As professional photographers you would receive many requests for free images on a regular basis. In a perfect world, each of us would love to be able to respond in a positive manner and assist, especially with projects or efforts related to areas such as education, social issues, and conservation of natural resources. To a photographer creating compelling images is the way they make their living. If they were give away their images for free, or spend too much time responding to requests for free images, they would and could not make a living.
Making a leap from such selective support to responding positively to every request we get for free photographs, however, is impractical, if for no other reason than the substantial amount of time
We can plug that into a standard 40-hour workweek over the course of a full year, and it brings us to an annual salary of $62,400.
At first glance, it seems like a lot. Honestly it is… before self-employment tax, health insurance, liability insurance, and equipment insurance. In 2011, the self-employment tax is 13.3%. That instantly takes $62,400 down to $54,100. Nearly a $10,000 hit just for being our own boss!
3 to 4 hour photo session
I say this because it takes 20 minutes to build the set, 30 minutes to set up the lighting, 1 hour shooting, 1 hour retouching. Then I have added a extra hour just in case something goes wrong with the shoot.
We need to buy cameras, lenses, computers, software, storage devices, and more on a regular basis. Things break and need to be repaired. We need back-ups of all our data, as one ill-placed cup of coffee could literally erase years of work. For all of us, investment in essential hardware and software entails thousands of dollars a year, as we need to stay current with new technology and best practices.
In addition, travel is a big part of many of our businesses. We must spend a lot of money on transportation, lodging and other travel-related costs.
With all this in mind I would have to say that the set amount of photos for one model would be about 10 to 20 in a one month I say this as I am taking in that the