Imagine if a restaurant charged for its meals based only on the time it takes to prepare the food. What if clothes were priced based only on the time it took to sew that piece of clothing? How about a grocery store that priced by the hour? For example, you get all the groceries you can grab for a rate of, say, $200/hour.
A potential customer today asked why I don’t charge by the hour. She said that an hourly rate would be much easier for her. Of course, “much easier” usually means “much cheaper.”
The person asked for a quote to produce a number of marketing photos for a Toronto financial company. I priced my photo quote based on the number of pictures they used. The more I deliver, the more I should be paid, right? It’s exactly how all other businesses work. The more you buy, the more you pay.
If a photographer charges by the hour or by the day then:
• the photographer is simply an hourly wage earner.
• the customer is encouraged to shop price.
• work that requires more setup time will cost more but the customer won’t get more.
• all photos will have the same value no matter how they’re used.
• the value of a photo will be measured by time.
• the photographer won’t earn more if the customer takes more.
Charging by the hour, or by the day, puts the value on the work process. Charging by usage puts the value on the finished work which is what really matters.
A company doesn’t buy photography to save money, it buys photography to make money. How much a customer pays for photography shouldn’t be more important than much they benefit from it.
Interesting. I’ve always priced my photography by the hour. Even when I go an shoot a corporate session onsite, I charge my full-day session rate, plus a per-person price that includes retouching. I came to this amount based on my hourly rate.
I wholeheartedly agree that our photography should be priced based on several factors, not the least of which is value. The trick is to convince potential clients of that value, especially when they can’t appreciate the effort, experience and quality that they’re receiving in exchange.