Event photography & video terms, explained

Day rate

The flat cost for a block of my time on site, covering me, my gear, and the coverage window we agree on. It doesn't automatically include editing, travel outside Manhattan, or a second shooter, those get priced and named separately, so compare quotes by what's actually inside the day rate, not just the number.

Go deeper: What's Actually Included in a Photo or Video Day Rate

Half-day / full-day

A half-day booking is a shorter block of live coverage, a full day roughly doubles it, and where the line falls between them depends on hours booked, not hours worked. Book the block that matches your actual schedule, not the label that sounds right, an event that runs long on a half-day booking becomes an overtime conversation.

Go deeper: Half Day or Full Day: Where the Booking Line Falls

Deposit

The payment that holds your date on my calendar and turns a conversation into a booking. Refund terms vary by vendor, so ask plainly before you send one. Mine are spelled out in the booking agreement rather than left implied.

Go deeper: Deposit and Payment Schedule for a Photo or Video Booking

Retainer

A standing monthly arrangement instead of booking project by project. Useful if you need photo or video coverage on a recurring basis and want a predictable number instead of a new negotiation every time.

Fixed package vs. custom quote

A fixed package is a published price for a defined scope, easy to compare across vendors. A custom quote gets built around your specific event, guest count, and deliverables. Worth it once your event stops looking like a standard package.

Scope creep

The gap between what a quote covers and what actually happens on site, "just a few more photos" or "can you also grab the after-party." It's rarely free, and the honest move is naming the add before the day, not after the invoice arrives.

Go deeper: What "A Few Extra Photos" Actually Costs You

Travel fee

A separate line item for jobs outside my normal Manhattan service radius. It covers the added time and logistics, not padding on the day rate.

NDA (non-disclosure agreement)

A signed agreement that I won't discuss or share details of your event or unreleased content. Common for product launches, confidential internal meetings, and anything happening before a public announcement, and it can affect price since it limits what I can use in my own portfolio.

Overtime

What happens when the event runs past the booked window. I state my overtime rate up front so a longer night doesn't turn into a surprise number on the invoice.

Cancellation & rescheduling policy

What you owe, and what you get back, if a booked shoot gets cancelled or moved. Worth reading before you book, not after you need it, policies differ by how much notice you give and how close the date is.

Second shooter

A second photographer or videographer working the same event from a different angle, catching moments the first person physically can't be in two places for at once. Worth it for anything with simultaneous action, a ceremony and a reaction shot, a stage and the crowd.

Go deeper: What a Second Shooter Actually Adds to Event Coverage

Crew size

How many people show up on your day, shooter, second shooter, video operator, producer, and it's the single biggest lever on price after hours booked. More crew means more angles and faster turnaround, not automatically better photos.

Hybrid shooter

One person covering both photo and video on the same event, a real cost-saver for smaller events, though it means neither medium gets a dedicated set of eyes the whole time. Right-sized for a lower-key event; the wrong call for anything with a lot of simultaneous action.

Run of show

The event's actual timed schedule, when the keynote starts, when the doors open, when the toast happens, handed to me before the day so I know where to be and when. A vague or missing run of show is the single most common reason a shoot misses a moment.

Go deeper: Event Run of Show for Photo and Video Teams

Load-in

The window before an event officially starts when I'm setting up gear, checking angles, and getting oriented to the venue. Building enough load-in time into the schedule, instead of squeezing it into the first few guest arrivals, is what keeps the actual coverage clean.

Rigging

Mounting a camera, light, or audio gear somewhere fixed, a balcony, a truss, a ceiling point, instead of hand-holding it. Venues often require their own approved rigging point and sometimes their own union rigger, which is a detail worth confirming early, not on the load-in.

Two-camera coverage

Shooting a moment, usually a speech, panel, or ceremony, from two angles simultaneously so the edit has somewhere to cut to. It's a video term specifically; on the photo side the equivalent is a second shooter.

Producer (dedicated)

A person on site managing logistics, timing, and communication with your team so the shooter can stay focused on shooting. Worth it on anything with multiple moving pieces: multi-location days, executive schedules, a tight run of show.

Headshot station

A dedicated setup, camera, lighting, backdrop, at your office or event where guests rotate through for individual portraits. The number of guests it can actually shoot depends on the pace you want, not a vendor's printed capacity number.

Go deeper: Headshot Station vs. Photo Booth: What Guests Queue For

RAW files

The unprocessed camera file straight off the sensor, before any color correction, cropping, or editing. Almost no vendor delivers RAW files by default, what you get instead is the edited, exported version, and asking for RAW usually means asking for something outside the standard deliverable.

Go deeper: Do You Get RAW Photos or Unedited Footage?

Culling & retouching vs. editing

Culling is narrowing thousands of frames down to the real selects. Basic editing is color, exposure, and crop on those selects; full retouching, skin work, object removal, background cleanup, is a separate, priced-per-image step, not something bundled into every package by default.

