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There is a rise in people turning to city photography for their photo shoots after being mislead by the company/ or sole trader offering photo shoots.
Here is one of the more recent emails from a client:
I sorry for the amount of questions as need to know first as have had a setting recently done and was mislead about prices which were far more than i could afford or same with the rest of the family.
This of course is becoming more common place. we have reported on “double take studios” already, there is also “London Studios” who the clients didn’t feel that they could leave, and now this unnamed studio.
When National Photographer reported on the trends in photography in August this year, we have seen a growth in ‘noob’ photographers, a growth rate of 35%+ has been measured. It is not surprising that professional photographers in general have fallen on hard times, and when mixed with the amateur business, which is not business like at all, it comes in with a massive problem for all concerned.
Professional photographers, we will say are experienced in photography and providing a business. However it is now clear, with our conversations with Trading standards that anyone can label themselves a professional photographer legally if they sell one image. There is no regards to if that image is of a marketable quality. Adding to the problems the SWPP and others, allow use of their logo and membership, that may mislead clients into the belief that they are really getting a pro photographer.
These effect rank up to be a condemning framework for photographer and real professional photographers.
When photographers charge a sitting fee, or booking fee at cut rates, We all know this would not cover the cost of the shoot and business costs. To the customer, this is a great deal and they bite for the purchase. HOWEVER the Sting in the tail is the print prices.
With prints costing around £1000 (for one) or on average costing £400 for a set, you can see the immediate problems; well anyone with business acumen can. Other problems come for studios and photographer who are struggling to make ends meet, they hard sell to make the money and sell the images at inflated rates in hope of recovering the loses or costs.
While the common low booking fee and extortion for prints has been practised for many years by photographers, it has to end.
The business model currently used by many photographers is doomed to failure. People have budgets, the price will only hold what the market will pay.
By not displaying prices people cannot budget for their photography sessions and prints, Hard selling is going to deal a blow to your businesses word of mouth and make your business unpopular, it only offers a quick fix, but has a overall knock on effect.
Image via Wikipedia
If photographer took the lead from City Photography and national photographer, they could have their eggs in one basket. You can ask any photographer about pricing and they go into panic and then some weird un computable number is reached as to how they price their shoots and their prints, there is little real world thought or common used business practise.
City photographers benefit for the pricing structure and supply of prints through our services, this makes it ideal and cost effective, not to mention that the whole network has been set up to lower photographers overheads and thus make the photography work sustainable.
Real pay – We work on real pay, this mean you get paid for your time and not token payments in the form of booking fees. This means that Print prices can be reduced and customers are more willing to buy more prints. It averages out that the whole system is much better for both the photographer and the client.
Undoing damage
With upfront pricing clients can see and budget for their photo shoots, this makes any hard sales unnecessary and people are happy to recommend city photographers simply because they know they are not getting scammed or Con’s by the photographers.
People are turning to friends with cameras, to take photos, which are lower quality than professional equipment, but are happy that they are not spending hundreds of pounds for a pro tog, we hope to put faith back into the market.
Linked Articles
- You Could be a Professional Photographer When… (blogs.photopreneur.com)
- Photographers Start to Give Up on Copyright Restrictions (blogs.photopreneur.com)
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