Professional Photography in Singapore - The Next Few Years
Here's a post by Kar-Wai Wesley taken off his blog. This entry can be found on http://wesjo.blogspot.com/2007/01/professional-photography-in-singapore.html. A good read...
================================================
After coming back in Dec, I've met up part-time and pro photographers, clients and friends. I have come to the conclusion in order to do well, professional photographers will have to go into wedding OR advertising photography. Let me explain, this is going to be long one about the long term. All figures are in Singapore dollars. (Note: Professional photographers are people that make >70% of their income from photography, the term imply anything about the standard of photography)
What is "Doing Well"?
This is very subjective, but we have to take some sort of standard, a fair gauge is comparing with your peers. From 25 to 32ish, it's highly likely a person with a full time job will be making $2.5k to $3.5k/month. Let's take the middle ground and work with $3k as a standard. With the 13 month pay + employer's contribution to CPF, monthly wage is actually ~$3.7k/month. Add in employer benefits, like dental, medical, etc and the figure will go up. This means that a full time photographer will have to make that amount monthly to sustain a decent lifestyle (as net profit after deducting expandable materials like prints, cd-rs, etc).
From 33ish and up, at middle/higher management, salary will range from $3.5k/month to $5k. Taking $4.2k as the average salary, this works out to be ~$5.2k/month. At that age, it's likely you'll be married, likely have 1 or 2 kids, HDB apartment & car. All these are long term commitments.
So, the young photographer will need to hit $3.7k/month and a few years after that, about $5.2k/month to do well. If that cannot met, it might be wise to stick to the current job and freelance (meaning part time photography). If you are making more than that as a full time photographer on your own, well done.
Sectors & Overheads
To simplify (I emphasize ok? it's really simplified), there are basically 3 sectors and they overlap slightly:
1. Events and Wedding Day - Typical equipment setup is 2 d-slrs (both likely semi-pro bodies), 2 or 3 lenses, flash, cf cards, laptop or desktop, software, printer. All adds up to $10k to $16k for starting out. After that, it's another $4k to $6k a year to maintain and upgrade cameras, software, storage, etc. Typically, the event/wedding day photographer works from home so there's no rental. Let's take $13k as the startup cost, add transport (~$600 for bus+taxi), total is ~$600/month for the 1st 2 years. We'll assume that the photographer will do a modest markup for expendables like cd-r, paper, etc so the cost will those items won't be considered. After the 1st 2 years, the photographer will likely get a small office space for $400 to $600/month. So maximum running cost is $1020/month ($420/month maintenance + $600/month rental) after 2 years.
Now, we go to the fees. As you know, the events market has been decimated by freelancers (part time photographers) and the going rate is approx ~$80/hr. This hasn't changed since 1990 when I started freelancing in my NS days, so the fee has *actually* gone down when inflation and cost of living is calculated. For the long term, we add $1020/month (overheads) + $5200/month (do well salary), the photographer has to spend (1020+5200)/80hr x 2 factor (meetings + post processing + delivery + travel) = 155.5hrs to make $6220/month.
The wedding day photographer typically shoots 4 to 6 weddings a month, and the fee is about $1300 to $2600/day for approx 16hrs/day. The rate is ~$120/hr for the middle fee. Works out 103hrs to make the same amount. Btw, rates for wedding day's probably the only fee that's gone up. In the early 90s, $600 to $900 was the norm.
To summarize, it's 155.5hr/month for the events photographer and 103hr/month for the wedding photographer for $6220/month.
2. Commercial - this covers product, food, interior, people photography for direct clients like, schools, businesses, magazines, etc. Commercial work also covers wedding studio photography. Typical equipment setup is 2 d-slrs (both likely semi-pro or pro bodies), 4 or 6 lenses, flash, cf cards, laptop and/or desktop, software, printer. Plus decent set of studio lights with softboxes, umbrellas, background paper, etc. All adds up to $30k to $40k to start out. After that, it's another $8k to $10k a year to maintain and upgrade cameras, software, storage, etc. Rental for a studio space large enough to shoot products and people is about $1700/month.
