Have you been wondering why or how independent photographers charge what they do for your portrait investment(s)? Here are some helpful answers. The next time you are shopping for a photographer, you’ll have a better understanding about why and how we charge for our product and services.
Before I outline the services of a professional photographer, bear with me while I elaborate on an important issue. Please be wary of websites that suggest independent photographers charge an arm and a leg for prints that you can buy for pennies at the corner drugstore. It only makes sense to them if they do not have a full understanding of what a professional photographer’s worth is. We don’t just photograph you or take snapshots then run them to the local super store for prints. We photograph a time in your life and produce a quality image that you can treasure for a lifetime. Be wary of websites that tell you that you are entitled to all of your images free of copyright limitations. The truth about photographic / art copyright is if you did not create it with your own hands, your brushes, your equipment, your typewriter, your camera, then it belongs to the person that did. However, you can request a ‘perpetual limited use copyright’ from the owner of the full copyright (photographer in this case), which will allow you to print your pictures (with a lab release form) for personal use and NOT for commercial use and / or resale, and without time or quantity restrictions (perpetual). Commercial uses would be a business that would like to use a photograph for a logo, branding, marketing, advertising or art for their office wall; or some means where they can profit by its use. This usually means a ‘loss’ of sale to the legal copyright holder (the photographer or artist). Resale means that you cannot print and sell the prints, or sell the images on any medium for retail or resale. The images are not yours to make money from. It’s that simple. You would not try to pass off a copy of a book written by Steven King as your own any more than you would pass off a copy of an Ansel Adams portrait as your own. People just know when it’s not yours and labs are very keen on checking digital meta info embedded in digital images to safeguard themselves from copyright issues. This is why it is a good idea to obtain a Lab Release form from your photographer at the same time that you have obtained your images on CD / DVD or similar format. Additionally, it is never a good idea to scan your images for reproduction. It is like a cheap counterfeit and the copyright for art / photography covers this issue similarly as that of published books.
Now, on with the outline of a photographer’s professional services:
# We spend hours researching the competition; marketing our business and setting up advertising.
# There is a cost associated with running a website and researching what it is that you’d like to see on it. Some portion of our website might be made available to you privately so that you can proof and purchase your images. We absorb this cost in advance.
# When you walk into your local chain store for portraits, did they give you an option to view the images online from the comfort of your home or were they already printed and waiting for you to decide upon?
# Our website requires continuous tender love and care. Without current updates, we loose our search ranking and you.
# We answer emails and phone calls from prospects and current customers.
# We meet in person with our clients to talk about their event; or we spend time on the phone or with email insuring your understanding of our service, your appointment and subsequent satisfaction.
# We set up for your session or event
# We drive to and from your event
# Our time for the actual photographing can be from 1 hour to 8 hours +/- depending on event and package offering.
# Time involved running to and from the lab or the time spent creating your order online via our lab’s servers.
# Meeting with our clients for previews and decisions; or online image gallery proofing and purchasing options are made available. The price of this service is often included in the overall investment fee. Online storefronts and image proofing / viewing galleries come with a cost to us that we pay up front and eventually include it in our fees.
# We process your images for proofing.
# We refine your final image selections (after proofing).
# We mount the image per customer request / order options.
# We frame the image per customer request / order options.
# We package your image(s) with custom studio packaging (costs associated with business, copyrights, and client presentations)
# We drop off final images (mileage, drive time, or postage (cost of shipping) and final presentation to client; follow up care)
# Production work (events like reunions and weddings where there is more involved with albums and customized event offerings.
# We do follow up care (100% customer satisfaction guarantee)
Depending on the image and what is required, basic refinements such as simple strand(s) of hair, teeth and blemishes can take from 10 mins to an hour. Removing wrinkles and skin smoothing, lightening dark eye circles, adding or touching up makeup: add a couple more hours. Removing objects or backgrounds, or touching up backgrounds to cover up unsightly buildings, etc: add a couple more hours or less depending on how extensive the object is.
What we do not have time for or is beyond our expertise, we may contract to the lab to handle, which will incur an additional fee and is only done with client approval as the fees can be rather steep. This is why you will often see the comment on photographer websites “basic retouching included.” Makeup, wrinkles, moving tall buildings and erasing trees or objects requires more time and a higher overall investment fee. Now you know why we like to keep it “simple.” It saves you at least one leg and one arm. Additionally, with this new knowledge, take another look at the images you are selecting for final refinements. Do they follow the ‘basic refinement’ guideline or will you be expecting more from the image / photographer? If the latter is true, consider asking your photographer (in advance) for a break down of the additional cost to be incurred for refinements beyond the basics; and state what you are expecting to have done to the image so your photographer can quote this for you or obtain a quote from the lab.
Tip: if you are unsure about an image and whether it might incur additional refinement fees, ask your photographer for a proof print. Usually there is a minimum proof order requirement so you might consider making a worthwhile investment in a proof booklet. They range in size from 5×5 (1 image per page) upward to 8×12 (with 9-12 images per page). I do not recommend a proof book with more than 4 proof images per page when you are proofing for needed refinements. Otherwise, they make good brag books and archival products.
After writing and reading this, it is easier for me to understand why there are photographers who allow only so many poses in package selections and limit the amount of clothing changes during a session. Have you figured it out yet? There are a couple of reasons actually. Aside from having enough ‘creative’ and quality photography time within the allotted session, there are also only so many images that you can order with any given package size. For example, if your package consists of 1-8×10, 4-5x7s and 48 wallets (8 wallets per sheet: 6 sheets x 8 wallets each = 48 wallets), and assume that we will choose a different pose for each print or sheet. The total poses you could have with this package is 11. (1+4+6). So should you be disappointed that you couldn’t have ‘unlimited pose’ selections in your options? No. Nor should it be the reason you decide against contracting with that photographer. This simply means that you are limited only by the sheets (prints) available per package and your budget of course. I know of one lab that will print 8 different poses on 1 sheet of 8 wallets. However, the flip side is they do not do silver/gold embossing of student’s name and year on wallets. Most students prefer the embossing over having 8 different poses per sheet of 8 wallets.
When you read “unlimited poses,” look to see how many prints are available in the package options and then you will know how many poses you can choose. I tell my customers that clothing changes are only limited to the time it takes them to change during the time allowed for the session. Most people have taken 2 clothing changes and 1 additional if a specialty (ie: golfer, business attire, cheerleader, etc).
The other reason that poses might be limited is in relationship to the time it takes to refine the images. Why spend time refining 30 images if the maximum that can be ordered based on a photographer’s portrait package(s) is 10 to 15 prints? When the season is hopping full of appointments, time spent on refinements must be entered into the equation in order to be fair to all and to return a quality lifetime portrait in timely fashion.
