There are no set rates in commercial photography. The majority of commercial photographers will charge a day rate. Some may charge by the hour. The type of commission and specialisation will generally dictate the fee - photographers will also take into account a number of other factors to determine the cost including:

• Where the work is to be used eg on packaging, annual reports, billboards, national press, website
• The length of time the work is to be used by you
• The territory or territories in which the work is to be used

If you have a tight budget, discuss this with the photographer who can advise if it is realistic and what you can expect for your proposed budget. Be aware that if other professionals ie models, stylists, set builders etc are needed these will be charged on top of the photographer’s fee, as will film and processing or digital capture. The photographer will estimate these extra costs for you.

There is a misconception that if the images are shot digitally, rather than on film, that this is a cheaper way of producing images. This is not true. Some photographers will still shoot on film but deliver the images in a digital form whilst others will shoot and deliver digitally. Both methods incur costs.

In order to produce high quality digital images a lot of time and skill is necessary after the shoot, in preparing the images for presentation to the client and ultimately for reproduction. In addition,

a professional photographer has to invest heavily in good equipment. This equipment needs to be replaced/upgraded frequently to ensure it meets the standards required to produce professional results.