Reasons Why Professional Photographers Cannot Work for Free

donaldejose

Not from the Bible. A Chinese proverb I believe. No offense, but I disagree. Most people who want free photographs do not want to learn how to do it themselves.

Photobug

Not from the Bible. A Chinese proverb I believe. No offense, but I disagree. Most people who want free photographs do not want to learn how to do it themselves.

+1...most people do not want to learn how to do it themselves.

I have learned...When asked to provide free pictures I mention that an honorarium is required...gets some interesting facial looks.

Fritz

I think the question should be as a professional wether you are obligated to educate your potential future competition without compensation. Lets be honest, it takes innate ability and a heck of a lot of work, study and motivation to professionalize yourself in any field and skill is worth money. I don't understand why people seem to feel that any professional would be obligated to share their knowledge for free. I do what I do to support myself and my family and I'm able to do so because I have skills that other people do not have and those people are willing to pay me to employ my skills on their behalf. Sorry, but there's a real jump to move from enthusiastic amateur to professional and an entirely different attitude when you do. I'm just glad I don;t work full time as a photographer- that's a tough gig!

Fritz

Just a couple more comments before I flog this horse to death. People frequently say to me that I'm fortunate to be able to work at something I love or how they would love to be able to switch places with me and do what I do. They forget that the operative word is work. I still enjoy my work to a degree but I have to say that 44 years has killed any recreational interest I ever had in my field. I suspect that professional "burn out" eventually happens to many of us who start out as hobbyists. Speaking as a person who has always been self-employed, I know just how much time effort and stress it takes to support one's self. Every professional photographer deserves every penny he gets.

Symphotic

... Speaking as a person who has always been self-employed, I know just how much time effort and stress it takes to support one's self. Every professional photographer deserves every penny he gets.

+1 on this. Also, it's not just the time in training and practice, but the capital investment in equipment. That is harder to pay off than a college loan.

My recent experience demonstrated to me that any professional photographer who takes family portraits with grumpy babies in them deserves twice whatever he or she is getting paid!

shutterdancer

I'm an old retired fart.........isn't it beautiful how I can shoot anything that I want to and not be subtly coerced into giving freebies. I did a free gig for a neighbor a few years back. After the gig...she wanted prints.....she wanted a re-shoot with different lighting...she suggested edits......I spent three days working on her project.....Oh these are great she said.......she then pulled me aside and stuffed ten dollars in my pocket...."I refuse to let you work for free" she said....LOL

mikep

even if you are being paid, its always best to avoid friends/family and any kind of work imo

a friend has recently been hassling me to make his website and take his picture etc, and even though he has offered to pay me for it, i still just said i was busy, as i do not want to mix friends and business

WestEndBoy

As an accounting professional, I rarely do free work. However, I have a friend that is the CEO of a public mining company with an operation in Peru. I spend a couple of hours a week dispensing strategic advise and he pays for the dinner and gives me $50 per month (this is for liability protection on my part - don't ask).

So essentially I am his part-time CFO for free. However, given that my paid CFO role is in real estate, I get the benefit of exposure to a different industry.

As far as photos go, I will often offer to email pictures I take of people. I get them to write their email address on their business card and hold it up to their face.

Photobug

Just a couple more comments before I flog this horse to death. .... Speaking as a person who has always been self-employed, I know just how much time effort and stress it takes to support one's self. Every professional photographer deserves every penny he gets.

+1 well said Fritz.

paulr

After working for over 4 decades in the industry I don’t know any professional photographers who have not worked at some time for free. Unlike some professions, anybody can pick a camera up and call themselves a professional photographer and are not breaking any laws; such is the nature of the profession. Ability of course is another question.

I lecture to various organizations on photography and many times I do not make any charges at all.
I believe that if you have had a reasonable living from photography it’s good to give something back; Life is not all about money.

I do get the situation when you have discussed techniques and other photographic matters to students, and then you find within days they have set up shop , and are calling themselves professional photographers and are trying to take clients away by tempting them with very low rates.
Rather than be annoyed, I just smile and if I loose a client on price, fine, I refuse to work, just to work, and in the long term clients test the water, but usually come back after disappointing results.

ThomasHorton

but I have to say that 44 years has killed any recreational interest I ever had in my field. I suspect that professional "burn out" eventually happens to many of us who start out as hobbyists.

I have always thought that being a professional photographer is a hard way to make a living and an easy way to kill a hobby.

sevencrossing

Yes being a professional, is an easy way to kill any hobby.
but that does stop your profession being enjoyable
In general, being correctly paid, for a job well done, is enjoyable
but slaving away all day, for nothing, is not

Fritz

Boy do I agree with sevencrossing!

