I did a similar job last summer. I would recommend an hourly rate over a project price. Clients tend to become 100% satisfied much faster when all the "liitle things" are costing them. And, if they do keep tweaking, they keep paying.

I'd set one rate for photo prep & another (higher) rate for editing.

HTH

How about a cost per photo? I've heard of some charging anywhere from $2.00 - $4.50 per photo. I tend to be cheaper, around $1.00 per up to a 100 and less after but I'm a novice part timer (have a day job) and tend to give away too much of my time. If it's the first job you are doing for this client, you may want to low ball as she will certainly bring you more business. I did a 250 stills job for my cousin for free and several of their friends asked me to do stuff for them for pay. Hope this helps.
Randy

Work smarter ....

Get the negatives (or the stills) and take them to a photo lab who have the equipment to automatically scan/develp them to CD

maybe itll cost you 50c each to do but you charge the customer $1.

so on 200 pix you've made $100 for driving down to the photolab and returning a few hours later.

while they are being done you could capture your analog video and prepare
the veags project to import the pix.


I think its crazy to sit there and scan 200 pix.

Regards

Jc

I've got 1,200 transparency slides to scan. I'm charging $1.00 per scan plus $129.00 per DVD to create a montage out of them....and it will be a few DVD's at that!

clearvu

I've never had any success scanning 35mm transparency slides. Do I need to use a special scanner?

2 Things:

1 Do it for free or to cheap and you lose people's respect. They EXPECT to have to pay for your service and expertise. Do it for free (or a small fee) and then they tell their buddy and their buddy expects it for the same price. When he doesn't get it ...it becomes personal and he takes his business else where and pays twice as much.

2. I hope people don't consider this underhanded...at least I don't mean it to be. I don't do it to undercut anyone or take ther business (I already have the client). When I first started, I would call other comparable businesses in the area and ask for a quote on the same project. I then use their price as a baseline for myself. Now that I have a good feel of what people are willing to pay, of course I no longer have to do this.

Pricing is tough.....good luck.

Lots of great ideas in the responses already posted, but my brother and I do it a little differently. We charge $12.50 per minute of finished video, plus $10 for each media (VHS, DVD, etc.). If it's a large job such as yours, I might charge a little more for all the scanning (unless you use the idea another poster had and get your local photo shop to scan them for you).

I'd also give a little bit of a discount if they provided the pictures in digital format (from a digital camera or already scanned). I also run the pictures through Paint Shop Pro to clean them up a little, fix red eye, etc.

TD

Alan, you need either a special slide/negative scanner or a regular scanner with a transparancy adapter such as HP Scanjet 3670 ( low priced and good for smaller jobs )

Jc

I considered having the scans done locally, but the cheapest I found was around $1.25 PER SLIDE, I can scan four in about 7 minutes, with minor touch-up done in photoshop, so at $1.00 per slide it's around 34 bucks an hour, and I can work on other projects while the scanner is running, so I thought I'd do that myself.

So what I'm thinking of doing is charging $1.00 per slide (scan,minor touch-up, place on timeline), $50.00 to convert her analogue video, and then I'll charge her $75.00/hour for the editing. I won't include render time in the editing bill, but I will include the time I spend creating the menus, etc. in DVD Architiect. Burn time of the DVD won't be charged, either. She only wants one copy, so I'm including that in the total price.

Overall, that should turn out to be from $375-$500 dollars, depending on the editing.

Thanks for all of your info. Charging by the hour seems the logical thing to do, because if it turns out to be more work than either of us imagined, I won't end up feeling like I did a bunch of stuff for free, and she won't feel ripped off when I ask her for more $$.

Rafal, thanks. I'll see if I can source an adapter.

Yes, AlanC, you do need a special scanner. The one I have is an Epson Perfection 3170 PHOTO.

I've never printed anything from a Transparency, but for TV presentations, it's great.

Brian

Jwall,
Been thinking about your price per hour for editing. It seems a bit high to me. I asked myself if I would pay $75/hr for editing and I might for a top of the line pro with many years experience that I knew would do the job in less time and at very high quality. However, for myself just starting out, I couldn't justify that much. Heck, I don't make much more than half that per hour now at my day job with over 30 years experience, certifications, education, and lots of performance awards. As a just starting out editor, I'd be more comfortable with around $20-25/hr. Just throwing out the thought here. I don't begrudge anyone getting paid for their efforts and, hey, if the market supports it, so be it. Just thought I would throw this in.
Randy

200 an hr is the going rate for an avid suite with editor in charlotte.
When we have to rent an Avid suite for one reason or the other we get it for 75 an hr without editor .

I'll pop in here for a comment. Just attended a wedding reception (in Salt Lake - a LOT of weddings around here ) that was being videotaped, and they also had a repeating montage w/music going. The production company had business cards and price list on hand, as well. They offer several packages (silver, gold, platinum, diamond) at different pricing and feature levels, as well as add-on and a la carte options. The one add-on that may be of interest to you is this:

Picture Montage - 60 pictures $130
100 pictures $180
"Pictures from your personal album set to your choice of music with smooth transitions and creative titles; perfect to showcase at the luncheon, rehearsal dinner and/or reception"

I don't know if the picture montage is available as a stand-alone product, or if purchase of one of the other packages is required. I would assume that color correction is probably NOT included.

The website (www.camelotdigital.com) has the package prices listed, but not the add-ons (There are about 15)

FWIW

Frenchy

Jameson_Prod is totally right. If you price the job to low to help someone out they will come back and expect to always get a price break. Also, any other people they send your way will expect the same.

Price the job to high and you may loose it.

Better to loose the job because of a high price than to become known as the low priced editor in the area. Remember one thing, people associate price with quality but if you charge a higher rate be able to justify it with higher quality work. Let others chase the lower end and priced jobs.

Don't ever be afraid to walk away from a project or loose it.

Frenchy,

You here in Salt Lake too?

Mike

I'm actually in SLC as well...Imagine that.

Yep - deep in the heart of Zion...

Small world, isn't it?

Good to know there are other Vegas users around here - maybe we can touch base sometime. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one around here. I know Spot's over in Tooele County, but he's on the road so much, and waaaaaaaay beyond my level of (in)expertise...

Frenchy,

What part of SLC are you from?

Chanimal
BYU Alumni