For Photographers

Give Your Photography Value A Nudge

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Price is set by you, the photographer, but value is set by your customers. Your task is to align the two. You have to align your prices with the perceived value of your photography.

Perceived value refers to the benefits a customer believes they will receive from your photography. The higher the perceived value, the greater the customer satisfaction. Additionally, a higher perceived value allows you to charge higher prices. Since a strong perceived value benefits both you and the customer, it’s essential to focus on enhancing it.

While price will reflect tangible factors like your time and costs, value is subjective. It’s emotional and varies from customer to customer. Value to the customer depends on:
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Understanding Photography Pricing

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Price is set by you, the photographer, but value is perceived by the customer:

Perceived value = Expected benefit(s) – Perceived cost

where Perceived cost = monetary cost + the effort needed to make the purchase.

If Expected benefits = Perceived cost, then value is zero. The customer probably won’t buy.
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How To Write Full IPTC

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(A very long post about a simple topic.)

Much to my surprise, one of the most popular posts on this blog is a 2018 article about how to write a photo caption. As a follow-up to that article, this post will explain how to fill out the other IPTC data fields found in most photo software.

IPTC refers to the International Press Telecommunications Council, a consortium of major news agencies formed in 1965. The consortium established, and maintains, universal technical standards for the exchange of news data. This means that some of the IPTC fields will apply only to news photographers and perhaps stock agency photographers. But there are several fields that every photographer should be using.
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Observations from Photo Retouching

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Lately I’ve been doing a lot of photo retouching, working with images shot by other photographers. Some of these photographers clearly know their craft because the images sent to me are extremely well done. The retouching required is usually adding or removing specific objects as requested by the final client.

On the other hand, some photographers are, uh, not as skilled. A significant portion of my retouching work involves fixing their mistakes and trying to compensate for their lack of expertise. But even after retouching, the final image may still be subpar due to issues like weak portrait poses, poor lighting, bad composition, or other problems that retouching can’t fix.

Retouching Family Portraits

Recently I worked on two sets of outdoor portraits, from two different families, shot by two different photographers.
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Getting Better All The Time

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New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi (L) argues with home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman in the eighth inning of their American League East MLB baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays in Toronto, 06 June 2010.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

When a photo job doesn’t work out the way you wanted, who do you blame?

If you blame your tools then the solution is to get better tools.

If you blame your customers then the solution is to get better customers.

But if the blame rests on you then the solution is to get better.
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Know When You Don’t Know

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A portrait of juggler John Doyle, circa 1902, by Canadian-born photographer Joseph Pasonault in his photo studio in Cando, North Dakota, (US Library of Congress). Another photo by Pasonault was used in a previous blog post.

True professionals may not know what they don’t know but at least they know that they don’t know.

You may have heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect which affects almost everyone. It’s a cognitive bias where those with a low ability at a certain task are more likely to overestimate their ability at that task. But people with a high ability at a task know that they don’t know everything about that task and may underestimate their ability.
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Is Your Website Hurting Your Business?

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Ross Brothers Hardware (L) on Jasper Avenue at 98 Street in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, circa 1890 (Library and Archives Canada). The store was in operation until 1960 after which the hardware store and some of its neighbours were relocated to Fort Edmonton Park.

Today that downtown location of Jasper Avenue and (no longer existing) 98 Street is right across the street from the Edmonton Convention Centre which hosts all sorts of conventions and conferences.

What year is it, 2024? Web sites have been around for over 30 years. So why do some photographers not know how to make a decent web site?
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