Bowsider

All very thoughtful and sensible posts. The differences in opinion come from differences in experience, experiences, personality and (mainly financial) circumstances I expect, but non are wrong. I particularly liked never charging mum & dad. Good form.

I'm not a professional photographer, but I am a professional. What I would suggest is that all the pros out there use this topic as motivation to raise your game. Controversial, but no apologies. Raise your game so high that not even close friends would dream of asking you to work for free because they recognise the skill, talent and investment from you. From the product you produce to your body language, ask yourself some searching questions about how you come across.

BE the professional and this will not even be a topic that concerns you. Thoughts?

spraynpray

Only agreement from me.

Fritz

There is always a "yes but". There are only a few slices in every pie and you can (and should be) a consummate professional. But think of it this way: a photo pro has to compete with all the stock images in public domain, they have to compete with all the amateurs and pro wannabe's, they have to find a niche and market themselves affectively, and all the time the pool of potential commissions becomes more and more diluted. The truth is that every photo pro is in competition with every other pro, semi-pro, amateur and cell phone owner. No mater how skilled, the professional photographer has the deck stacked against them. "Business is War" You simply can't give away ANY competitive advantage and expect to be able to support yourself and your family. And its one thing to start out as a young person with lots of energy but you do age and it gets harder to generate a necessary work flow volume and it gets harder to meet the needs of your customer base. Years and years of forcing yourself to perform to a very high standard wears you down; if you've got the flu, too bad, go to work. Need a vacation- too bad, you've got to service your customer base, things a little slow-too bad, you've still got to pay your bills. For every Kelby, there are millions of hard working photo pros who understand the daily realities of making a living. As my first accountant 44 years ago used to laugh at me and say:"the man who is self-employed has a fool for a boss"!

sevencrossing

About 40 years ago, I left a salaried job as a photographer, to become self employed. Working for my self, I had a lot of fun and earned sensible money
.
( I sold the balloon business 5 years ago)

donaldejose

I have the impression photographing for a living is a dying or shrinking profession because it is so easy for anyone to take a photo with their cell phone and those cell phone cameras are becoming better and better all the time. There will always be a demand for wedding photographers who can produced a nice 8x10 or 11x14 album of once in a lifetime photos (which only the women seem to really want) and there will always be a demand for advertising photos but it seems to me almost all family photos are dominated now by cell phone photos shared on facebook, instagram, etc or simply shown to others on cell phones. Personally I hate seeing the poor quality of all those cell phone photos but that seems to be how most photos are taken and shared today. Therefore, I conclude that only a very few photographers can make a nice living in the profession. Most photographers will be seeing work, and therefore earnings, decrease year by year. In such a negative economic situation working for free will be taking food off the family table.

TaoTeJared

Unfortunately @donaldejose the profession (used loosly as a descriptive term) is growing and rather rapidly. Due to all the cellphone photos, and the affordability of DSLRs every artist and stay-at-home mom who gets 50 likes on a Facebook photo (edited with an iPhone) get's told "you should do that professionally." In the last year alone I counted over 30 more popped up in my little town (250k). It is a royal PIA for those of us who know what we are doing.

They do get jobs since they do them basically for fee (generally $150 for the all pictures - prints) or actually believe in the bull pucky that "you can give a session for free, and use the photos to get more clients" line and pull in the "family" type of clients. The argument "why mine are better" just does not work at all. One it is bad-mouthing (or seen as it) which really doesn't fly in my neck of the woods and two, it comes down to price for most all families. I'll get the "I want a good setting," but the price is pushed down badly and the frequency is less due to them getting "ok" photos in-between.

The one thing good out of it is that the fly-by-night photogs, is that they have actually pushed many into getting photos taken 3-4 times a year due to the low prices and people enjoy that. Hopefully people get into that rhythm and the "free" photog they knew drops off the scene sooner than later. The bad thing about that is you have to expect that $400-$1200+ sale spread out over 12 months instead of one sale. That is not great if you are a one-man shop. Cash flow is king!

The Studios who have been around for 20 years don't seem to be hit real hard as they have commercial clients and things like schools, sports and the like locked in, but for those who are a step below that and waiting for them to finely retire, the "I'll do that for free" (or next to it) hits hard.

Fritz

I do sympathize with you TaoTeJared. In my business we get a revolving door of amateurs turned professional, particularly bored retirees, who come in, stay for a while and fade away. Of course, as you know , every sale that they make is a sale I've lost. My son joined me 8 years ago and it is only now that he has been able to build a clientele of his own to begin to make a reasonable income. He's succeeded because he has excellent skills and can do the problematic jobs that others either don't know how to do or choose not to do . In my case, I found a niche specialty to focus on. I must say that I don't envy you're chosen profession. It's my sense that artistry and creativity are increasing irrelevant in modern society and there are simply fewer discriminating individuals to do business with.

