FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
$100 to $250/hr - if the job is simple and it can be done in my studio its only $100/hr if I have to pack up a lot of equipment, call rental house, pick up equipment from there, coordinate location makeup I will need an assistant so in that case my price goes up to $250/hr
- What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
1) have an idea of the type and quality of work you are looking for - that means google and search for images that have the look you are interested in. 2) Look trough photographers portfolio, look for the difference in style, color and technicality of those images. 3) See the price differences and set your budget 4) D'ont expect a $25/hr photographer to deliver an image you found online that cost Thousands of dollars to be delivered for a $100 - no matter how good the photographer he wont be able to deliver. 5)Think of extra costs such as, makeup, Wardrobe, is it outside, or in studio, do you need a mansion for the setting? does the photographer need an assistant ( If the photographer is hauling 3 to 5 lights, stands and reflectors up a hill for 40 minutes he will be exhausted, by the time he is set up for that perfect frame will not be able to take it - most likely)
- What questions should customers think through before talking to professionals about their project?
When you hire a photographer for a half a day for let say $500 you think - "wow this guy make s a killing at a $1000/day " What you dont think about is this: - Most of the pros spent 4 years in school for this profession, most of them are still paying their college 10-15 years later ( Art Schools, the good ones are not cheap ) -Most decent photographers are sitting on $20,000 to $50,000 worth of equipment that is depreciating by the hour, so every year they have to sell equipment half price and buy new to keep up with the demands. -and last but not the least the photographer spends time loading that truck, unloading, setting up lighting, than breaking everything down and loading and unloading - it might not seem like much but after a day of shooting nobody wants to do it because you are exhausted. And SURPRISE the day is not over because the photographer spends hours downloading the images to the computer, next day he will go trough 600 to 3000 images and crop them, do the quick fixes, delete the bad ones etc ( Another 6-8 Hours), getting ready to show them to you next day. Client shows up the third day going trough the images - I like this , not that one - oh this is great! - my God I look so gorgeous here..., thank you, thank you so much, I hate that, please delete that and after another 3- 4 hours we have the images picked for you to be burned on disk, transferred over a USB drive and so forth. Going back to the original $500 for a half a day :) now you see it is more like 2 full days or more overall . There are plenty of other jobs, professions where you can make $250/day and you would not need to supply your own expensive equipment, you could work 5 days out of a week ) A photographer does not work 22 days a month - sometimes more sometimes less but never 22 days ) and you would get paid for every day you work. We only get paid for taking the picture, not for loading setting up or transferring images and the presentation is always free too. So why do we do it? - because we love it not because it pays well - Believe me when I say not even when I get $2,000 day i dont feel like Im here for the money, I would not do it for $2000 per day if it was not Photography :)