Lessons
Class Introduction
05:06 2How To Get Work As A Food Photographer
02:54 3Understanding Your Skill Level and Your Market
03:20 4How To Grow Your Business
01:28 5Opportunities In Commercial Food Photography
08:17 6How Do You Market Yourself
08:23 7The Importance of Attitude and Communication
03:30 8Understanding Insurance Responsibilities and Liability
05:38Understanding Taxes and Accounting
03:11 10The Importance of Representation and How To Get It
09:59 11File Management and Protection
02:40 12Understanding Stock Photography as a Business
04:59 13Contracts: The Law and Your Rights
03:18 14Negotiating with Clients: 10 Questions you Need to Ask–Part 1
06:57 15Negotiating with Clients: 10 Questions you Need to Ask–Part 2
05:16 16Negotiating and Talking Money with Clients
02:31 17Who are the Players in Commercial Food Photography
09:43 18How to Manage Client Expectations
02:38 19How to Assemble a Team
04:11 20The Production Team
04:48 21On Set Support
04:51 22Editors and Post Production
02:47 23What Expenses are Associated with a Shoot
04:01 24What is Usage?
05:35 25How to Anticipate Expenses
02:56 26Calculating Price Based on Rates, Usage and Expenses
03:35 27Where do You Go Next?
03:17 28Continuing Education and Research
06:28 29How to Get your Work Out There and Get Noticed
02:47 30Treatments and Final Wrap-Up
06:23Lesson Info
What is Usage?
and we've kind of started to address the idea of what usage actually is right. We started talking about how we're going to use those photos in what venue and for how long, Right? And that's really how easy that is. But again, how we working that into our flat rate system, particularly with things like cookbooks, because cookbooks are, ah unique entity in that if a cookbook really takes off and goes into multiple printings, starts printing overseas in different languages, all of those things you're not really being compensated for those things. And it's very unlikely that you're gonna be able to negotiate a deal until you have some kind of real stature in the industry and have a proven track record off 10 cookbooks on The New York Times best seller list or something crazy like that. I mean, the idea is you're gonna get paid what you're gonna get paid. So take that into account to when you're building a flat rate that if this book really takes off, there's no more money in it for you. Um...
, and it may raise your stature more in the industry, and you'll and your name will be out there more and maybe other publishers will want to use you because you photographed a book that has done very, very well. But be aware that build those kind of expectations into your flat rates when you're doing that. And again when I work in cookbooks, I work per recipe and I create that structure just like a do for editorial. I create a per recipe structured that includes and and a simple way to do it is okay. What's the top end for food stylist? Let's say 1000 bucks right? 12. 50. And I divide that over. How many days is it going to take right or multiplied by how many days this job's gonna take? Okay, so I got a five day job. So let's say I'm gonna budget about five grand for food styling. All right, that's got to go into that. I divide that by, you know, and I add that in to the to the line item. Then I put my creative fee in there. Put that on there, put the studio fee put, it'll get it all there, get a whole number divided by five or divine, not five. I'm sorry. Divided by 2030 40 50. However, many recipes were doing and there's your price. It is ultimately only math, but you also have to remember that your math and my math might be different. So you, as long as you understand your part price structure in your market with the people who are around you, what a stylist costs, what you're willing to pay them. And then here's the thing. If you have stylists that you like to work with who don't need to be paid that much money, you can still use the number to build into your cost so that you can make a little bit more money as to creative and as the person who is putting together the whole production. So that's where your markup comes in. It's not, you know, because you can justify Ah, $1000 a day for a stylist doesn't mean you have to pay $1000 a day for a stylist. If you get somebody to work for 7 50 you're 250 a day in the good towards your production. It's only homework, and that's where you are able to start to do the math. You call up the studios in your neighborhood or your region and say, How much is a studio kitchen cost? Go there and scout that place. See if it's something you want to work in. Then all of a sudden you realize, well, the studio that a day isn't gonna work for me, but the one that's 1000 a day will. Now you know that you need to budget 1000 a day because that's the one that works into your workflow. And now you have that part of your budget already worked out. So, um, and we've talked a little bit about buyouts in terms already, right? We talked about that in the earliest part of the idea of usage, um, from the advertising perspective. But we don't really talk about usage in editorial, and we certainly don't really talk about it much in publishing, either. It's and it's implied that they're gonna be able to use those pictures. And here's the way I structure contracts for cookbooks you own the rights to the image is the rights to the image is in perpetuity for use of this cookbook and promotion of this cookbook, wherever that might be meaning overseas different languages, whatever. But it ends when that book project is over. Those images on Lee Live to support that project and I own the copyright. I also usually tell people I will put a moratorium on or an embargo on those images for as long as the book is in regular circulation. They want work for hire. They all do. But what you say is you're getting what you want. But I still own my copyright, and that's all you want in that situation. And that's part of the usage kind of conversation is you're still just licensing the pictures. You just happen to be licence, the licensing them forever. But you just licensing them and you've already paid for it. And I'm not going to reuse those images in any way that's gonna conflict with your project in reality is that nobody's coming after photographers for re using a picture that appeared in a cookbook five years ago. Nobody's doing that, and if they do, they get to see a cease and desist letter, and then you take the picture down or whatever you know, no one's going to court over that, so just be mindful of that, too. Don't be so frightened by the contracts. They talk tough, but they don't really mean much