For the 1st 2 years, the cost is $3500/month and after that, $2450/month. Please note that it's highly likely after the 1st 2 years, the photographer will get a company vehicle (eg. van) for about $600 to $1000/month)
The fees - Commercial work usually pays from $1200 to $2400/day for a 8-9hour day, works out at $200/hr. Again, the fees haven't changed much from the 90s. For the long term, we add $2450/month + $800 (company vehicle) + $5200/month (do well salary), the photographer has to spend (2450+5200+800)/200hr x 2 factor = 84.5hr
To summarize, it's 84.5hr/month for the commercial photographer. I didn't add in other costs like having a full time administrator or assistants but it's quite likely they will be needed after 2 years.
3. Advertising - this covers product, food, interior, people, fashion photography for advertising agencies. Typical equipment setup is medium format digital back, bodies, 4 or 6 lenses, flash, cf cards, laptop and/or desktop, software, printer. Plus decent set of studio lights with softboxes, umbrellas, background paper, etc. All adds up to $70k to $90k to start out. After that, it's another $8k to $10k a year to maintain and upgrade cameras, software, storage, etc. Rental for a studio space large enough to shoot products and people is about $1700/month. Full time producer, admin, assistant will add up to $8k to $10k a month. Company vehicle is ~$800/month.
The fees - The fees vary quite a bit. Advertising work can go for 20k to 40k/day. But meetings, production time, logistics, post production, processing will take up to 6 to 12 working days. Long term, we add $12250/month + $5200/month (do well salary), the photographer has to spend (12250+5200)/416hr = 41.9hr
The x2 factor for processing, etc might be disputed. But it's in my experience that sometimes it actually take MORE time from start to an absolute-completed job.
In summary, to make a salary of $5200/month it takes:
155.5hr/month for events
103hr/month wedding
84.5hr/month for commercial
41.9hr/month for advertising
Note that commercial photography comes really close to wedding. Again, I must emphasize that some of the data is simplified so that we can get a comparison of the different sectors. Some photographers might do both wedding day and studio photography, some might do fashion and advertising, so in reality things are a bit more complicated. Commercial and weddings are treading the middle ground but the overheads for commercial is much higher than weddings, especially in the 1st 2 years.
What do clients want?
I will skip events and focus on wedding, commercial and advertising.
1. Wedding Day - Most clients want a good record of their wedding day, it's personal and different couples want different things to be emphasized. Hence there will be a need for photographers who specialize in different styles and looks. Some clients will be willing to pay a good premium for great photography.
2. Commercial - Most of the images will be used for advertising in the form of brochures, magazine, newspapers, bus ads for mostly local use. Most companies have tight marketing budgets and they will not be able to afford great photography. There are a handful that will pay for good photography because of branding, etc. But these are few. The stock industry is targeting these type of clients, more about that later.
3. Advertising - A good percentage of the images shot will be used in high publicity. And some will be used outside Singapore. Agencies will include loading fees for the photographer. It's highly likely they will be looking for a specific style for the photography. They will pay a good premium for great photography.
Stock Photography
Stock images were good and expensive for a long time until the last 2 or 3 years when digital photography filled the market with good images. So the prices have dropped. That's the good news (for clients), the better news is that the prices will drop even further in the next 2 or 3 years as more and more images are royalty free instead of being rights managed as more and more images are hitting the market, it's economics 101. If we take a look at what the stock images are offering, most of them are good generic images, and they are targeted at the commercial client who can afford a few hundred bucks for a collection of 20 - 30 nice generic images. Even if the client needs only 1 image, it's still cheaper than getting a pro photographer to shoot if the image comes close enough to what they want. To the client who is not into branding or great images, these stock images are good enough. The commercial photographer will need to match the stock image price or lose the job.
