SAP-TOP 10 Questions #1. What is Included in an Estimate?

Working in this industry, you understand the importance of accurately defining the scope of work in order to determine your firm's design fees. Similarly, in order to prepare an estimate for you, a photographer must have a detailed description of the assignment.

Though every photographer is different, typically an estimate has three components:

• Project Description
• Licensing Rights (Usage) Granted
• Pricing

Project Description

Including the name and location of the project additional information that will need to be included is the number of views, and the project timeframe, usually with a few milestones such as shoot date, and proof delivery date, final delivery date.

Also be sure to include your final image requirements as they relate to specific forms of media. Do you require transparencies, slides, black and white prints, color prints, electronic files or other specific deliverables? Remember to specify the sizes and quantities you will need.

Licensing Rights (Usage) Granted

An image is considered the intellectual property of the creator, the photographer. The photographer owns the copyright to the images he or she creates and is the only one who can license their use. This section of the estimate should very specifically answer these three basic questions:

• Who will use the images?
• How and where will the images appear?
• How long will the images be used?

We tend to have our Usage information detailed in the Usage section of the Estimate, but some photographers have a separate licensing agreement document. If several parties choose to share in the cost of an project, each party is provided with a separate written licensing agreement unique to their specific needs.

It is vitally important that you and your photographer agree on the scope of a license before beginning the project. Should your marketing plans for the images change, be sure to discuss them with your photographer as soon as possible. This could save you money, because if you were planning on using the images in an advertisement, and now you are not, the cost of your usage fee will go down significantly.

Also, if you plan to share photographs with third parties who have not been involved in the commissioned assignment (e.g., members of the design team, contractors, consultants, product manufacturers, clients, tenants or magazine editors), permission must be obtained in writing from the photographer. Yes, oftentimes this will involve a cost, either to you or the third party, but, would you want someone to get something for free that you spent a lot of money to commission?

Also very important, you cannot give the right to use images to another person or firm without the written consent of the copyright holder, the photographer. You should also advise the party receiving the images to contact the photographer directly to secure a license granting permission for their use.

CAUTION: If you have received photographs from another person or firm, and you haven’t seen a document providing written permission for you to use them, it is YOUR responsibility to secure licensing rights before using them. When in doubt, contact the photographer before using the images.

Any copying, reproduction, distribution, public display or creation of derivative works of images without specific permission from the photographer is a violation of Federal copyright law.

Simply having physical possession of photographs, slides, prints, transparencies or digital files does NOT grant the right to use them.

Pricing

An estimate typically has two components:

• fees
• expenses

Fees

There are two kinds of fees:

- Production or Creative Fees-reflect the time it takes to complete the entire assignment. This includes intangibles such as the photographer's experience, creativity and vision that he or she brings to the assignment. Other variables include: the total number of views requested, travel time, scheduling and deadlines, site logistics, and artistic considerations such as vantage point, time of day and composition.

In addition to the actual time spent behind the camera, a photographer's pre-production and post-production time may also be included in the Production Fee. Pre-production tasks commonly include: client meetings, site visits, meetings with the facility's management to organize access to the location, conversations with building engineers to arrange technical assistance with lighting, landscape maintenance and other related site-specific preparation. Post-production tasks commonly include image editing and selection, digital enhancement, client meetings and preparing images for final delivery.

- Licensing (Usage) Fees-reflect the value of the usage for each image in the assignment. This is determined by a number of considerations including how widely the images will be viewed, reproduced and distributed. Typically, the more extensive the usage, the higher the fee. Similarly, the fee increases correspondingly with the number of unique views being used.

To obtain the best value at the outset, negotiate usage for the entire group of images based on your currently planned needs, with the understanding that additional rights and related fees for unique purposes can be arranged in the future.

Expenses

Expenses for film photography may include: material costs such as film, processing and supplies. For digital photography, they may include: image capture charges, file conversions, post-production charges, archiving, digital retouching and file delivery.

Additional expenses may include charges for assistant(s), travel, photo finishing, special equipment or prop rentals, stylists, costs for location access, models, special insurance and miscellaneous expenses.

Whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com
866-722-9506

SAP-Introducing: The Top Ten Questions Our Clients Ask

We're starting a new series, based on the commonly asked questions we hear from clients. We hear these comments and questions over and over again, so hopefully they will be of help to you. Once a month in our eNewsletter and this blog we will post a new question and a detailed response. Have a question for us, please don't hesitate to email it!  Whether we are your photographer on a project or not, we are always happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Architectural and Aerial Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com
866-722-9506

SAP - Saving Money on Your Photography

With today's economy, savings money is forefront of everyone's minds. It is easy to think putting off on marketing efforts, including photographing your projects, but when things are slow is the exact time you should be ramping up your marketing.

There are all sorts of ways to reduce the financial impact of photographing your projects:

- Share the Cost with Others. If you feel a building is worth photographing, your general contractor, vendors, interior designers, and even the building owner or occupant probably feel the same way. Here at R2 we encourage you to talk with other participants in a project and have the jointly commission the photography with you. When you do that, we divide your creative fees and expenses equally between the commissioning parties. Suddenly you have reduced those line items of the shoot by half, two thirds, etc. A signifiant savings. The only aspect of the shoot that is not split among participants is the usage fee. That is because each participant probably has different uses for the images. While one firm would want the images for web sites, corporate brochures, etc. another may want to use them in advertising.

- Plan Ahead, Be Flexible. The more flexibility you have in your shooting schedules and deadlines, the more inexpensive your project can be. If we are able to combine travel expenses with another project, both projects share in the savings. The more time we have to fit the project into our schedule, we also extend savings to our clients. Rush jobs, or quick turn around projects are exponentially more expensive.

- Shop Locally. By utilizing local talent for your photography needs, you're significantly reducing the travel costs for a project, pure and simple. It is an amazing phenomenon that out of town photographers are so much higher regarded, just because they are from "out of town." But, they are local to somewhere, so, there is a pretty good chance you have extremely talented photographers right nearby.

- Prioritize Views / Use Fewer Views. This is the toughest way to save on the costs of photography, you really want 10 images documenting all the features of the design in a structure, but your budget just can't absorb that many images. But reducing the number of images can save you across the board with photographer time on site, post production, usage fees on all the images.

- Multiple Projects. This can be a great way, with one caveat, be prepared to contract for the projects all at the same time. Here at R2 Photography we are thrilled to secure multiple projects with a client, and offer a discount on all the projects. The projects do not have to be shot one right after the other, but just have the projects on the books and the contracts signed. The reason we insist on all the projects being contracted at the same time, is, just like nearly every other photography firm on the planet, we have heard, "if you give us a discount on this first project, we will use you again on this one coming up" and… nothing happens with the second project. 

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!Kimberly Blom-RoemerPhotographerR2 Photography, LLCr2-photography.com866-722-9506

SAP-Continuing the Alliance

Congratulations, you have found a photographer you like their work, their prices, and most likely, you like them. How do you stay in touch with them?

- Stay in Contact

- Join their mailing list

- Follow their blog

- Invite them to send in new work

Future Project Estimates - Try to give the photographer as much lead time as possible for a project to ensure they can provide a thorough Estimate as well as give you priority scheduling in their calendars. By having them provide Estimates against other photographers that you also like their work, will ensure the pricing you are receiving is on standard with the industry.

Really Like Them - Consider a Multi-Project Contract

This will ensure they are there for you.

How to Get More “Bang for your Buck”

Provide Feedback.

Be sure to provide the photographer feedback on his/her images. These are business people the same as yourself, and if you, the customer, isn’t happy or would like to try a different approach, the photographer should be open to your suggestions.

Scrapbook

As you go through your business day/weeks, there are bound to be images of other projects that an angle catches your eye, a time of day/lighting, anything. Show these to your photographer. It will help him/her gauge your tastes and preferences, leading to increasingly successful projects in the future.

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com

866-722-9506

SAP-Image Delivery

This can depend on a multitude of variables, as well as the methodology of the individual photographer. But most importantly, if there was a serious time consideration, this should have been disclosed to the photographer at the time the Estimate was requested.

Time Frame

This is greatly dependent on the number of images in your shoot, specific deadlines requested at the time of Estimate, and the workload of the photographer’s studio itself. Your photographer should provide you an estimated date of delivery of proofs (whether online or hard copy) within 1-2 business days of the shoot. Just a basic rule of thumb on the typical processing time images not requiring extensive post production efforts is two to twelve hours for each image, so if you have a five image shoot and taking an average of that, you could potentially be looking at 30 man hours in post production, so, potentially a week.

