time I was in Africa, half the **** tourists were carrying $7,000 Leicas and $4000+ Nikon lenses. I felt poor with my D7000+70-200/2.8. Some of these hobbyists do a few jobs here and there, playing photographer.
But the real pros are people who SELL. They might have a cheap Rebel and crap lens, but they actually sell, sell, sell. And if they're good at selling, even if their work is weak, the clients are usually happy, and it becomes a job for them.
Drone photography is not going to be any different. If you sell, sell, sell, you will get clients and you will have happy clients and you will be a "pro" if you want to. It doesn't matter what equipment you have. It only matters how good you are at positioning yourself and filling a need out there.
In other words, Pros are people who make a living from it. Most of it is not fashion photographers taking glamorous photos of sexy models for thousands of dollars per day. Most of it is low-end work of baby pics, high school/corporate/wannabe model portraits/headshots, wedding photography. If you look at photographer income statistics, it's very depressing and most photographers are making peanuts. Too many photographers chasing too few clients.
This is spot on. A pro photo journalist I know that worked for a tabloid said his blackberry snaps often ended up on the front page. It's not the quality it's the moment snapshot captured, and sold.
lutece7 said:
Thanks for your input. It's stuff like this that's hard to figure out. I think you hit the nail on the head. I certainly wouldn't want to undercut the market and would want to charge my fair share. That said, as the technology proliferates prices tend to go down as people purchase the gear on their own and look for DYI options.
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