Go deeper: Culling, Cleanup, or Full Retouch: Pricing the Levels

Selects

The final, edited set of images you actually receive, chosen from everything shot that day. "500 photos shot" doesn't mean 500 delivered images, selects are usually a fraction of the take.

White balance

The camera setting that keeps colors looking natural under whatever light is actually in the room, warm ballroom bulbs, cool office fluorescents, mixed stage lighting. Get it wrong and every photo carries an orange or blue cast that retouching can only partially fix.

Focal length

The lens choice that determines how close, how flattering, and how much background shows in a shot, especially for headshots, where the wrong focal length distorts a face in ways clients notice even if they can't name why.

Go deeper: Headshot Photography Focal Length: When 85mm Isn't the Answer

Motion headshots

A short looping video clip captured alongside a still headshot, built for LinkedIn and team pages that support video. An add-on to a standard headshot session, not a replacement for the still.

Gallery

The private online link where your finished images live for review and download, not a public portfolio page. How long that gallery stays live varies by vendor and is worth confirming at booking.

Deliverables

The actual list of what you get at the end, image count, video length, formats, not the hours booked. Two vendors quoting the same day rate can hand you very different deliverables, ask for the number, not just the coverage window.

Highlight reel

A short, music-driven edit that captures the feeling of an event in two to four minutes, built for sharing, not a record of everything that happened. If you need the full keynote too, that's a separate deliverable, not a longer version of the same edit.

B-roll

Supplemental footage, crowd shots, venue details, hands and reactions, cut around your main footage to add texture and cover edits. Without it, an edit is just talking heads and static wide shots.

Sizzle reel

A punchy, fast-cut promotional edit meant to sell the feeling of a brand or event, similar to a highlight reel but usually built for external marketing rather than an internal recap.

Teaser

A very short cutdown, often under 30 seconds, released before the full video to build anticipation. Common for product launches and campaign rollouts.

Cutdown

A shorter edit built from the same footage as a longer video, a 15-second version of a 2-minute film for social. Pricing a cutdown by "it's just shorter" misses the actual work, a good cutdown is its own edit, not a trim.

Go deeper: Why a 30-Second Cutdown Can Cost as Much as a Film

Recap video

A short, produced summary of an event built for sharing after the fact, different from a full-session recording, which captures the whole thing start to finish for internal or archival use.

Go deeper: Event Recap Video or Full-Session Recording?

Captioning

Burned-in or file-based text of the spoken audio, required for accessibility and increasingly expected on social platforms where video autoplays muted. It's a separate line item from editing, priced by run time.

Go deeper: What Captions and Alt Formats Add to a Video Quote

Subtitling / translation

Captions rendered in a language other than the original spoken audio, a different and pricier task than same-language captioning since it involves actual translation, not transcription.

Video length by platform

The reality that a video built for a homepage doesn't work unedited on Instagram Stories, and one built for a 30-second ad doesn't fill a YouTube slot. Knowing your platforms before the shoot changes what gets captured, not just how it's cut afterward.

Usage rights

What you're actually allowed to do with delivered photos or video, and for how long. A standard grant usually covers your own website and social channels; it doesn't automatically extend to paid ads or resale, ask before you assume.

Go deeper: Who Owns the Files: Usage Rights Explained

Exclusive usage vs. standard license

A standard license lets you use the work; exclusive usage means I agree not to license the same images or footage to anyone else, including using them in my own portfolio. Exclusivity costs more because it closes off other uses of my own work, not just yours.

Go deeper: Exclusive Usage Rights vs. a Standard License

Turnaround / rush delivery

Turnaround is the promised window between the shoot and delivery, stated up front, not a guess. Rush delivery is a separate, faster option when you need files sooner than that standard window, and it usually costs more because it reorders my whole edit queue, not because the files are harder to edit.

Go deeper: Rush Delivery: What "We Need It Tomorrow" Actually Changes

Same-day delivery

A handful of edited images released the day of the event itself, useful for a company wanting to post while the event is still happening. It's a distinct, priced service, not the default speed of a standard package.

Go deeper: When Same-Day Event Photos Are Worth It

Editing rounds

How many passes of revisions are included before additional edits get billed separately. Worth confirming on anything with brand guidelines or executive approval in the loop, since "one more small tweak" adds up.

Bundled discount

A price break for booking photo and video together on the same day instead of hiring two separate vendors. It reflects shared logistics, not a lower rate on either service alone.

Unlimited vs. capped photo package

An unlimited package delivers everything worth keeping from the day; a capped package caps the count at a set number regardless of how much was shot. Neither is automatically the better deal, it depends on what you actually plan to use.

Go deeper: Unlimited Photos or a Capped Count: How Pricing Works

Backup & redundancy

Dual memory cards, off-site backups, and a workflow built so a single card failure doesn't cost you the whole event. Worth asking any vendor about directly, since it's invisible until the one day it matters.

Annual contract vs. per-event booking

Booking event by event keeps you flexible but means renegotiating rates each time; an annual arrangement locks in pricing and priority scheduling in exchange for committing to a volume of work over the year.