Online Contact Sheets

For ease of review, and sharing among many parties within your firm, many photographers provide online contact sheets to their clients. From these contact sheets, final delivered images can be selected. However, some clients still prefer to have a physical contact sheet delivered. If this is your preference, be sure to tell that to the photographer at the time you’re asking for the Estimate.

Final Images

There is a wide variety of image delivery options available to you:

• Electronic Download - final image files can easily be downloaded directly from a photographer’s web site
• DVD Delivery - a physical DVD with all the final images delivered to your office
• Hard Copy Delivery - a hard copy print(s) created by the photographer
• Combination - some clients prefer a combination of two or more of the above delivery options of the final images

Image Storage

Though your photographer undoubted is going to maintain a copy of your images, to be absolutely safe that you always have access to your images, the best approach is maintaining your own catalog.

The industry standard for Digital Asset Management (yes, DAM) is the 3-2-1 approach.

• Three (3) copies of the images
• Two (2) different onsite drives or media (one hard disk/server, one DVD, or two hard disks)
• One (1) offsite copy. These files can be maintained on either a hard disk, back up service, etc.

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com

866-722-9506

SAP-Post Production

OK, you’ve chosen the photographer, received the estimate, photographed the project, since there isn’t any film processing involved anymore, you should have your photographs immediately when you leave the shoot, yes? Not quite.

Basic Digital Processing

The extent in which post production processing takes place on your images depends on a lot of factors, including what special treatment the images require as determined in the Estimate. But nearly every photographer (or their digital production staff), at minimum, performs the following actions on their images:

• Imports them into their digital asset management system. This includes cataloging your images as well as inserting permanent digital text information (meta data) into the images.
• Basic retouching for minor imperfections including dust on the sensor, flaws on the site.
• Applying subtle changes in contrast/color balance/tone to ensure all the images appear to have the identical color cast and exposure.

Advanced Digital Enhancement

Depending on the specific services outlined in the Estimate, additional image enhancement can be applied:

• Light Color Temperature Adjustment. Sometimes there are multiple light sources with different color temperatures in one image. Lighting brought onto location, as other on site techniques, used by the photographer should minimize this impact, but sometimes it is easier and more cost effective to perform final adjustments digitally back in the studio.
• Removal of Distracting Elements. In the magic of the digital world it is more possible than ever to get rid of distracting slight switches, outlets, faceplates, plumbing, cords,
• Merging Multiple Exposures. This technique is commonly referred to as High Dynamic Range (HDR) and allows the photographer to take multiple images of the same scene at different exposures and merge them into one image. This allows for increased detail in highlights and shadow areas, and, for example, minimizes burn outs from over exposure from strong lighting coming in a window.

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com

866-722-9506

Schedule/Timing/Duration of Shooting Images

Ideally, the order in which images are taken needs to be established before arrival on the location and can easily be established by some kind of scouting. Natural lighting through windows, on exterior faces, etc. can determine what order images will be shot in. As a very rough rule of thumb, each individual image can take from 45 to 90 minutes to set up, properly stag with props and furniture arrangement, and photograph. However, some of the highest end architectural photographers can take several hours for set up, primarily to position lighting. I know of one of the top photographers that can has been known to use 200+ lights on a single image and it took eight hours to achieve his single, award-winning shot.

Photography Staging Area

Talk with the photographer about what kind of staging area needs are required. He/she will need space for cases, lighting assembly, and, if the photographer doesn’t work with their camera tethered to a display, a workstation to review images after the shot. Depending on the amount of equipment and props required, these needs can be just a few square feet, but generally average about 10x10.

Your Input - How Much Are You Involved?

Photography is a collaborative effort, but how this is handled varies from photographer to photographer. My approach is working with you, listening to your vision for the image, your preferences, learning what you’re trying to achieve with an image, etc. helps me create an image that hopefully exceeds your expectations. But just like you are a specialist in your field, we are as well, and bring unique experience and creativity to the process as well. If it were easy to just press a button and capture incredible images, you could bring in a high school student or someone from your administrative staff with a good camera.

