New Online Calculator Works Out How Many Exposures Your Free Work is Worth

Now, I know we all love working for free, it’s just that sometimes it can be tricky trying to assess just how many exposures you should be charging. Fear not, for this handy exposure calculator has got you covered.

Courtesy of Photography Domination, it just got a lot easier to figure out your exposure exchange rate. “Find out exactly how much “exposure” you should receive for your hard work, based on important metrics and complicated scientific algorithms,” it reads.

To get started, you simply need to fill in a bunch of essential details, such as your brand of camera, inclusion of nudity in your pictures, and answering whether or not there are some “well-known people” featured within them. Of course, no exposure measurement would be complete without factoring in how many Instagram followers you have.

For context purposes, the helpful tool also provides conversion rates – such as how much your exposures are worth in dollars and social media notoriety. My landlord recently hinted that he’s going to increase my rent by a few exposures, so this calculator has proven invaluable. Start calculating your exposures now.

It even comes with a helpful note to remind users that if you’re serious about being a photographer, you should “almost never work for ‘exposure’ alone.”

Creator Maarten Mellemans is also the author of an article detailing how you should handle these types of requests.

On a serious note, one of my least favorite things about the photo industry is this assumption that we’re willing to work for free – and that it’s acceptable for clients to ask us to do so. Would you have the guts to send this to someone asking you to provide photos in return for exposure?