pricing for car photography

[Curtis Cunningham]

I had a new client come in for passport photographs this afternoon, and afterwards he asked if I did other kinds of photography as well. Turns out he has a car he has been restoring and is wanting some photography done of it when it is finished. Right now he'd want 4 or 5 images for the web plus one print (of the best overall shot) that he'd like framed (roughly 12x18).

I have a general idea of how I would charge for this work, but I'd appreciate some consideration given to my general fee structure to see if there's anything that I'm missing.

Here's the general outline of what I'd charge:

• hourly rate for travel and photography time
• licensing price per chosen image (each image would come in two versions: web-size and high quality)
• any post production billed at an hourly rate
• nominal rate for burning chosen images onto CD
• gst/pst on all above items

Options:

• purchasing rights to images based on a rate of 100% of whatever price the above items come to

He did mention the possibility of trying to find sponsors for the car, and he also wants to place the image(s) in magazines. We did not talk about which kinds of magazines the images would go into or the circulation of said magazines. Should this idea pan out for him, how should I adjust the above pricing scheme (both for the immediate work of doing the photography, and then later for licensing the images for magazines)? Should I make separate quotes, or roll everything into one quote?
Thanks for your advice,
Curtis

[Noel_Carboni]

I'm interested in any advice given in this thead as well.

Personally I've always had an interest in car photography and I've done some halfway decent images with my own cars (some examples here). I've often wondered whether I could pick up some extra $$ by peddling fine art car photography at local car shows, for example.

I'm afraid I can't offer much help now but when you get to actually doing the shots, Curtis, I'd love to talk about the technicals.

-Noel

[Curtis Cunningham]

For those interested, here's a shot (before the work had begun) of the car my client is restoring . I believe he's spent about 300 hours so far working on the restoration, and it may not be done till next year either!

[Curtis Cunningham]

Some questions for you Noel,

1. Do you use a light-meter to get a correct exposure (using the reflected attachment correct)?
2. Do you use any sort of a tripod at all? (I'm specifically thinking of the interior shots where the camera is inside the car and light is at a premium. Perhaps with my 5D and being able to go up to ISO 3200, I may not need a tripod...)

Thanks,
Curtis