Why do professional photographers sometimes seem expensive?
In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras and easy access to upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later............we hear this all the time - How in the world do some professional photographers charge $50 for an 8x10 when they are much cheaper at the drug store?
Here's why.
Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.
For a one-two hour portrait session:
- travel to and from the session
- one-two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive (99% of the time the client wants the option to order additional prints at a later time - a much later time - requiring external storage usage.)
- approx 4 hours of Photoshop time to apply artistic plans to the photos including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs ( if several hundred photos, then it would take much longer -for example, weddings)
- approx 4 hrs or more total of combined communication: talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, emails/messages, order their prints providing the best quality papers and options (some of the payment for the order is applied to the print order and does not go to the photographer), receive and verify prints, package the order/prints, schedule shipment and drop package off.
You can see how one session easily turns into many hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a photographer charging a large session fee for a photo shoot, or a large fee for a package, you are not paying them $100 / hour.
Now for the expertise.
Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through experience. Even though some quality cameras cost under $2,000 - taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most professional photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, aquiring new skills/inspirations continually to stay fresh in the business, updating sites with current work and sometimes blogging, etc.
And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate and help people get comfortable in front of the camera.
Think of it this way - the next time you pay $______ to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional.
What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the thought, time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a relaxed one to two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to your home or outdoors or special locations! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You usually get what you pay for.
The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios --see link here: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/02/05/portrait_to_close_500_wal_mart_studios/
because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things.
In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras and easy access to upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later............we hear this all the time - How in the world do some professional photographers charge $50 for an 8x10 when they are much cheaper at the drug store?
Here's why.
Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.
For a one-two hour portrait session:
- travel to and from the session
- one-two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive (99% of the time the client wants the option to order additional prints at a later time - a much later time - requiring external storage usage.)
- approx 4 hours of Photoshop time to apply artistic plans to the photos including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs ( if several hundred photos, then it would take much longer -for example, weddings)
- approx 4 hrs or more total of combined communication: talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, emails/messages, order their prints providing the best quality papers and options (some of the payment for the order is applied to the print order and does not go to the photographer), receive and verify prints, package the order/prints, schedule shipment and drop package off.
You can see how one session easily turns into many hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a photographer charging a large session fee for a photo shoot, or a large fee for a package, you are not paying them $100 / hour.
Now for the expertise.
Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through experience. Even though some quality cameras cost under $2,000 - taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.
Most professional photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website, aquiring new skills/inspirations continually to stay fresh in the business, updating sites with current work and sometimes blogging, etc.
And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate and help people get comfortable in front of the camera.
Think of it this way - the next time you pay $______ to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a professional.
What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the thought, time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a relaxed one to two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to your home or outdoors or special locations! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You usually get what you pay for.
The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios --see link here: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/02/05/portrait_to_close_500_wal_mart_studios/
because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things.
Derived from: http://www.caughtonfilmphoto.com/costofphotography.html
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