Just as a small addendum to the real estate listing photos post: remember I billed just under $600 for the whole job. Thirty-seven shots. I used to get a fee of $675 for one shot when I did portraits...that was for the sitting and two identical handmade custom prints of exceedingly high quality, with additional prints on 8x10" paper being $80 each. Of course my customers did get six really nice little individual proofs to choose from, though they had to give those back. And that was in the 1980s, 35 years ago! Inflation has been 2.5x since then.
So that's the level we're at. I really appreciate all the comments, and I listened. I like what one commenter said: they're two levels above ordinary RE photos and two levels below high-quality architectural interiors done by professional specialists. That strikes me as the right level to shoot for, for the money.
Mike
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I graduated from a journalism school in the US in 1990. My tuition was $14000. I got a 38-hour-a-week job after that which paid $38000.
Around 2012, I spoke with an assistant dean at the school about promoting the school to prospective foreign students. I asked him about the financial picture. Tuition was then $60000 and a ‘good’ job upon graduation still paid around $35000.
I never promoted the school.
Posted by: John | Friday, 11 October 2024 at 07:37 AM
But just like in the 1980's, you have a choice of what price point you want to be. In the 80's there were certainly people doing that portrait shoot for a quarter of what you were as well as 5 times higher. You are removed from the commercial market and then just sort of inserted yourself with a completely random number. My method of pricing has been somewhat similar for almost 30 years. If I give a price and the client says yes, I should be happy they said yes. If I quoted a price and then get the job and I dread doing it, I'm not charging enough.
Posted by: JOHN B GILLOOLY | Friday, 11 October 2024 at 01:42 PM
According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, which has an inflation calculator on its website where you can compute the value of money between two points in time starting with 1913, $675 in 1985 equals $1,973.22 in 2024.
Posted by: Gary Merken | Friday, 11 October 2024 at 09:47 PM
Your pictures filled me with house lust. I love the place and would be happy to live in it so on a practical level your photos are a success.
I also think they are nicely done.
Posted by: Mike Plews | Friday, 11 October 2024 at 11:01 PM
1972 magazine shoot paid $500 a day plus expenses.
Try finding that now for most of them.
Posted by: Daniel | Friday, 11 October 2024 at 11:37 PM