Many people outside of the photo industry (and even some in the industry) are under the misconception that photography today is much cheaper than it was, say, ten to fifteen years ago. But the truth is that it’s far more expensive today, despite the miracle of reusable memory cards.
Cameras and lenses certainly get better as technology improves. But they’re much more expensive than in years gone by. Even if the purchase cost of an item goes down as technology advances, the product life cycle gets shorter which means more frequent updating. Computers and software also require frequent replacing.
Most folks are also surprised to learn that post-production can take as long, or longer, than the actual photography. Post-production includes, but isn’t limited to, image selection, raw format conversion, captioning, correcting for verticals, removing blemishes, cropping, resizing, and both global and local adjustments for colour, white balance, saturation, brightness, contrast and sharpness.
For many commercial assignments, a rule of thumb is two hours of post-production for each hour of photography.
Photography is not cheaper today. It’s just a lot better.
