Charge for photographing artwork

[mario]

Just wondering if anyone is photographing artwork, ie. paintings, sculptures, pottery, etc.

My question deals with how much to charge. I just photographed two paintings for an artist. Took me a couple of hours (figure out lighting to get the best texture and color out of the end result, tried a variety of lenses and apertures; take some shoots - download to computer, edit, re-shoot, etc).

Anyway, she has a number of other paintings that she wants done and also has another artist friend looking for the same service. None of the photographers I know around here are doing this kind of work. So I'm hoping that someone out there is (or has) and can give me a ball park figure to work with. Or a breakdown of how to approach pricing this.
Thanks in advance!

[brian.austin]

I just figured out an hourly rate for shooting...anything...and base my quotes around that. If prints or product sales go with it, I markup accordingly.

[mario]

Thanks Brian. I also got some answers from some locals that I sent a query to. They basically use a 'set up fee' and then have a sliding scale for number of pieces. One guy uses $25 setup, $30 for the first piece, $25 per piece for 2 - 5 pieces, and $20 per piece for 6+
I think I'm going to follow that idea for now. I ended up doing 3 pieces. However, I am interested in what others are doing if anyone else wants to contribute a thought to this.

[Brooks]

We charge $125 per piece for flat art, which includes one hi-rez 14"x20" native capture at 300 DPI 16 bit TIFF.

3-dimensional pieces ie: sculpture are quoted at an hourly rate of $200 per hour and $25 per hi-rez 16 bit tiff.

[mario]

Originally Posted by Brooks

We charge $125 per piece for flat art, which includes one hi-rez 14"x20" native capture at 300 DPI 16 bit TIFF.

3-dimensional pieces ie: sculpture are quoted at an hourly rate of $200 per hour and $25 per hi-rez 16 bit tiff.

Thanks Brooks. Looks like I'm underpriced by that standard! I imagine that you have been in the business of doing this for a while and that you've built up a solid clientele. This was the first work like this that I had done - but at least now I'm on a learning curve!