Let's explore contract negotitations.
1. Contracts: Editorial publications. One of the biggest challenges is negotiating your contracts. First you need to understand who your are negotitating with. In many cases the APE's (Assistant Photo Editor) and the PE (Photo Editor) / DOP (Director of Photography) role is one person. In very small publications there id no AD (Art Director). For a publishing conglomerate, one AD handles multiple titles. the key is to know who has the power to sign off on your negotioning points. Always ask your prospective client, "What is your budget for this assignment?" You will get sveral different responses and here is how one expert handles this situation:
"Regardless of whether I'll take the assignment, I want to know where thay are so I can guage the likelihood that I will get the assignment. Even the first response - seemingly too low to consider-I'll send them my paperwork. I do this for several reasons. Many clients who call have experience with a lower rate in their town and will experience a sticker shock when trying to book in a larger community." (Best Business Practices for Photographers; John Harrington; pg.179)
Some prospects willtry to get their work done for cheap. They figure if they start low and see who bites. others will do this too weed out those who accept the low offers. Once a client gets over the sticker shock, you want to stay in the bidding pool, as your competitors offers come rolling in and educates your prospective client of the market. Always send out an estimate, the worse they can say is no.
2. Bids, quotes and estimates: Commercial / corporate photos. During the negotiation process, you will want to know what process you are preparing. A bid or a quote requires a great deal of refinement. You are commiting to that cost to produce the outlined project on the bottom line of your bid. A clever way to go about this is process called triple bid the project. You and two other photographers present your combined bids to the client, and the client decides who will shoot the project. Estimates, on the other hand, allow for a bit of flexibility on the bottom line, allowing for change orders to occur. It is a good idea to carry a change form with you.
"When the parameters or circumstances change for a shoot, so do the figures involved in the estimate. As with an editorial assignment, in which the concept of a change order is less common, change orders are a frequent neccessity for corporate and commercial assignments." (Best Business Practices for Photographers; John Harrington; pg.222)
3. Weddings and rights of Passage: Think about all the grand events we go through in our lives, from birth to death. Birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, engagments and more, where you will negotiate your photography. Often these contracts need to be specific, to the letter. If you don't want to "Uncle Louie" popping in with his inst-o-matic as you are working, put it in the contract. And as all other types of contract negotiations, know who to be negotiating with, in this case, the bride, groom and probably the paying parents. Most importantly, as the event photographer, take control.
"If a client hires multiple photographers for an event, they are all goping to want to get the same angle/shot. Yet, if you're the photographer who subcontracts the others, you are in charge-you choose coverage perspectives, and as such, you can significantly enhance the event coverage."(Best Business Practices for Photographers; John Harrington; pg.271)Our challenge as photographers, is convincing the people hiring you that you have to be in charge of the photo shoot. If you're not incharge, make sure your role is clearly defined. Personally, I try to always be the one in charge-that's my nature.
