right now i shoot on my Mini 3 Pro for smaller jobs and the Air 3 for anything more serious. i come home, dump everything onto my main drive, do a rough cull in Lightroom, color grade the stills, then jump into Premiere for the video. the problem is i dont have a consistent folder structure or naming convention so sometimes i'm hunting around for footage from three weeks ago and its a nightmare.

also how are you guys actually delivering the final files? im currently just using Google Drive shared links but it feels a little janky, like not super professional. wondering if there are better options people actually use for this kind of thing. not looking for something super expensive just something that looks clean when a client opens the link

the property is a mid sized house, nothing crazy, maybe 3500 sqft on about half an acre. she wants exterior stills, a short aerial video clip for the listing, and maybe a quick flyover of the neighborhood. probably 2-3 hours of my time including editing. ive looked at some stuff online but the range is all over the place, ive seen people say $150 and others saying $500 for basically the same thing and im just confused.

also do you guys send a contract for stuff like this or just invoice them after? i dont want to seem unprofessional but i also dont want to overcomplicate it for a first gig. any advice would be really appreciated

weather was genuinely overcast that day, not stormy or anything, just gray. i did mention it before we started and they said lets just go ahead and do it. so i went ahead.

now im unsure if i should charge for the reshoot or not. part of me thinks i covered myself by flagging the weather but i also didnt get anything in writing and i want to keep this client for future work. they do a lot of commercial real estate.

do you all have weather clauses in your contracts or is that something most people just handle case by case

now im trying to raise my rates and every time i quote something closer to $300-350 for a basic exterior package the agents either ghost me or say they have someone who does it for $100. and like, i know those guys exist, the guy flying a mini 3 with no insurance and probably no part 107, but how do you compete with that and also not race to the bottom yourself

do you bundle stills and video together or keep them separate? ive been keeping them separate thinking it makes each thing seem more valuable but maybe thats wrong. also how long does everyone spend on editing, im doing probably 2-3 hours per shoot for the video which feels like a lot but i dont know what normal is

part of me wants to lower prices just to stay busy but then i feel like that just makes everything worse for everyone. been thinking about pivoting more toward construction progress stuff or maybe roofing inspections which seem less crowded around here. curious if anyone else has navigated this kind of shift or if lowering prices actually ever worked out long term

i dont have anything in my contract that specifically addresses this and i kind of just said sure because i didnt want to lose the referral but it's been bugging me. how do you guys word your scope of work to prevent this? or do you just build in a buffer and accept that some clients will always push a little

im still kind of new to charging for this stuff, ive mostly done it for friends or for my own portfolio so far. i was thinking maybe $400 for the whole thing? that includes the flight, the edit, everything. but im genuinely not sure if thats too low or too high for a small local client. i dont want to scare them off but i also dont want to massively undercut myself and set a weird precedent with local businesses.

for context im in a mid-size city in the midwest, certified part 107, been flying seriously for about 18 months, using a mini 4 pro. any thoughts welcome honestly im just trying to get a feel for the market

i did my best to get everything but honestly the light was gone by the time i got through all the extra requests and some of the footage i really wanted from the original plan suffered for it. i dont want to be the difficult guy on set but also this kind of thing eats into my time and battery packs and i flew like 6 batteries that day when i planned for 3.

do you just absorb it and move on or do you have some kind of system for handling scope creep on location? ive been doing this for about two years and it still catches me off guard sometimes

i said sure but then realized i had no idea what to even charge for that or whether i should just include it or what. ended up just sending them over because i didnt want the awkward conversation and now im kind of annoyed at myself because that feels like it should have been an upsell or at least something in a contract. do people normally give out raws? i feel like thats kind of giving away part of what you do but maybe im overthinking it

also as a side note my contract at the time was basically just a one page thing i found online and adapted which clearly wasnt covering enough stuff so if anyone has thoughts on what should definitely be in a commercial contract id love to hear it

talking to a realtor last week who mentioned offhand that the agency she works for has been paying another pilot $450 for basically the same deliverables im giving. same neighborhood, similar homes, she actually showed me some of his shots and they werent better than mine. i was kind of annoyed at myself honestly.

my current package is like 20-25 edited stills, a simple flyover video edited to about 90 seconds, delivered in 48 hours. i shoot with a mini 4 pro which i know some people will say isnt pro enough but the clients genuinely cannot tell the difference in the final product at this price point. anyway just wondering what other people are charging in their markets and how you even figure out where to set your rates without scaring everyone off

i kind of didnt know what to say. i've never had this come up before. on one hand the raws are just sitting on my drive and it feels petty to withhold them. on the other hand i've heard other photogs say you never give out raws because it's unprofessional or something. i ended up just saying i'd think about it and get back to them which was awkward.

do you guys have a policy on this or does it just depend on the client. i dont have anything in my contract about it one way or another which is probably the real problem here.

my current package is like 15-20 edited stills and a short property video maybe 60-90 seconds, fully color graded, delivered within 24 hours. i'm shooting on a mini 4 pro which i know isnt the most pro setup but the footage is genuinely really good and clients havent complained once.

i guess my question is how do you figure out what to charge without scaring clients away. i have 3 realtors i work with regularly and im worried if i raise prices they'll just go find someone cheaper. but i also feel like i'm working way too hard for what im making when you factor in drive time, editing, the part 107, insurance etc.

