How much to charge??

[Kengi]

Hi all:

First, thanks for taking the time to read this. I know is always a tough question so I'm really looking to see if I'm in the right ballpark as far as pricing. I have a production company in the San Francisco Bay Area and we recently bought a P4. I am trying to get a feel for what a fair market value is for flying for corporate jobs. We are a smaller production company and we are insured to the teeth. You can check out my site here: www.12point.net

Here is a link to our Demo we recently put together. (demo was just us getting shots when we could)

Dropbox - AERIAL REEL.mp4

Here is a link to photos.
Dropbox - AERIAL PHOTOS

I put those up just to show the quality of work that we can do.

Here is my thought and wanted your take on this please. The idea would be on the photo side... for a total of 4 photos (color corrected) roughly 2ish hours of time on site, 2ish on color correcting, total = $1000.00

For video my thought was: 2ish hours on site, four 10ish second clips (10 sec seems to be about the right length for a usable clip) 2ish hours on color correction, total = $1400.00.

I do understand it will depend on what we are filming, where it is, and other factors. I just wanted to see if we were in the right ballpark. To high... to low???

Any advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[Philltayl]

I would love some of what you are smoking!!!!!!!

 

[Kengi]

Phill:

Please be a bit mature. Do you think it's too high? Just simply let me know. Do you think it's too low?? Just let me know. The reason why I say this is if there is a community out there who is doing corporate work with a drone I want my pricing to be on the same level. To undercut or overshoot in pricing does no one any good. If you shoot corporate work with your drone are these rates comparable to what you charge?

 

[Philltayl]

Phill:

Please be a bit mature. Do you think it's too high? Just simply let me know. Do you think it's too low?? Just let me know. The reason why I say this is if there is a community out there who is doing corporate work with a drone I want my pricing to be on the same level. To undercut or overshoot in pricing does no one any good. If you shoot corporate work with your drone are these rates comparable to what you charge?

I am assuming that you have the relevant certificates/training that you need to operate commercialy

 

[Kengi]

We've registered the drone and are about to take the Remote Pilot Certificate test on Friday.

 

[embayweather]

As a retired pro photographer you should consider your pricing not on what others charge but on whether you think you would pay that for the quality of work AND service you provide. Start small to gauge the market. If you are good you can raise your prices. If you are not good, then you will find out quickly.
Survey the local competition in terms of quality and service. How does yours measure up? Would you pay for your sort of service that amount you propose. Would you pay the others what they show?
Sorry it may not help much, but it will largely depend on your skills. It will also depend on whether you do it that many $$$$ worth more than Uncle Joe with his drone. You will certainly come across those too.

 

[Kengi]

Hi

As a retired pro photographer you should consider your pricing not on what others charge but on whether you think you would pay that for the quality of work AND service you provide. Start small to gauge the market. If you are good you can raise your prices. If you are not good, then you will find out quickly.
Survey the local competition in terms of quality and service. How does yours measure up? Would you pay for your sort of service that amount you propose. Would you pay the others what they show?
Sorry it may not help much, but it will largely depend on your skills. It will also depend on whether you do it that many $$$$ worth more than Uncle Joe with his drone. You will certainly come across those too.

Hi Embayweather:

Totally agree. Issue is that it is next to impossible to find out how much the competition is charging. That is one of the reason I put sample links in the original post. So you guys can get an idea of what we've done casually so far. Here they are again.

Dropbox - AERIAL REEL.mp4

Here is a link to photos.
Dropbox - AERIAL PHOTOS

Feed back on these would be great as well. There other issue is since I don't know what my competition is charging it's very difficult to set a starting price. I know pro photogs personally that charge way more than what I'm starting with. But these guys are high end pros that shoot for agencies and commercials. They don't use dones. They just use their cameras and are on the ground or they jump in a chopper.

 

[embayweather]

When I was starting out we used a member of my very large family to go and find out for us. Wedding fayres where brides would find photographers were a good place. One of my daughters would pretend to be a bride and get all the info needed. Perhaps a little unethical but everyone does it.
So find a volunteer and send them off to get quotes for the sort of jobs you are looking for. Reasonably cheap too. They will do it to you so make no mistake there.

 

[Kengi]

When I was starting out we used a member of my very large family to go and find out for us. Wedding fayres where brides would find photographers were a good place. One of my daughters would pretend to be a bride and get all the info needed. Perhaps a little unethical but everyone does it.
So find a volunteer and send them off to get quotes for the sort of jobs you are looking for. Reasonably cheap too. They will do it to you so make no mistake there.

Thanks for your time and will take it into consideration.

 

[Meta4]

Please be a bit mature. Do you think it's too high? Just simply let me know. Do you think it's too low?? Just let me know.

I think he was very surprised at the idea of 4 photos for $1000.
Maybe that's achievable with some really special photos and a client that wants the photos very much.
But clients that think it's a good price are going to be very hard to find.

 

[With The Birds]

Your show reel is very nice. I share Meta4's view. You might struggle getting a grand for four images, there are many competitors who will do it for less.

As for the video that doesn't seem like a rude price for an existing production facility with good post engineers. You'd want to be flying something higher spec than a P4 though at this price point.

 

[Ryan Hanscom]

Have you calculated your fully burdened hourly cost yet? This is a great way to get a gauge based on your needs not what others charge. For example...there might be a company charging $200 for four photos and another charging $1000 for four photos. The one more profitable could be the $200 company. You should come up with what the cost is for your time + Insurance costs + Fuel + Cost of Equipment + Any additional factors (depreciation of equipment, editing software, computer, phone, etc.) Now that you have your fully burdened hourly cost what Margin are you trying to get? 20% Should be a bottom starting point. 50% would be healthy. Obviously you can add a lot to your cost if the market will pay it but without your costs you won't know if you are even remotely on the right track. I hope that helps


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[Bendix]

I think those prices are way too high, but ultimately what your customers are willing to pay will tell. Being insured is a must. If you need a waiver the waiting period is measured in months. All those act to increase your cost of doing business. So depending on the industry/client/location your fees might not be unreasonable.

I think it's good to get whatever work you can along with satisfied customers who will give you good references. That will be a competitive advantage when Johnny Just Outta Highschool comes along charging 75% less than you do to deliver nearly the same results.

One scenario that worries me is competing with an uninsured operator who's never even heard of Part 107 charging a whole lot less than I do. You know there will be clients lining up at his door as long as the risks of getting caught are negligible.

 

[ihj]

I used to do a fair amount of commercial photography when I ran my own business in the UK, which may be a very different market, but none of the photos had the "wow" factor for me. There is no way my clients would have paid the equivalent of $1000 for those 4 photos. Likewise, I have seen a lot of videos on this site shot by amateurs that had much more impact than the show reel you published.

Maybe, instead of skiing the question on a drone site, mostly populated by enthusiastic drone flyers and a small number of pros, you should be asking this question on a photography web site.

Just my 2c worth.


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