Drone Photography pricing Guide.
As a professional photographer, it is getting harder to convince people to pay for my skills and talent. I get the question of how much do I charge for my drone photography and for my photography. I have to factor in rent, bills, car payment, insurance, and equipment. As everything thing continues to go up in price, few clients want to pay more money.
I always start with..... What are the photos going to be used for? Who retains the rights? Is the client going to be making money from the photo?
These key questions help make my decision in pricing my drone photography. On Lost Above I try to make prints affordable for everyone since there are limited additions I can print as many as I want. I do offer limited edition prints that offered at art shows or at The Shopkeepers in Santa Barbara, CA.
When I am working with clients that want to use the photos for commercial purposes( such as real estate agents, businesses, construction companies etc) I work with clients to adjust to their budgets without sacrificing what I need to actually make money. I also work with them on rights to the photos, if they want to buy exclusive rights to the photos then the price is much higher then if they want none exclusive rights or what to licenses the image/s for a period of time. Working together with the client for your drone photography is important.
I also factor in my equipment costs which have only been going up, along with repair costs. Like the new DJI Mavic Pro which is now for sale at just under $1500 which can be bought here. I need to sell 100 prints to make enough to buy it.
I also look at the cost of goods sold, which is the total cost of production of a good or service which includes its labor and material cost as well. If you are providing your client with an 8×10 print, the COGS isn’t only the cost of the print itself. The cost should also include post-production charges, packaging, and shipping charges.
I make sure that you include all the hidden costs associated with the final deliverables that you are selling to your clients. For example, even client proofing, storing and delivering digital files have a cost associated with them.
I try to factor in my costs, labor and the cost to advertise Lost Above in the drone photography that I sell.
For real estate drone photography, I take in how much the house is selling for and price it off the percentage of the cost of the house. The fine for real estate agents flying a drone and using the photos without a 107 license is $10,000 for the first time, so it is in the best interest of the real estate agents to use a licensed drone operator and a professional photographer.
A simple pricing guide
Entry Level Photographers - The entry-level or semi-professional photographers charge $50-$150 per hour or $25-$125 per image. They’re not as committed and often have other lines of work that they rely on.
Professional Photographers with experience - Professional, experienced photographers usually charge $75 - $250 per hour or per image. They rely solely on their photography work to make a living and typically have invested a lot in their equipment, and have more experience in both the pre-production and post-production stages of photography.
Top Professional Photographers - Top professional photographers, known as high-end photographers, charge $250 - $500 per hour or $200 -$1200 per image. This elite group of photographers command top dollar for their work and can even be paid up to $10,000 per day depending on their area of specialty. They cover areas such as sports, fashion, entertainment, film, documentaries for TV, films, billboards or magazines.