Potential “Don’ts” When Working With A Photographer

This is varies from photographer to photographer:

• Touching Equipment. Just from a liability standpoint, if you were innocently shift a tripod or a light stand, and it were to fall over... well, you get the picture.
• Looking Through the View Finder/Touching the Camera. Some photographers absolutely don’t like this at all. With more and more photographers shooting tethered, you will be able to see the image instantaneously as soon as it is shot anyway. Besides, again, would you want to accidentally knock over that camera that potentially is worth more than some used cars?
• “Saying Anything But “Yes.”  I saw this written on another architectural photographer’s web site as something some photographers demand - and they were referred to as prima donnas. Personally if you were always saying yes to me, I would be worried that you weren’t completely involved in the project, and we might not be accomplishing your vision.

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com

866-722-9506

SAP-We Have an Estimate – Now What? Controlling the Cost of a Project

A photographer’s estimate is based on the information you provided about the scope of work of your project. Just like your bidding process for your own projects, there may be questions, clarifications, and negotiations. Don’t be afraid to ask questions or to negotiate, but just always negotiate in the same manner in which you would want to be negotiated with... fairly. When you ask the photographer for something, be prepared to give something.

Have your annual budget and number of projects in mind. Many photographers are willing to negotiate fees on one project, when there are multiple projects added to the original agreement. You’re familiar with this, the quantity discount. But, be prepared to contract all of these projects at the time you’re offering it, because nearly every single photographer has been burned on the promise of “future work” if you “cut us a deal” now, and the future work never materializes.

There are areas in which you can trim your costs, but always remember, the photographer has included these items in their estimate for a reason, and probably has already tried to keep these charges to a minimum in order to land your project. If you want to negotiate down the lighting rental charge, remember that this may impact the quality of the final image. If you’re looking at the number of assistants required, this may increase the amount of time the photographer has to be on site since set up may potentially take longer with fewer crew members.

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Owner-Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com

866-722-9506

SAP-Understanding the Estimate

The most common question an architectural photographer is asked, “How much will it cost?” But unfortunately, that question is usually asked without much detail about the project. Very few architectural photographers have a “Price List” because of the nature of each and every project is different. There is also not a “pay scale” for architectural photographers because images are not a commodity. Finally, identical services from two different photographers will charge a completely different set of fees.

Just like your design rates quoted in your proposals for projects, that number isn’t what the individual architect or designer takes home as their pay. Just like your firm, architectural photographers have overhead: cameras, computers, software, vehicles, lighting, office space, equipment, etc. The fees you see in an estimate aren’t just the charge for clicking a shutter.

All photographers are performing a balancing act between providing the most exceptional images possible while still providing you the most value for your project.

Elements of an Estimate

Though every Estimate is different, there are usually three basic components:

Creative Fee

Some photographers perform their services on a “Day” or “Half Day” rate, while others work on a “per shot” basis. This component also can be broken down by Photographer and Digital Artist (post production).

Usage Fee

You would not allow your General Contractor, or your Client, to take your designs for a building and build another building using them, and thus profit from it. Those are your creative designs and they are owned by your firm. The same holds true for your architectural photographs, the photographer lets you use them, just like you… for a fee.

Copyright of images is usually retained by the architectural photographer, unless specifically granted in the Terms and Conditions of your contract. Most photographers register their images with the US Copyright Office and to violate that copyright can be an expensive prospect. Some photographers do offer the copyrights to their images to their clients, but in doing so, they usually charge for this transfer.

Usage varies also according to how you are going to use the image. If you are going to use the images only for in-house documentation purposes, the usage would be relatively low. However, if you were going to use it on a billboard for paid advertising purposes, the Usage would be quite high because your potential financial gain from that image is a lot higher than the construction progress images in your file cabinet.

NOTE: To protect your firm, you need to be sure that you understand clearly the terms and conditions of usage of the images of your project. If you don’t understand something in the Terms and Conditions, ask the photographer, they will be more than happy to explain them, and if necessary, adjust them to meet your needs. However, this pay increase (or decrease) the Usage charges on the estimate.

Expenses

These are generally set expenses incurred by the photographer. Typical examples include:

• Assistants
• Lighting or Other Equipment Rental
• Location Scouting (either by the photographer or an assistant)
• Props
• Travel
• Media
• Permits

Whether you were there or not, and whether we are your photographer on a project or not, if you have any questions or comments about commissioning architectural photography, please feel free to drop us a line anytime. We'd be happy to help!

Kimberly Blom-Roemer
Photographer
R2 Photography, LLC
r2-photography.com

866-722-9506