How much should you charge for drone photography and videography services?
This is a question I see all the time on the Facebook Groups I follow. I’ve been in business (a side-business) doing various drone and general real estate photography for more than a year. Even in that short amount of time I’ve done a wide variety of work and clients. It’s hard to know what the client expects to pay compared to what you expect to get paid. Every situation can be different including if it is a repeat client and what part of the country you live in. I have a general menu of cost on my main website page: DroneAbility LLC but that is to help set an expection for the perspective client. This may be different in some ways if it was my full-time job and/or I had reliable repeat clients.
In this blog I am NOT going to list actually amounts of money a particular job should be charged for. It depends on so many factors including your experience level, how high a client will pay for the job and the type of job. The best advice I can give is:
Client communication: Have a good conversation with the client, really determine the needs and other below conditions to understand exactly what is needed and expected. This includes what the client is willing or can pay as per a budget.
Client satisfaction: When possible, always exceed the client’s expectation and wow them. Make sure they get the service they asked for and more.
When I have an opportunity for a job, I typically make my decision for the cost I’m going to charge from the four below general conditions:
What is the service needed?
Back to client communication, fully understand what the client needs are. This includes if the client wants photos or videos, if you are expected to only provide unedited media or a finished product, the deadline or timeframe for the service to be done and even issues like controlled airspace or permission to take photography where the client wants.
Where is the service needed?
Is the commute 1-2 hours away or really close? Are there any airspace restrictions that need to be addressed? Is the job in a high-crime area? Most of the time these are not issues but this is about: location, location, location.
How many hours of drone and/or photography is estimated?
Most of the time, a client may say it’s 1 hour of actual work. In reality it turns out to be 3-4 hours. Something to consider. Make sure to account for travel and setup time.
How many hours of post-production is needed?
I personally like finishing the end result if it’s improving the photos in Lightroom or creating a video with music in Davinci Resolve. This will definitely affect the cost of the service but it also gives you more content for your personal portfolio.
Summary:
Almost every drone or photography job I’ve done included a negotiating with the client. I’ve also turned down jobs if if the client is not willing to pay enough or something feels off about the job or client in general. In the end it’s all about communication with the client.
P.S.
I almost always get paid before I hand over the deliverables. I’ll do the work and create and post a slide show or video on YouTube with a watermark for the client to approve or want changes. Once everything is good I prefer a check or cash but I also have a Stripe account in case the client wants to pay via credit card. Stripe and other services like this take their fee though. I’ll then send the client a link to Google Drive to download the deliverables.
Once a job is finished I send them an email thanking them for the work and a link to provide a review on my Better Business Bureau site (previously used Google reviews) to get feedback and show perspective clients.
