A few years ago a local photographer referred me to a clothing brand who has their corporate office in Charlotte NC. They needed 300 plus pieces of clothing photographed as laydowns. They were looking to shoot twice a year to cover their seasons.
Once I made contact, we set up a video chat with the creative director and the senior graphic designer. They were unhappy with the current photographers output. They were only getting 8-10 finished images a day. They wanted to use the images for everything. I told them I have a lot of experience with photographing laydowns and could easily do 30 plus a day with the right team. They seemed very excited about this and asked me to do an unpaid test with some of their products. They gave me their image requirements and asked me to deliver images ready for upload.
I dropped by their office to talk with the senior graphic designer and picked up the clothing for the test. We talked about the small studio they built and the issues they have been facing. I got on the phone and called two of my friends who are fantastic soft good stylists. They agreed to help me after hours since both were on set that week.
I went and bought all the supplies needed for laydowns. Foam boards for pinning, batting for stuffing, foil tape, etc. I even steamed everything out myself before the stylists got to the studio to maximize the time we had. I picked up some food and drinks for us to have and gave each stylist a bottle of wine as a thank you.
After we finished photographing the clothes I made my selects and sent them to another friend for retouching. He silo’d them out to white, cleaned them up and then cropped and processed them to fit the image requirements. While he did that I was working on my estimate.
Building an estimate is an art, you never know how it will hit your client. I took everything they told me into consideration. 300 plus items photographed front and back. Which makes 600 plus images. They wanted the work done in one to two weeks. They would be using the images for everything.( E commerce, line books,email ads and social ads, mailers and point of purchase)
I would need a crew that could handle the volume, catering for the crew, supplies for laydowns, seamless paper, lighting and computers to run multiple sets to maximize efficiency, retouching, and someone to pick up the clothing from the distribution center. Then the big one…. Usage. They essentially wanted unlimited usage. How do you price that?
Once I got my images back from the retoucher I sent them via WeTransfer and emailed my estimate to the client. They loved the fast turnaround. Then crickets… I finally reached out to ask how they liked them images and was told
“We were gone all last week doing our lifestyle photoshoot in Blank,Blank so I’m still slowly digging out of email madness right now. Sorry for the delay. We’ve decided to go another direction for our full on laydown needs but I’d certainly like to keep you on the contact list for any specific shots/social/IG posts etc. for the future. You have a talented team and we should certainly work together at some point!”
Well more than two years later I have heard nothing from them, no specific shots/social/IG posts no anything.
In the end the test cost me money for supplies and gifts for my badass freelance friends. More importantly it cost us all our TIME. Moral of the story. Charge a testing rate and do not let the idea of a big client and job forget your time has value.