Here's a post by Kar-Wai Wesley taken off his blog. This entry can be found on http://wesjo.blogspot.com/2007/01/professional-photography-in-singapore.html. A good read...
================================================
After coming back in Dec, I've met up part-time and pro photographers, clients and friends. I have come to the conclusion in order to do well, professional photographers will have to go into wedding OR advertising photography. Let me explain, this is going to be long one about the long term. All figures are in Singapore dollars. (Note: Professional photographers are people that make >70% of their income from photography, the term imply anything about the standard of photography)
What is "Doing Well"?
This is very subjective, but we have to take some sort of standard, a fair gauge is comparing with your peers. From 25 to 32ish, it's highly likely a person with a full time job will be making $2.5k to $3.5k/month. Let's take the middle ground and work with $3k as a standard. With the 13 month pay + employer's contribution to CPF, monthly wage is actually ~$3.7k/month. Add in employer benefits, like dental, medical, etc and the figure will go up. This means that a full time photographer will have to make that amount monthly to sustain a decent lifestyle (as net profit after deducting expandable materials like prints, cd-rs, etc).
From 33ish and up, at middle/higher management, salary will range from $3.5k/month to $5k. Taking $4.2k as the average salary, this works out to be ~$5.2k/month. At that age, it's likely you'll be married, likely have 1 or 2 kids, HDB apartment & car. All these are long term commitments.
So, the young photographer will need to hit $3.7k/month and a few years after that, about $5.2k/month to do well. If that cannot met, it might be wise to stick to the current job and freelance (meaning part time photography). If you are making more than that as a full time photographer on your own, well done.
Sectors & Overheads
To simplify (I emphasize ok? it's really simplified), there are basically 3 sectors and they overlap slightly:
1. Events and Wedding Day - Typical equipment setup is 2 d-slrs (both likely semi-pro bodies), 2 or 3 lenses, flash, cf cards, laptop or desktop, software, printer. All adds up to $10k to $16k for starting out. After that, it's another $4k to $6k a year to maintain and upgrade cameras, software, storage, etc. Typically, the event/wedding day photographer works from home so there's no rental. Let's take $13k as the startup cost, add transport (~$600 for bus+taxi), total is ~$600/month for the 1st 2 years. We'll assume that the photographer will do a modest markup for expendables like cd-r, paper, etc so the cost will those items won't be considered. After the 1st 2 years, the photographer will likely get a small office space for $400 to $600/month. So maximum running cost is $1020/month ($420/month maintenance + $600/month rental) after 2 years.
Now, we go to the fees. As you know, the events market has been decimated by freelancers (part time photographers) and the going rate is approx ~$80/hr. This hasn't changed since 1990 when I started freelancing in my NS days, so the fee has *actually* gone down when inflation and cost of living is calculated. For the long term, we add $1020/month (overheads) + $5200/month (do well salary), the photographer has to spend (1020+5200)/80hr x 2 factor (meetings + post processing + delivery + travel) = 155.5hrs to make $6220/month.
The wedding day photographer typically shoots 4 to 6 weddings a month, and the fee is about $1300 to $2600/day for approx 16hrs/day. The rate is ~$120/hr for the middle fee. Works out 103hrs to make the same amount. Btw, rates for wedding day's probably the only fee that's gone up. In the early 90s, $600 to $900 was the norm.
To summarize, it's 155.5hr/month for the events photographer and 103hr/month for the wedding photographer for $6220/month.
2. Commercial - this covers product, food, interior, people photography for direct clients like, schools, businesses, magazines, etc. Commercial work also covers wedding studio photography. Typical equipment setup is 2 d-slrs (both likely semi-pro or pro bodies), 4 or 6 lenses, flash, cf cards, laptop and/or desktop, software, printer. Plus decent set of studio lights with softboxes, umbrellas, background paper, etc. All adds up to $30k to $40k to start out. After that, it's another $8k to $10k a year to maintain and upgrade cameras, software, storage, etc. Rental for a studio space large enough to shoot products and people is about $1700/month.
