Many photographers (and other creatives) know the situation very well: you’re offered a freelance job but once the conversation turns to remuneration it becomes clear that there won’t be any hard cash but instead you’re expected to accept ‘exposure’ in some vague shape or form as payment.
Problem is, it’s very hard to put a value on exposure. The people behind Photography Domination have now come up with a way of quantifying how many ‘exposures’ your photography is worth.
The Exposure Calculator is an easy-to-use online calculator that lets you input some information about your work, for example your level of experience, the photographic genres you work in, your equipment, the number of followers of your Instagram account etc. When you hit the “Calculate” button you get the number of “exposures” you should asking for as a result.
In a very helpful way the calculator also provides conversion rates to US dollars, leads and exposure to social media followers.
Just in case it wasn’t entirely clear that the calculator shouldn’t be taken too seriously, there are notes saying ‘This calculator is obviously created with parody intentions’ and ‘Of course, if you’re serious about becoming a photographer you should almost never work for “exposure” alone.’
Maarten Mellemans, the creator of the calculator, has also authored a blog post in which he gives advice to photographers receiving ‘work-for-exposure’ offers.
Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)