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DPChallenge Forums >> Tips, Tricks, and Q&A >> How much to charge for Achitectural pics?
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02/24/2006 04:04:50 AM · #1
I've been asked by a friends architectural firm if I'd be interested in doing some shots of buildings they have designed as they are completed. Does anyone have any idea what I should be charging roughly to do this sort of work? I plan on going to each building (unknown number at the moment) during different times of the day to capture them in different light.

Anyone?
02/24/2006 04:09:06 AM · #2
It all depends on the conditions. Typically, we pay photographers anywhere between $1000-$1500 for about 4-6 shots for our portfolio. Do you have a TS lens? It's important to have this as the verticals converge. However, you can always fix it in PS. Bear_music would be a good resource for this as he did this for a living years ago.
02/24/2006 04:10:55 AM · #3
Yeah, I understand the TS lens issue! Unfortunately I have to rely on PS to correct this! :( Damn money! Cheers for the info!
02/24/2006 04:20:19 AM · #4
Hehehhe. If you weren't down under, I could have let you borrow mine ;) I use it sparingly but it's a great lens to have in these cases ;)
02/24/2006 04:24:46 AM · #5
Originally posted by Makka:

Yeah, I understand the TS lens issue! Unfortunately I have to rely on PS to correct this! :( Damn money! Cheers for the info!

It might be worth hiring one, ohhhh it's such a nice lense.
02/24/2006 04:25:26 AM · #6
Yes....would come in very handy but never had a need for one before. I know there's a camera shop in the city here which can hire out lenses but the chance of them having a tilt/shift could be slim. I'll just have to practice my perpective adjustments! I might PM bear_music about some tips with that! Thanks Rikki! :)
02/24/2006 04:27:05 AM · #7
Let me know if you need tips on using PS to adjust the parallax in the lens. What version of PS are you using? I have great instructions when using CS or CS2.
02/24/2006 04:29:32 AM · #8
my friend is a proffesional freelance photographer , and has just done a three day shoot for a magazine, they only wanted three photos for the artical to print. and she charged them £3.000. but she did have to travel over 150 miles to the shoot. yet another job she did wanted 10 still life photos and she only charged them £400, this was done in her studio.
its hard to say what to charge, but if you have to travel ect that comes into the price, also try and agree on a price before you take the shots,and she keeps the copyright to her work. so everthing that is used and published has her name on it.
just wish i was that good.
hope this helps a little bit.
02/24/2006 04:33:38 AM · #9
Thanks for the help there guys!!

Rikki, I use Photoshop 7! If your tips work in that to a certain degree would love to see them!
02/24/2006 04:35:19 AM · #10
Will do Neil. I'll send them to you tomorrow. I hope they work. Please PM me your email address. Thanks.
02/24/2006 04:39:12 AM · #11
It shall be done! :)
02/24/2006 11:22:49 AM · #12
Bump so Robt can comment ;)
02/24/2006 11:41:36 AM · #13
Yawwwn.... Someone call my name?

Originally posted by Rikki:

It all depends on the conditions. Typically, we pay photographers anywhere between $1000-$1500 for about 4-6 shots for our portfolio. Do you have a TS lens? It's important to have this as the verticals converge. However, you can always fix it in PS. Bear_music would be a good resource for this as he did this for a living years ago.


Rikki, correct me if I'm wrong but you work for a large, established firm right? And this is what you pay established professional photographers with a track record shooting architecture and the equipment to do it "right", correct?

Now, in Makka's case I don't see any architecture to speak of in his portfolio, and we can probably assume that his friend's firm is a smaller one that's not willing to pay the higher prices charged by the established photographers in the area (although obviously I could be wrong on that).

Makka, here's what I'd try to do; I'd ask them to BUY me the T/S lens, and trade them a dozen photos or so for it. This would give you a tool you need, access to some buildings (not always easy to get), and a chance to start a decent portfolio of architectural work that was "done for hire".

Another option is to buy the 10-22mm Canon and shoot vertically for a horizontally-cropped image; you can square the verticals, leaving the subject near the top of the frame, and crop out the excess foreground. I do this all the time.

Whichever route you choose to work, get yourself a spirit level and use it when setting up your shots; a small one is what you want. You can balance it across the hot shoe on horizontal shots and across the edge of the camera body on vertical shots. It's quite critical. For somewhat more expense you can buy spirit levels that actually clip into the hot shoe.

I use PS 7.0 myself; I'd be glad to help you with architectural processing in that. One thing you'll definitely want to learn is how to do contrast masking so you can bring up detail in the dark parts of the images. You'll also want to have a polarizer available for external shots, and you'll want to shoot several variations of these shots with differing amounts of polarization; the results can sometimes be surprising.

Robt.

Message edited by author 2006-02-24 11:42:32.
02/24/2006 11:46:54 AM · #14
Bear,

When you also suggest a polarizer for arch-shots, would that be a circular or not? And any direct suggestions for that type of filter? THanks...
02/24/2006 12:24:35 PM · #15
Originally posted by Cutter:

Bear,

When you also suggest a polarizer for arch-shots, would that be a circular or not? And any direct suggestions for that type of filter? THanks...


I always use circular polarizers for digital. I was told they were superior in conjunction with electronic sensors/AF mechanisms. I have since heard that disputed, but all my polarizers are circular.

One thing you need to be very careful of in architectural shooting is that you not over-polarize; it's very easy at some angles to make the sky so dark that it and the shadowed side of the building merge together. Another problem is that architectural photography uses wide-angle a lot, and polarizing with extreme wide angle can be problematical.

The reason why is that polarization is always at its maximum at 90 degrees from the sun; that is to say, if the sun is coming from the right or left at 90 degrees to the axis of the lens, the bluew of the sky will polarize out darker than it would if the un were coming from 45 degrees behind you, for example. When you use an extreme wide angle, you're looking at 90-100 degrees of angular coverage, so obviously the degree of polarization of the sky will vary dranatically across its breadth as it approaches/reaches/retreats from that 90 degree angle.

The problem can be so extreme that on clear days it may be better not to polarize at all with extreme WA shots. We are fortunate in our digital world, as we have post-processing options to help us deal with this. You see me use a lot of blue-to-transparent gradients on my WA skies for this very reason.

Robt.
02/24/2006 12:43:05 PM · #16
Okay, so circular sounds like the safe way to go...Another questions about that...

Will circular polarizer give that almost gradiented effect to the sky? I am speaking of the ugly kind that give it a shaded bar gradient from top to bottom? Why aren't those gradients when applied in PS smooth? Or is that completely unrelated? Thanks.


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