just say “my rates are changing. Please see the price sheet below. If there are any questions or concerns, please let me know”.

Also, 60 for an hour to 2 hours of shooting is absolutely not enough. If youve been doing this for at least 6 months, you should charge 100 per hour. I wouldnt bother with making them pay you for individual comedian photos, just increase your rates with this assumption of sharing the photos to the comedians. If I was getting started and had a year or so of experience, I would easily be charging 150-300 per hour for the same work and same deliverables.

Many people are hesitant to raise their rates because they’re worried that clients will drop them. In your case, what’s the worst case scenario if you raise your rates and the comedy club drops you? You’re out $120/month, or $1440/year. That’s hardly worth crying about. You could make that up by driving for Uber for 8 hours a month.

Figure out what you’d really need to make this gig worthwhile for you. You’re probably driving for an hour total, the show is 1.5 hours long, and then you’re editing for a few hours. It’s probably 5-6 hours work for you each time. Also factor in the cost of your camera, lenses, laptop, software, wear and tear on your car, gas, etc. What should your hourly rate be to feel good that you’re being fairly compensated for this work? Forget about what you’re charging them now, that’s irrelevant. If you were doing this work full-time, what would you need your annual income to be? Then parse that out to an hourly rate.

For instance, if you’d want to be making $80k annually if you were doing this full time, then 80000 / 52 weeks / 40 hours = $38.46/hour. If you’re putting 6 hours of work into each gig, that’s $230. Add a bit for wear and tear on your gear and car, and you could easily charge $250-$300. Or if you wanted to split it up, you could try to charge $200 for the gig, and then charge the comedians $20 per photo and hope that you’ll get a couple sales each time. If the upcoming larger shows at the new venue demand more hours of your time (both at the venue shooting and back home editing), then increase the fee according to the hourly rate you’re trying to hit.

Yes, if you approach them and say, “hey, I know I’ve been doing this for $60, but as of XYZ date I’m gonna have to charge $200 each time”, there’s going to be sticker shock. They’re going to complain that you’re tripling their rate. Just politely explain that you’re getting busier and need to start charging a realistic rate for your time. Tell them to try to find another professional photographer for that rate. They might try. And they might find a starving student or someone that’s willing to work for peanuts the way you did. And that’s fine. If that’s the price they need to pay and that’s the quality of work they’re looking for, then maybe they’re not the right client for you anymore.

Don’t base it on the size of the show. Base your pay on the amount of work you need to do. You have to shoot, edit, and deliver the photos.

Since larger shows mean more work (more photos, picking, editing, etc.), then larger shows will require more pay.

As for that last part, don’t do that unless the comedians ask you for photos for their portfolio. It’s not extra work for you, so don’t try to nickel and dime your client.

When you breach the subject with the promoter, have a printout with your prices and the things included in the price. Don’t write paragraphs about it, just a small itemized list (the shoot, number of pics included, editing, and cleaning). Then let them know that, because of the current economic shift, you’ll have to increase your prices a little. Always bring up a change in pricing with the client before charging them differently. Even if the change is just $10, no one likes surprises like that.

Lol 200-250.

You’re charging way too little for your services. You have to factor in you getting prepared for the event, traveling to the event, setting up for the event, actually shooting the event, the equipment you’re using, and the time it takes for you to edit and deliver the final product. You are severely undervaluing yourself. If you are good at it I would say you should make no less than $250 for this. It’s probably a lot of work right?

You inform them of a change in rate. Do you have a contract? In my long term contracts I state that at every X amount of time a rate change may apply. Usually every 3-6 months. Each contract states the possible % increase min and max. A contract lawyer can help you with the proper wording and legalities for your state.

So I’m a freelance Cinematographer and produce a pretty well-respected stand up show as a hobby with 3 of my friends.

Everything everyone said is right.

However.

If it’s a traditional comedy show, the comics are getting paid about $10-20 each. In my case we don’t even pay ourselves, the photographer is the only one we pay and he also gets $20.

Insane low price, I’d personally never even go near that price as a photographer, but we pay our comics $20 and charge $10 for tickets. We also buy the comics drinks. That puts our daily operating costs at around $200. So if we sold 20 tickets (average for this kinda show) we break even (again, the producers don’t get paid at all). If we’re lucky we sell 30 tickets.

So here’s the issue, right? Comedy is a disgustingly low-revenue art. If you love comedy, want to see these shows, enjoy helping, and can potentially turn those photos into more lucrative gigs, that’s kind of the best you’re likely to get. If you don’t/can’t, you’re basically going to have to move on to something that pays your rate.

Again, you SHOULD be charging like… $500 minimum for any kinda gig, just to even start the conversation, but comedy shows are unique in that there’s usually no money anywhere.

My suggestion is to make the gig as easy as possible for you: shoot jpeg. Have the producer just like, bring you and SD card every show he can take home and those are the photos. Driving an hour and a half is kinda nuts, my show commute is 45 there and 18 back, but yeah. Photographing a comedy show is basically just a way to get a free ticket and make some cool friends.

You need to triple those numbers You need to start accounting for all of your costs, not just you being there.

Take all of your costs and divide it by 24 based off your current work.

$8 for editing soft $26 for camera gear (based off a $2500 kit paid over 2 years, which is already under paying yourself. You should pay it off with “60 days” of rentals $2-8 depending on storage & power

• your transport cost.

So now your barely making any money.

I would recco starting at least $100 a gig now. Especially in these times.

Even with your new proposed rates you are very much selling yourself short.

It’s hard to raise prices on clients that you’ve had since day one. So the rest of this comment might be pointless.

Your client is running a business and should be aware that a bigger event will come with rising costs, his expenses won’t stay the same so he should be expecting an increase from you.

The easiest way to justify a price increase in your situation is to tell him that you’re taking your photography business more serious, you’ve added up your investments and operating costs and have determined that you were operating at a loss (at $60/shoot) and that you actually need to charge $X to make any profit.

To determine your new $X, most photographers will charge their time AND their equipment. We do this because wear and tear on a camera needs to be factored in, because one day it will need replacing, upgrading, repairs and that expense will feel like it came out of your pocket if you didn’t build a reserve fund. You can choose to itemize your time+equipment it as one item on your invoices if you want to keep it simple but its nice to break it down to determine your actual take home pay.

In your scenario I’m guessing you’re still paying off your full frame camera and probably have a monthly Lightroom subscription, right? So to calculate what you should be charging, take the purchase price of your gear and operating costs -add computer, camera, lenses, tripods, flashes, adobe, insurance, etc…, divide it by 40 and that = your operating cost per shoot. Then add your labour; photography is a trade, so definitely don’t price your time with a number that works out lower than $30/hr (for someone starting out) and definitely don’t use a number that’s lower than your day job, if you have one. If it costs you something to get to the shoot, add a transportation fee, or charge the km on your car ($0.68/km is the suggested Canadian Government rate for 2023), + parking etc… -then finally, add your time for editing and delivering the photos the following day and that’s your new $X rate with your client.

However, having said that, to be realistic you’re shooting no-name stand ups? In small venues? That promoter isn’t making much profit and the ideal rates people are suggesting to you in the comments or using the formula I’ve just described above will likely never fly for a gig like that. I had friends in the Montreal comic scene and unless you’re Sugar Sammy, most of them don’t make much money, they do it because they love it.

I would suggest you look for new clients and use a higher rate or try my formula above, and slowly phase out this stand up gig when you don’t need it anymore. If the client wants to keep you around in the future, tell him how much you charge new clients and see if he can match it. If not, you can do like the stand ups, do it because you love it. Not for the money.

FYI, in Canada, most full time (event) photographers I’ve met are charging anywhere from $550-1,200 for their labour, plus extra for their gear. If they’re charging less than that, I know they’re super green or not doing it full time. That observation obviously doesn’t include wedding photographers, most of whom have starting prices upwards of $2,500 per gig these days, and easily more if they’re good photographers.

Don’t ask them. Tell them these are your new rates. You’re not locked into a contract with them

I’d hire you