In conversation with a client a couple of days ago, the following question arose: “Why do pictures cost so darned much!?!?!”
Since my last name isn’t Rockefeller, I am all too familiar with the word BUDGET. I realize budgets are like people… some are small, some are large. Mine isn’t very big, so I readily understand the frustrations of may folks.
I thought I’d seize the opportunity to help lay out why the portrait process can often be pricey… It can be very simple, and also very complex.
One thing we’re all able to understand is supply/demand. To have a big name Hollywood star act in your community theater would cost a fortune. Why? Because they are famous, they’ve established themselves and a presence in the industry, everyone wants them, their talents are in hot demand. Sometimes this can be the case with a photographer… Simple as it may be, there IS more to the story…
Take Greg Gorman. BIG TIME hollywood image maker. (see www.gormanphotography.com – be prepared to find yourself breathless…). Greg’s work is not only STUNNING, but it’s very much in demand. He’s only got so much time, and can afford to take only clients that meet his investment requirements. It also goes much deeper than that… This man, while a consummate artist, has invested hours and hours of his time learning, experimenting, struggling, and developing his craft. You don’t just wake up one day as an amazing image maker… like fine wine, it takes time. He’s also invested heavily in his equipment, his staff, his studio… Nothing is for free. These investments add up over time – and that’s what they are, they are investments. You have to pay for investments, you have to provide upkeep.
Everyone will agree their time is worth something. Your education is valuable; regardless of whether that knowledge came about as a result of college, OJT, school of hard knocks, you learned it, and it cost you dearly. Your trade and your tools are of value. Every trade has tools, and both trade and tools must be maintained. You also need a place to work, whether a car, van, office, home, scaffold, barn, etc., you need transport to get there/back, personal/professional insurances, professional memberships, etc..
Society a tendency by many to assume that because you work out of your home, you’ve got no overhead, which is quite the contrary; and/or, you don’t have a difficult schedule. This is another mistaken thought.
We all have to call the plummer, and we all cringe when we get the bill. That plummer has invested heavily in his/her career. You don’t argue with your physician when he/she charges you, there’s absolutely no argument of the pricey career investment. Everyone, regardless of their career path has invested heavily in that career if they’re successful. It’s our own lack of knowledge about these careers that causes us to fail to see what expenses have been delivered to reach a successful level. When your first thought is to cringe at price, it’s time to do homework, to learn why the cost is so high – and whether you’re paying too much! We have responsibility to be our own good consumer.
This applies to the photographic purchase as well. Photographs are incredibly valuable. They allow us to stop time, providing a means to revisit a moment, an event, a place in our lives we never want to forget. They take us back to beauty, pain, love, happiness. Photos are a means of historic preservation.
Like any other service, you can get what you pay for, and you might find you get MORE, you might find you got less…
When you’re looking for images, look at style, look at the relationship the photographer wants to build. True, we are business people; however, we are also in the relationship business. We love watching your life, your children grow, the changes in your families… These things are what make us good at our job, and that job is recording history, be it your child’s face at 18 for a senior portrait, your mother’s 90th birthday, a wedding, a baptism, funeral, or sporting event.
Investigate local artists… what do they charge, and why? How long have they been practicing their craft? What have they done to build that knowledge?
On average, I spend at LEAST a 100.00 a month on education. I travel to seminars, I attend online seminars. My investment in professional organizations has contributed greatly to my growth, my preference for quality output means that I charge more for prints because I use professional labs that cost more. I am a terribly finicky consumer, and I expect my clients are as well. I do not offer, as a rule, a product that I wouldn’t purchase – and I believe the prices I charge should be in keeping with what I would expect to pay for a product or service.
I am constantly asked to “give away” digital negatives… (include disks of all images in the packages)
For every digital file I give a client, that means I’ve just lost any/all hope of a print sale. When a client or potential client acts insulted that I don’t just toss in the images, or that I am strict about what I provide and they present an unhappy face – I have to stand strong in my decision. I absolutely DO NOT understand the behavior… To me, it’s like buying lettuce and tomatos, and getting miffed that the grocer won’t throw in the dressing, croutons, dish, and silverware for free.
The equipment I use is professional grade. I have one lens that cost five figures, all my others are well into four figures. The software I use totals in the thousands, as do the electronics involved. There is maintenance, upgrades, upkeep, profiling for color accuracy, cleaning of equipment, insurance, storage fees for offsite data, countless resource books, professional periodicals, gas, wear/tear on the automobile AND equipment… It all adds up quickly.
To build my portfolio, I can work gratis. For local endeavors I support – I have a set pricelist for images taken specifically for that activity. Outside that, I have to charge my regular prices. I’d love to work for free, as this is truly a piece of my heart; however, to perform the duties there are needs, and those needs come about at a price… that price must be paid, hence the need to charge.
I welcome questions from my clients regarding pricing. I am not hesitant to explain the education process, and why it’s necessary. I have no qualms about comparing work that was “pre-education” and post-education in an effort to display the benefit… I also stress that I have a commitment to my clients, as a business person. “Turn and burn” photography (shoot, give the images away, never chat again) scares me, it’s risky. While I have given images to customers as I grew, I still maintained the responsibility to store the images, and my customers have always known they could come to me at any time for help.
The damage done to photographers by other photographers who “give away” images is surmounting, and changing the industry. Now I incorporate small numbers of digital images to the packages and offerings from my business. This allows photos for myspace, facebook, or emailing to friends/family. I’m seeing a positive response, yet also a means by which I can maintain a profit as a business.
I’ll never die rich as a photographer, but I can run a fair and honest business. It just means that I’ll have to work harder to educate clients as to why it’s not feasible to give things away, and also to encourage them to look at prices charged by others – then hopefully, they’ll understand that my costs are not exhorbitant.
I wish we all had big fat wallets to match our big fat generous hearts. :O)
