2. Pay Rates
There are no standard rates, contrary to what some people say. Every model and photographer has their own thing depending on their experience, talent, and limits. Feel free to set your own rates at whatever you want, but many photographers will turn you down if it is out of your range. Photographers in different areas will pay different things depending on styles, experience, cost of living in that area, etc. For example, a small town away from major metro areas will usually get low pay due to the photographers like not making any money on their art in their area, as well as lower paying day jobs. In a large metro area, pay will also be lower due to there being many more models (supply and demand). A small metro area, on the other hand, will likely get the most amount of money due to small town art scenes supporting smaller photographers, moderate cost of living and moderate pay scale. In NY, non-porn pays crap unless you’re fashion runway material. In DC the pay is mostly from traveling photographers, porn, and the occasional “book work” or “promo work” to lend your face to small alternative fashion, beauty, and lifestyle businesses. (Some places pay you to come to parties – just to show up at them and look good, mind you – but the parties are generally dull things at boring bars or clubs, at least here in DC.) I didn’t expect it but I get paid the most in Pittsburgh out of everywhere else due to there being a thriving art scene without a lot of fresh faces to act as models.
The above being the case, my general pay rates are as follows:
- If the photographer provides a stylist/wardrobe, $50/hr for partial nude, $75/hr for full nude.
- If the photographer does not provide a stylist/wardrobe, $75/hr for partial nude, $100/hr for full nude. If I am expected to bring wardrobe or accessories, this should be discussed extensively ahead of time as to what items and in what styles I should bring and if I will be financially compensated for anything I do not already own.
- Fetish pay depends entirely on the fetish, what the photos are for (personal “use,” publication, artistic purposes, resale – hint, personal collectors pay more, publication pays okay, resale only pays if one of your images sell – and stock photography, which rarely pays unless the images are a bit racy, and here you have to be careful… more later.)
Make sure to decide what rate of pay you desire only AFTER looking at someone’s other work. For example, I’m a real whore about this. If their product is nothing that interests me, I ask for the most amount of money that I think the photographer would pay (a great way to figure this out is when replying to their first e-mail, ask what THEY pay per hour – and please note this is very much an issue of phrasing, because there are photographers who will infer from your language that YOU are offering to pay THEM). If I like their product in terms of “yeah, it would be okay, but it’s not going to break my heart to not do it,” then I ask for a moderate rate. If I really like the work and think it would look good in my portfolio, I ask for a combination of pay and copies of a few of the best photos. The best combo I have found is to ask for $100 for two hours plus three individual shots of your choosing from the session.
