Have you ever wondered why many photographers and videographers don’t have a price list available to view online?
Providing your pricing upfront is fairly customary practise in other industries, but in this one, it’s actually the opposite. Most photographers and videographers won’t display their prices ahead of time, and instead will wait for you to contact them so they can generate a bespoke quotation for you. If you’ve never worked like this before, we understand it can be a bit frustrating.
And that’s completely understandable. If you’re researching a service, you want to have an approximate idea of the cost so that you can make an informed decision, and not commit to something that just isn’t in your budget. But videography, photography and drone work are a little different, and in this case a standardised price list just won’t cut it. So today we wanted to talk about pricing, and why we don’t talk about it on our website.
Some examples of our drone photography work. Click to enlarge.
Quality Over Price
Let’s clear one thing up first – we do have a pricing structure. There is a system in place that dictates that service X costs Y, and we always stick to that pricing structure on every job. But along with the other reasons for not publishing it (which we’ll get into in a moment), we don’t want price to be the deciding factor for our clients.
Your business deserves the best, and we want all of our customers to choose us because they love our work and our results, not just because we happen to be an option that fits in their budget. This may seem silly, but it helps us build a real connection and a lasting relationship with each of our clients and ensures we deliver the best possible results for them from every shoot.
Some examples of our architecutral photography work. Click to enlarge.
Each Project is Unique
Videography and photography are pretty broad industries, and there is a lot that can fall under that umbrella. Each business we work with will have slightly different requirements, will want to use a different mix of our services, and have unique needs compared to the others.
Every project is unique (even if it’s from a repeat customer), which makes one-size-fits-all pricing virtually impossible, if not very hard to understand. Instead, we put together a bespoke quote for each client based on what elements of our services they require. We’ll using our standard pricing structure to do this, so each client gets the best value for money and the highest return on their investment.
Some examples of our architecutral photography work. Click to enlarge.
Quotes Aren’t Simple
We’ve talked a bit about providing quotes already, but putting these together is not as simple a process as it is for many businesses. At Horizon Imaging our quotes are broken down into several sections, including:
- Time spent on site
- First hour costs
- Time spent editing
- Travel costs
- Any miscellaneous costs such as completing paperwork for flying a drone close to an airport
We do this for transparency, so each client knows exactly what to expect from us and can see where their money is going. But this means that each and every quote will be different depending on the location of the filming, how long we need to spend on site, the service type being provided, how long the resulting imagery takes to edit, and whether there are any additional miscellaneous costs for delivering the required imagery.
This is one of the reasons that discussing your requirements by email or phone is essential — it helps us to establish your requirements and the deliverables you will expect from us, and means we can make sure our quotation is as accurate as possible. It’s always frustrating to be quoted one thing and then invoiced something completely different!
Some examples of our architecutral photography work. Click to enlarge.
The First Hour
The ‘first hour on site’ is an important time, as this is where the bulk of the costs arise. It may seem surprising, but there are many types of project that can be completed in under an hour on site — a handful of aerial photographs of a site, a Matterport virtual tour of a small retail unit, architectural photographs of a small house, etc. Equally, there are many projects that require us to be on site longer. As such, we charge a higher ‘first hour on site’ rate, and subsequent hours on site are then charged at a lower fixed rate.
Different services have different ‘first hour rates’ too. For example, drone work costs more for the first hour than mast photography, and mast work is more expensive than architectural photography. This adds to the complexity of generating a quotation for your project and is something that can be difficult to understand if it’s just listed as a table of prices online.
Critically, it’s only with our cumulative experience of undertaking hundreds of photo shoots that allows us to estimate, with a high degree of accuracy, how long it will take to capture a certain number of images of a certain type of project.
Some examples of our photography work. Click to enlarge.
Confusion
Some examples of our photography work. Click to enlarge.
Above all, we want to avoid confusion! The last thing you want is to see a ballpark figure on our website and think that’s what you’ll be paying, only to go through the consultation process and end up with a completely different figure. Instead, we want to be crystal clear about what your project will cost and provide you with a detailed breakdown so you know exactly what you’re paying for and why. That just isn’t something we can do with a price list on a website!
At Horizon Imaging, we are big advocates of transparency in business. That’s one of the reasons we are writing this blog for you!
We want you to know that we aren’t trying to be deceptive by not providing a standard price list on our website — quite the opposite! We deliberately leave our pricing information off our website to ensure we are able to provide fair and accurate quotations for the exact services and deliverables you require, every time you send us an enquiry. If that sounds good to you, we would love to chat about your upcoming projects.
What Do Our Clients Say?
“I was in need of a photographer to take images and 3D tours of our new river island venue. I was very overwhelmed with the mammoth task ahead, but once I found David, his meticulous nature turned this mountain into a mole hill. David’s professionalism, personable nature and skill, made my job that day very easy and fun. He captured the space and the rooms in their best light, and I was so impressed he managed to do all the images and tours in one day!
“Horizon Imaging provided drone photography services in connection with a planning appeal and a consultation response to potential loss of Green Belt land. David responded quickly providing a fast, precise and technically proficient service. The resulting images exceeded expectations and will provide a level of information and views unobtainable in any other way. Highly recommended.”
So ask yourself…
- Do you have a complex project that requires photography or filming from a number of different platforms (eg. drone, mast, ground-level)?
- Do you want to understand exactly what you’re paying for in your project, service by service?
- Are you looking for an experienced photographer with a wide range of professional equipment and a track record of delivering fantastic results?
If so, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us on the contact details below.