Ask An Agent / Should I charge post-production in addition to my shoot fee?

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Dear Ask an Agent,

I had quick question for you. Should I be charging on top for my post-production or should I include it in my shoot fee?

Anonymous

Hi there,

Thanks for your question. I would certainly advise charging in addition for your post production as it is quite a separate thing to your shoot and usage fees.

Generally we always charge for post- production as an additional item based on clients exact post-production requirements. Some might be looking for a specific number of processed, colour corrected files. Some won’t know until after the shoot how many retouched images they need, and some require much more complex post-production.

If you do for some reason want to include it in your fee just be very careful to specify what post production will be included exactly. For example it might be ‘shoot fee includes 3 basic colour corrected files only’. Clients often require more files or more post-production than they originally asked for, which is why it's best to itemise it as an entirely different item and base it on the spec and on a job by job basis.

Hope that helps.

Lisa

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