Photography Business: Consumer Education 101
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Tuesday, March 14, 2017
By Phoebe Landrum Photography
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Photography Business: Consumer Education 101:

 

Creative fees: are just that, a fee you pay when you hire a photographer for being creative, for knowing the tricks, recieving an education, having the tools (spending lots of $ on equipment), and capturing captivating photos with an creative approach...

 

Images: are the product of creative time making photographs... There is a separate fee for this...

 

Commercial / branding photography: is more expensive than wedding and family lifestyle photography because the images are used to drive revenue. There are fees associated with all imagery from these shoots based on their end use.

 

Copyright: Photographers invest a lot into their businesses and deserve to keep their original copyright because part of their skills are to negotiate and achieve the needs of their clients without giving the right, to say they even took a photo, away.

 

Pricing: Professional photographers have systems they use to price their jobs fairly based on industry standards.

 

When a photographer walks away from an offer/ negotiation a: Professional Commercial photographers walk away from 99% of Musicians and brand photography work, even million dollar projects, where the right to negotiation is stripped down to "we get the images, own them, you have no rights to them, this is non negotiable." and its for good reason. This is a new attitude based in the rise of technology, it hurts the professional photography industry and cheapens the collaboration process. 

 

Commercial photography pricing: You will pay per image or group of images based on their use. Social media, ads in magazines, use for print, mobile transportation ads etc all have separate pricing points based on how long the ad will run or how many copies will be run. Paying for a license to use the images and royalties for the photography used in those ads is industry standard. 

 

You're camera vs theirs: in order to honor the photographer who is hired to take photos use the rule SLOW: Stop, Look, Observe, Wait then shoot.  Most often the photographer will make room for you to take a photograph and will enjoy it much more if you honor their space and time. Imagine that you are in the way of a super important shot (like that of a bride and groom's first kiss) and you quickly stand up to the center of the isle to take a photo. The paid photographer who stood just behind you and was expected to get that shot only got the tops of their heads and your blurry figure covering the entire scene. The repercussions of a moment like this reflect on the photographer so be aware of your surroundings. Again, most photographers will understand your desire to take photos of your loved ones and make room for you to do just that. Just SLOW down. 

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