Many photographers struggle with their pricing. This is normal. The best way for a photographer to establish their business is to understand how their business operates. They also should learn how any business operates.
A photographer learns to price according to *their* location, *their* business plans and *their* market positioning. This takes time and effort and mistakes will be made along the way.
And then there are photographers who like to take shortcuts.
Pretend Professional
I got a phone call today from someone claiming to be an office manager. She said they needed some business portraits. She asked how much I charged, how the pictures would be shot, whether I use softboxes or umbrellas, what type of backgrounds are best, how the photos are selected, what amount of retouching I do, and how the pictures would be delivered. After I answered all her questions, she suddenly hung up.
Having worked with many companies, from small to large, over the past 26 years, I knew immediately that everything about this phone call was wrong: the way the person spoke, the questions she asked, the television noises in the background, and the gum she was chewing.
With the magic of Call Display and the Internet, I traced her phone number. It led to the web site of a Toronto wedding photographer.
I suspect she got a request to do some business portraits for which she has no experience. She made the fake phone call to figure out what to do and what to charge.
Her web site uses free web hosting and she uses a free e-mail service. Obviously, this person loves cheap and is not interested in investing in her business. Maybe she doesn’t expect her business to last very long.
I noticed that several of the photos on her web site were really good. Too good.
Google image search revealed that many of the photos on her site were stolen from photographers in the USA and UK.
Stealing other people’s work and passing it off as your own to promote your business is against the law, (see: Copyright Act, Competition Act).
Unregulated photography
Professional photography is not regulated in any way. It’s caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). When you’re looking to hire a photographer, please choose carefully.
There are many very good, professional photographers who can produce excellent work. Sadly there are also those who are just looking to make a quick buck with their camera.
A customer should never have to deal with fly-by-night photographers, those who use bait-and-switch tactics, or those who deliver substandard work.
If you’re about to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on professional photography, choose wisely. Not only do you get what you pay for, you can sometimes also get what you didn’t bargain for.
More Pretenders
Added October 2013: Got another one. Someone emailed that his “medium sized company located in the downtown core of Toronto” needed 18 corporate headshots. That’s an odd way to describe your company. His email arrived at 11:10 PM on a Saturday. Alarm bell #1.
He wanted “a simple two light set up and a light grey background.” A customer would never say this. Alarm bell #2.
A Google search revealed that this guy seems to be a part-time wedding photographer. His domain name was registered two years ago. The business name and logo that he uses are virtually the same as a well-known US brand. LinkedIn shows that his day job is working for an online marketing business. A phone call to this company, which is not located in downtown Toronto, confirmed he worked there.
This guy’s web site has some very nice wedding pictures. But most of his wedding pictures and business photos are clearly from model test shoots. His gallery of “corporate photography” is just model headshots with an office-like background digitally added.
Again, buyer beware.
Added December 2018: Yet another one. A person emailed on a Sunday night to say that she is “an executive assistant at a Toronto area company,” (which is an odd way to refer to your company). Her “boss wants pricing for business headshots to be done sometime in the upcoming year.” She wrote that she had no further information.
She asked if I could send all the information and pricing I have on business headshots. The email, loaded with smiley faces and exclamation points, also asked for a list of photography tips on how to best shoot a headshot.
I didn’t bother replying.
There seems to be some amateurs pretending to be a professional photographer. Buyer beware.
Added January 2019: Another lazy photographer. This one, in Brooklyn, New York, was too lazy to remove my name and other references from the full page of business information she stole, word-for-word, from my web site.
Again, buyer beware because you may not be getting what you’re paying for.