right now im basically just dumping everything onto an external drive organized by date and then the client name but i dont have any real naming convention and my editing folder structure is all over the place. some jobs have the raw files in the same folder as the exports which is a nightmare when youre looking for something months later.

im not looking for some crazy enterprise solution or anything, just curious what other solo operators are doing to keep things sane. especially around how you deliver the final files ? are you using dropbox, wetransfer, google drive, something else? and do you do anything special for archiving old jobs or do you just keep everything forever

i do try to explain the value, the FAA licensing, the editing time, all that stuff but some of them just dont care or dont understand why that matters. wondering if anyone has a good way of handling these conversations without sounding defensive or coming off like youre lecturing them. do you just let those clients walk or is there a way to actually convert them

like right now i have three active clients and one of them keeps emailing me asking for tweaks ? slightly different color grade, can you make the sky more blue, can you add their logo to the video, stuff like that. i never really defined what was included in the original quote so now im doing all this extra work for free because i feel weird charging her after the fact. another client i delivered files to through wetransfer and they said they never got them (the link probably expired) and now they cant find the email and its just this whole thing.

do you guys use contracts that spell out revision limits? and how do you deliver final files ? wetransfer always feels sketchy to me now, thinking about switching to google drive or frame.io or something. would love to hear how other people have this stuff organized because right now its just vibes and i need actual structure

she asked me what my rates were and i just kind of panicked and said ill send her a quote and then spent the last three days staring at google trying to figure out what to charge. ive seen everything from like $150 to $800 for real estate shoots depending on who you ask and i genuinely cant tell whats reasonable for my market. im in a mid-size city in the midwest, not a huge market but not tiny either.

the property is a 4 bedroom house, probably a 2-3 hour job including travel, editing the photos, and putting together a short video. do i just lowball it to get the job and build a portfolio or is that a bad idea long term? any advice from people who actually do this would be really helpful

part of me wants to just send it over because it's not a huge deal and i want repeat business from these guys. but also it feels like a slippery slope? like now they might not need me to do the editing next time. not sure how to handle this, ive never been asked this before. do you normally put raw file clauses in contracts or just deal with it case by case

my current clients are mostly smaller agencies and individual agents, not the big brokerages. wondering if pricing is regional or if i just undervalued myself from the start. also do you all charge extra for twilight shots or is that bundled in? i've been throwing that in for free because i thought it would win clients but maybe thats the wrong move

anyway just curious how others structure this stuff, ive been kind of winging it and it would help to hear how actual working pilots handle pricing

like do i quote a per-visit rate and just multiply it out, or do i offer them a monthly retainer, or do i do a flat project rate for the whole thing? i feel like quoting the whole 14 months up front is risky because what if costs go up or something changes. but i also don't know if per visit makes me look like i dont have my act together for something this size. the orthomosaic stuff is also a variable because i'd need to factor in the processing time and honestly i'm still getting comfortable with that workflow in Pix4D. any of you done anything similar?

also ? do you invoice monthly or per deliverable? just trying to understand how other people handle the admin side of a longer engagement like this.

i ended up doing most of it because i didn't want to rock the boat with a client who gives me pretty regular work, but i kind of resent that i did that. felt like i was being walked over a bit. do you guys have specific language in your contracts for this or do you just handle it on the fly? wondering if i should be building in a change fee or something. i dont really have a proper contract right now, more just email agreements which i know is probably bad.

i didnt have any language in my contract about this and honestly my contract is pretty barebones in general which i know is a problem. i dont really want to hand over the raws for a bunch of reasons, partly because they look rough ungraded and i dont want my work floating around in that state, partly because it feels like they should just pay for an additional deliverable if they want more than what we agreed.

ended up telling them i could provide a prores export at a higher res than i normally deliver for an additional fee, they seemed okay with it. but now im wondering how you all handle this in your contracts, do you explicitly say raws arent included or do you just not mention it and deal with it case by case

spoke to a guy at my local flying club last weekend who said he charges $350 minimum for anything real estate related and doesnt budge on it. he said agents who push back on price arent worth working with anyway. part of me thinks hes right but part of me is scared to lose the clients i already have because theyre pretty steady work at this point.

curious what others are doing, like are you charging per photo, per hour, per listing? i cant figure out what the standard is supposed to be because every post i find online is either outdated or from some course trying to sell me something

i hadn't really thought about this before and my contract honestly doesnt say anything specific about raw files. i dont have a huge problem giving it to them but it also feels like that should've been a separate conversation before the job, not an afterthought. also the raw log footage looks awful without grading and i kind of dont want my name attached to anything that comes out of it even indirectly.

do most of you have clauses about this? how do you handle raw file requests in general, especially after the deliverables are already handed over

i live in a mid-size city not a huge metro, so i dont know if that changes things much. been using a Mini 4 Pro which handles the job fine but maybe clients expect more? or do they even care what gear you're using as long as the shots look good. i feel like i've undercut myself to get clients and now i'm kind of stuck at this lower rate and nervous to raise it. anyone been through this?

curious how other people handle this. do you use something specific for delivery or just a cloud folder situation. also wondering about how long you keep raw footage after a job is done, ive got drives filling up fast and some of this stuff is months old from clients who never asked for anything extra.