Can anyone help me regarding a photographers salary? Let's say I have a studio and I need to hire photographer/s to work for me, how should I pay them and what amount? Is it a per project/shoot rate or a fixed monthly salary?

Btw, if there already is a thread regarding this matter please direct me to it coz I couldn't find one. Thanks!

Can anyone help me regarding a photographers salary? Let's say I have a studio and I need to hire photographer/s to work for me, how should I pay them and what amount? Is it a per project/shoot rate or a fixed monthly salary?

Btw, if there already is a thread regarding this matter please direct me to it coz I couldn't find one. Thanks!

Good morning Jason. Just want to give you an idea. When I was working back home (Philippines), that was 1990 a new studio have opened in Isetann Recto. They hired me as a studio photographer, and my starting basic salary was more than 4,000 pesos/month. Now at this time I am sure it is higher or much higher.

Per project or per shoot is not a bad idea. The important thing is both of you will benefit from it, hindi ba.

Cheers and mabuhay.

Jeffrey

If youre going to start up a studio, my tip would be to know how to shoot yourself. If you make some sort of standard lighting setup for your studio much better. This is like putting up a bakery and you dont know how to bake, your baker would have the ultimate power. If he leaves you cannot replicate your product. If you made the product then you wont care if your personnel leaves as you can train someone else to replace him without affecting your end product.

now, regarding salary. You have to do some math. Try to see how much is being offered in the market right now. Go to photo studios and strike up a conversation people more often than not actually give the information. Tell them you are thinking of becoming a photographer yourself, be suave. Ive actually gotten recipes for some items from restaurants that way hahaha (i didnt tell them that i wanted to be a cook if youre thinking hehe - but using the same principle).

with the information, try to come up with a theoretical pricing for your product and then cross reference with your target market's spending pattern. (hmmm...fancy way of saying can your market pay for it). If you come up too expensive then you need to determine where to cut costs, would it be salary, or using just 1 aircon instead of 3 or maybe by using a smaller signage...etc etc etc. You may even rethink the whole business model or target market but of course that would mean a totally new different pricing structure and costs.

a lot of work huh? yeah i thought so too....id rather just shoot :D hehe.

@jeffrey: thanks for your reply!

@christopher: i got your point, thanks! im actually still learning how to shoot at the moment. hehe