Step 01
Brief the end use
We start from where the image will be seen and at what size. That decides the lighting, the crop headroom and the retouch ceiling — not the other way round.
Political portraits — 03
One person. A closed set. No expiry on the licence.
The other end of the ladder. One principal, a closed set, and as long as it takes — art-directed, lit for a specific end use, retouched to withstand a six-metre print, and licensed without a time limit or a territory.
Closed set Three lighting setups Full buyout
What this service delivers
A portrait carrying a national campaign is not the same product as the same face on a party directory page, and we do not price it as though it were. The principal tier buys a closed set with no other names on the call sheet that day, an art director working to the end use rather than to a generic likeness, wardrobe and grooming on set, and three distinct lighting setups instead of one. Retouching is taken to out-of-home standard — the level where a six-metre print is inspected at reading distance and still holds — inside the same written limits that govern every other tier. Delivery includes a full buyout: no territory, no expiry, and no re-licensing conversation two years from now.
Session
Half or full day
Lighting setups
3
Licence
Full buyout
From
€3,500
What the principal tier buys
Priced against what the image is for.
01
A closed set
No other names on the call sheet that day. The set is yours, the schedule is yours, and nobody is waiting outside in a corridor.
02
Art direction to the end use
We start from where the image will live — a billboard, a manifesto cover, a broadcast lower-third — and light for that, rather than producing a generic likeness and cropping later.
03
Three lighting setups
A weighted register, an open register and a working register from one session, so the campaign has range without a second booking.
04
Wardrobe & grooming on set
Steamer, mirror, grooming and a second pair of eyes on the frame. The details that cost a portrait its authority are all small ones.
05
Retouch to print standard
Taken to the level a six-metre print demands, inside the written limit: no restructured faces, no altered body shape, no change to apparent age.
06
Full buyout
No territory limit, no expiry, no media carve-outs. The image is yours to use for as long as it is useful.
Six metres wide is a different technical problem.
The smart layer
Out-of-home print is unforgiving in a way a screen is not. Skin texture that reads as clean at 100% becomes plastic at scale, and sharpening that flatters a web crop becomes a visible halo on a billboard.
Finished at output size, not at 100%
Retouch and sharpening decisions are made against the actual print dimensions. A file approved on a laptop has been approved at the wrong size.
Frequency-separated, limit-bound
Skin work keeps texture rather than erasing it. The contract states what may be corrected and what may not — the limit is not a matter of taste on the night.
Every format cut from one master
The billboard, the lower-third and the avatar are all computed from the same approved frame with the eye line held, so the principal reads identically across every surface.
How it runs.
Step 02
The session
A closed half or full day, three setups, wardrobe and grooming on set, and enough time to get past the first twenty frames where nobody is relaxed yet.
Step 03
Selection & finish
A shortlist reviewed with you, then finishing at output size against the written retouch limit, delivered as a full buyout with every crop pre-made.
What you receive
The session
- Closed set, half or full day
- Three lighting setups
- Art direction to the stated end use
- Wardrobe and grooming on set
The files
- Retouched to out-of-home print standard
- Full crop set from the approved master
- Print files at output dimensions
- Web and broadcast-ready versions
Rights
- Full buyout — no territory, no expiry
- Signed release
- Itemised invoice split by line
- Archive retained only on your instruction
Disclosure
Every frame on this page is our own studio reference work, photographed to demonstrate the standard. No client campaign material appears here, or anywhere else on this site.
Before you brief.
Why is this priced per campaign rather than per hour?
Because the hours are not what you are buying. A portrait that carries a national campaign and a portrait for a directory page can take the same afternoon and be worth wildly different amounts to you. We quote against the end use and the licence, and we say so plainly rather than inflating a day rate to get there.
What does the full buyout actually cover?
Every medium, every territory, with no expiry — print, digital, out-of-home and broadcast. There is no re-licensing conversation later and no clock running in the background.
How much retouching happens at this tier?
More time, not different rules. Exposure, colour, stray hair, temporary blemishes and wardrobe faults, finished at print size. We do not restructure faces, alter body shape or change apparent age at any tier, and the limit is written into the contract.
The rest of the service.
Eight ways into the same standard. Most engagements combine two or three.
01
Campaign portraits
We photograph two or three people first and lock the look with you before anybody else is scheduled. It becomes the written spec for the entire programme.
06
Statement video
An agreed script or talking points, one or two takes, shot against the same background and register as the portrait.
04
Officials & institutions
Controlled mid-grey with a soft falloff — the look that sits beside a coat of arms without competing with it, and the one that ages the slowest.
The principal portrait from €3,500, quoted to the brief.
Quoted against the end use rather than against the hours. A statement video from the same session is available from €900.
See the full rate cardOne name, one session.
Tell us where the image has to live and how large it has to print. We will come back with a session plan and a fixed price.