For the 1st 2 years, the cost is $3500/month and after that, $2450/month. Please note that it's highly likely after the 1st 2 years, the photographer will get a company vehicle (eg. van) for about $600 to $1000/month)
The fees - Commercial work usually pays from $1200 to $2400/day for a 8-9hour day, works out at $200/hr. Again, the fees haven't changed much from the 90s. For the long term, we add $2450/month + $800 (company vehicle) + $5200/month (do well salary), the photographer has to spend (2450+5200+800)/200hr x 2 factor = 84.5hr
To summarize, it's 84.5hr/month for the commercial photographer. I didn't add in other costs like having a full time administrator or assistants but it's quite likely they will be needed after 2 years.
3. Advertising - this covers product, food, interior, people, fashion photography for advertising agencies. Typical equipment setup is medium format digital back, bodies, 4 or 6 lenses, flash, cf cards, laptop and/or desktop, software, printer. Plus decent set of studio lights with softboxes, umbrellas, background paper, etc. All adds up to $70k to $90k to start out. After that, it's another $8k to $10k a year to maintain and upgrade cameras, software, storage, etc. Rental for a studio space large enough to shoot products and people is about $1700/month. Full time producer, admin, assistant will add up to $8k to $10k a month. Company vehicle is ~$800/month.
The fees - The fees vary quite a bit. Advertising work can go for 20k to 40k/day. But meetings, production time, logistics, post production, processing will take up to 6 to 12 working days. Long term, we add $12250/month + $5200/month (do well salary), the photographer has to spend (12250+5200)/416hr = 41.9hr
The x2 factor for processing, etc might be disputed. But it's in my experience that sometimes it actually take MORE time from start to an absolute-completed job.
In summary, to make a salary of $5200/month it takes:
155.5hr/month for events
103hr/month wedding
84.5hr/month for commercial
41.9hr/month for advertising
Note that commercial photography comes really close to wedding. Again, I must emphasize that some of the data is simplified so that we can get a comparison of the different sectors. Some photographers might do both wedding day and studio photography, some might do fashion and advertising, so in reality things are a bit more complicated. Commercial and weddings are treading the middle ground but the overheads for commercial is much higher than weddings, especially in the 1st 2 years.
What do clients want?
I will skip events and focus on wedding, commercial and advertising.
1. Wedding Day - Most clients want a good record of their wedding day, it's personal and different couples want different things to be emphasized. Hence there will be a need for photographers who specialize in different styles and looks. Some clients will be willing to pay a good premium for great photography.
2. Commercial - Most of the images will be used for advertising in the form of brochures, magazine, newspapers, bus ads for mostly local use. Most companies have tight marketing budgets and they will not be able to afford great photography. There are a handful that will pay for good photography because of branding, etc. But these are few. The stock industry is targeting these type of clients, more about that later.
3. Advertising - A good percentage of the images shot will be used in high publicity. And some will be used outside Singapore. Agencies will include loading fees for the photographer. It's highly likely they will be looking for a specific style for the photography. They will pay a good premium for great photography.
Stock Photography
Stock images were good and expensive for a long time until the last 2 or 3 years when digital photography filled the market with good images. So the prices have dropped. That's the good news (for clients), the better news is that the prices will drop even further in the next 2 or 3 years as more and more images are royalty free instead of being rights managed as more and more images are hitting the market, it's economics 101. If we take a look at what the stock images are offering, most of them are good generic images, and they are targeted at the commercial client who can afford a few hundred bucks for a collection of 20 - 30 nice generic images. Even if the client needs only 1 image, it's still cheaper than getting a pro photographer to shoot if the image comes close enough to what they want. To the client who is not into branding or great images, these stock images are good enough. The commercial photographer will need to match the stock image price or lose the job.
:bsmilie: