Photographer charges for UNISA graduation

AchmatK

AchmatK

Honorary Master
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Dec 8, 2009
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My wife studied through UNISA and will be graduating at the end of May at the CTICC.

We just received the fees from the photographer that is outsourced by UNISA to take the photos at the graduation. I am a bit shocked at the prices that this guy is charging.

Family pics A4= R100/pic A3= R150/pic
"up size"(low res pics via email = R50 (optional extra)
Hi res pic on CD per pic = R100 (optional extra)​

Stage pic
Stage only = R300 or
"up size stage"(low res pics via email) = R350 or
Stage special plus CD = R550​

I have no problem with people making money but this is ridiculous. Surely the University should hire a photographer for the day and then the university would own all the pics, work out a cost per pic and then sell it to the students in digital format plus a small admin fee.

How much does photographers charge for a 5 hour photo shoot?
How much does it cost to provide high res digital copies of pics that would have most likely have been taken with a digital SLR camera?
 
B

Bursty-dude

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Apr 28, 2011
Messages
1,289
Photographer's prices vary from around R50/pic to several thousand R/pic. I know of a few photogs who charge upwards of 5K per pic, but they do major league landscape, architecture etc photography.
My opinion are that the prices shown above are not bad at all. I charge a bit less per pic though, but I only do bands, car clubs, racing etc.

It depends on what the conditions of the contract between UNISA and the photographer if UNISA owns the work or not.
And it takes time to edit pics, sort them, burn them to disc, etc and that time has to be paid for.

Can you PM me the name of the photographer/business please, I can look into it for you.
 
E

Edduck

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1,239
signates said:
My wife studied through UNISA and will be graduating at the end of May at the CTICC.

We just received the fees from the photographer that is outsourced by UNISA to take the photos at the graduation. I am a bit shocked at the prices that this guy is charging.

Family pics A4= R100/pic A3= R150/pic
"up size"(low res pics via email = R50 (optional extra)
Hi res pic on CD per pic = R100 (optional extra)​

Stage pic
Stage only = R300 or
"up size stage"(low res pics via email) = R350 or
Stage special plus CD = R550​

I have no problem with people making money but this is ridiculous. Surely the University should hire a photographer for the day and then the university would own all the pics, work out a cost per pic and then sell it to the students in digital format plus a small admin fee.

How much does photographers charge for a 5 hour photo shoot?
How much does it cost to provide high res digital copies of pics that would have most likely have been taken with a digital SLR camera?
Click to expand...

These prices are completely reasonable. I would easily charge the same. When it comes to pricing of photos people without knowledge on how much a photographic business costs you in one year tend to expect to pay cost for the taking and printing of photos. A quality A4 print costs about R30, A3 about R50. Couple in the photographers time, travel, equipment costs (cameras, lenses, lighting assistants), post production and the photographer is not making R70 profit on a A4 print anymore but far less.

A 5 hour shoot can cost anything between R500 (waaaaaaay too little) to R5000 (if not far more!) depending on the photographer and the shoot requirements. I think the recommended freelance per hour rate is R250 which imho is far too low.

Just as a very common example, why do wedding togs charge from ~R5000 to R50000 for a wedding day? Because they to be able to sustain a profitable business and survive.
 
AchmatK

AchmatK

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Messages
10,049
Edduck said:
These prices are completely reasonable. I would easily charge the same. When it comes to pricing of photos people without knowledge on how much a photographic business costs you in one year tend to expect to pay cost for the taking and printing of photos. A quality A4 print costs about R30, A3 about R50. Couple in the photographers time, travel, equipment costs (cameras, lenses, lighting assistants), post production and the photographer is not making R70 profit on a A4 print anymore but far less.

A 5 hour shoot can cost anything between R500 (waaaaaaay too little) to R5000 (if not far more!) depending on the photographer and the shoot requirements. I think the recommended freelance per hour rate is R250 which imho is far too low.

Just as a very common example, why do wedding togs charge from ~R5000 to R50000 for a wedding day? Because they to be able to sustain a profitable business and survive.
Click to expand...

I understand your point. Lets work on a figure of R15 000 and that there will be 100 graduates (which is a very conservative estimate) This will equate to about R150 per person. i would be more than willing to pay this amount just for decent quality digital copies (I will print and frame myself). How do you justify adding R250 onto the price for a high res digital copy of the pics in the R300 package?

There is also only one official photographer for the entire graduation so all graduands have to use this photographer.

BTW the DVD of the complete graduation will be available from UNISA for a mere R150 per DVD.
 
4

4cer

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Its the same at UJ :) so you aren't special or anything :p
 
E

Edduck

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signates said:
I understand your point. Lets work on a figure of R15 000 and that there will be 100 graduates (which is a very conservative estimate) This will equate to about R150 per person. i would be more than willing to pay this amount just for decent quality digital copies (I will print and frame myself). How do you justify adding R250 onto the price for a high res digital copy of the pics in the R300 package?

There is also only one official photographer for the entire graduation so all graduands have to use this photographer.

BTW the DVD of the complete graduation will be available from UNISA for a mere R150 per DVD.
Click to expand...


Sorry that came out wrong, there are different ways of charging depending on the service. Some people charge a flat rate p/h and lower charge for prints or higher charge for prints and no flat rate, as well as other means... The DVD inherently has less costs as they are most likely not using a pro-grade HD camera and 1 DVD only costs ~R5 + cost of video editing.
 
bwana

bwana

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Edduck said:
These prices are completely reasonable. I would easily charge the same. When it comes to pricing of photos people without knowledge on how much a photographic business costs you in one year tend to expect to pay cost for the taking and printing of photos. A quality A4 print costs about R30, A3 about R50. Couple in the photographers time, travel, equipment costs (cameras, lenses, lighting assistants), post production and the photographer is not making R70 profit on a A4 print anymore but far less.

A 5 hour shoot can cost anything between R500 (waaaaaaay too little) to R5000 (if not far more!) depending on the photographer and the shoot requirements. I think the recommended freelance per hour rate is R250 which imho is far too low.

Just as a very common example, why do wedding togs charge from ~R5000 to R50000 for a wedding day? Because they to be able to sustain a profitable business and survive.
Click to expand...
Yeah, people tend to forget that professional photographers have a lot of expenses associated with every photo they take as well as the hours of post processing after the event.

BTW you're paying roughly double what I do for A4 size prints! :eek:
 
K

koffiejunkie

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Messages
9,588
signates said:
How do you justify adding R250 onto the price for a high res digital copy of the pics in the R300 package?
Click to expand...

When you get the high res digital copy, you're unlikely to every buy another print from the photographer. It's a buy-out fee, and IMHO pretty reasonable.
 
A

AniV

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Jul 12, 2010
Messages
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At my graduation I paid about R250 for the official photographer to take my on-stage pics and the portrait with certificate shots. They are extremely high quality.
Those particular shots are really hard to get because of how the audience is arranged.

There may only be "1 photographer" at the event - that doesn't mean there is only 1 guy. It's one studio. He will have at least 2 photographers with complete kits covering the stage for the 2 individual shots, another crew of at least 2, maybe 3 doing the portrait & certificate shots. They have specialists with proper lighting and proper cameras, markers on the stage and a mini-set with backdrops, lighting, crew and experience. They HAVE to get the shot right the first time because you are in position for approximately 5 seconds in the first spot and 5 seconds in the second spot. No second chances. They have to concentrate to get each shot throughout the extremely long and often boring ceremony.

They also have the perfect exposure settings for the photo of you with your degree because you're usually laden in black, which is hard to photograph, and the certificate is white and shiny and you expect to be able to read the fine print on your certificate in the photograph.

Then they had a separate room where they've set up professional backdrops and lighting and cameras for the family and additional individual photo shots. They have official degree-type props to use for if you're getting the photo taken before the ceremony.

They then have to correlate all these various photographs from all the various cameras and match them to your name. They may have to do post-processing on the images. They have to get them professionally printed with borders. They have to mail them to you with cardboard protective inserts. If you've ordered a CD, they have to do the admin and sorting and burning of the disc too. It takes a lot more time than people think.

At my graduation there was a team of 9 photographers in total. When I received my photos 6 weeks later I was extremely pleased with them. My family and I took countless photographs during and after the ceremony of me in my robes and my degree and getting my degree and not one of those images will ever be as smart and professional and exactly perfect as the official images I now have.

It's really worth it, it is!
 
E

Edduck

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Messages
1,239
AniV said:
At my graduation I paid about R250 for the official photographer to take my on-stage pics and the portrait with certificate shots. They are extremely high quality.
Those particular shots are really hard to get because of how the audience is arranged.

There may only be "1 photographer" at the event - that doesn't mean there is only 1 guy. It's one studio. He will have at least 2 photographers with complete kits covering the stage for the 2 individual shots, another crew of at least 2, maybe 3 doing the portrait & certificate shots. They have specialists with proper lighting and proper cameras, markers on the stage and a mini-set with backdrops, lighting, crew and experience. They HAVE to get the shot right the first time because you are in position for approximately 5 seconds in the first spot and 5 seconds in the second spot. No second chances. They have to concentrate to get each shot throughout the extremely long and often boring ceremony.

They also have the perfect exposure settings for the photo of you with your degree because you're usually laden in black, which is hard to photograph, and the certificate is white and shiny and you expect to be able to read the fine print on your certificate in the photograph.

Then they had a separate room where they've set up professional backdrops and lighting and cameras for the family and additional individual photo shots. They have official degree-type props to use for if you're getting the photo taken before the ceremony.

They then have to correlate all these various photographs from all the various cameras and match them to your name. They may have to do post-processing on the images. They have to get them professionally printed with borders. They have to mail them to you with cardboard protective inserts. If you've ordered a CD, they have to do the admin and sorting and burning of the disc too. It takes a lot more time than people think.

At my graduation there was a team of 9 photographers in total. When I received my photos 6 weeks later I was extremely pleased with them. My family and I took countless photographs during and after the ceremony of me in my robes and my degree and getting my degree and not one of those images will ever be as smart and professional and exactly perfect as the official images I now have.

It's really worth it, it is!
Click to expand...

Exactly, well put AniV!!! My grad pics also came out great and it is amazing how the togs always seem to take the pic just at the perfect timing when you are smiling the best!
 
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