Msmoto

Some more thoughts…. many years ago, like about fifty, I shot a wedding for a friend, for free…… Using a Canon 7 with a 50mm f/2.0 Summicron, I went about my business… all available light. About half way through I realized the film poll must have been very long as I had way more than 36 exposures…… Went to a room, opened the camera….film leader had not engaged, or broken, I cannot remember, and no images.

Seriously, today, most professional are working their tails off to make things meet. The loss of perceived value in photographs has devastated the profession for most. And, as has been stated, so many folks can get an image on their mobile phones, they think it is easy for a pro to do the same, and get paid nothing.

Rx4Photo

With respect to those who are truly professional photographers and/or have worked at it for decades I've been asked by passersby while on location shoots if I "do this professionally." I usually say that it's not my profession but my goal is to provide professional quality work. I learned early on that the effort to give people what they expect or want is truly WORK. I was recently asked to photograph - for 5 hours - providing up to 60 headshots printed on site along with general event photographs - a professional nursing seminar at a local hotel. The benefit to me was networking and possible future work by handing out my cards. No financial compensation offered, yet all who attended (up to 150 nurses) paid $39 each to attend, all vendors paid $350 for booths. I politely told the people heading this up that there's no way that I could do that much work for no pay. They were a bit disappointed, but I'm no sucker. [-(

Fritz

I don't want to sound arrogant, but I've been at my craft long enough to understand that my workmanship is first rate so I'm no longer interested in prostituting myself to get every commission. When a prospective client's only concern is cost then I will not work for them. When a prospective client comes to me and wants the best quality workmanship I can generate and they are willing to fairly compensate me for my effort then I will. I probably turn down a third of the work offered to me but I do it politely and make the best attempt I can to explain to the customer why I can't work for them. I suspect, however, that I'm in a more fortuitous situation than most photographers.
One reason I don't share my techniques is because after many years of effort that information is a company asset and needs to stay proprietary.
Technology is not always an unmitigated benefit. The dissemination of image capture technology may someday relegate photography to a creative art form rather than a viable commercial activity. Case in point, look what the automobile did to blacksmithing. Is it plausible to conceive that machine generated imagery may make the photographer obsolete in all but the rarest of circumstances?

TaoTeJared

I'm not going to dive into that spiraling hole of predicting through philosophy the future of photography years from now, but it is a good question. Only thought on it I will provide is two words "photo booth."

No matter what work you are in, there are expectations of payment based on quality of work, cost of the goods, cost of the equipment to perform the task, cost/time spent learning the trade and the time spent doing the work. Photography is one of those fields where the quality is somewhat subjective, education is not quantifiable to measure nor easily understood, and the "face time" is very short but unseen working time is very long. That is where the struggle with pricing comes from. And to make things worse, the pricing is all over the place as it is not a "produced" good but a "service."

There are some things that no one would question volunteering for like for instance there is a program that asks for photographers to volunteer their day to take photos of under privileged families and a local shop provides the prints. Zero cost for the photog, and only the time spent is the time that day. I think that is a great thing.

Here is the issue with providing free - or severely discounted services - it becomes the expectation. And the whole "word or mouth" marketing idea really backfires as the discounted price (even if it is not specifically shared) it becomes implied to potential customers. When I started getting into trying to do photography full time, everyone said to "build a portfolio" and do as much work as you can, and hope you get paid. And that is what I did. I now have a segment of repeat customers who still get the "discount" as I would loose them if I charged more, and their referrals rarely work out as the people that call have an expectation of "he doesn't charge much at all." When potential customers hear the prices they rarely call back. I have been inching the prices up on those early customers, but there is a point when they start to pass. A few bucks is better than none. As with most things in life, there is always a double edge sword to be aware of with any decision.

I once scoffed and snickered when I would read some prominent photographer rant on the topic that generally summed up as "charge the correct price for your work and if you don't, leave the profession because you hurt us all." I fully appreciate it now even if I don't fully agree with it, but I do experience their point daily.

Fritz

Here's where I have to admit that I'm part of the problem. I serve as a volunteer staff photographer for two not-for-profit museums. In one case there are only two paid employees and 60+ volunteers who run the museum from May to December and their budget is always tight. The other is larger and with a far better endowment but they in turn have not had the budgetary where-with-all for a professional photo shoot in a number of years. In both cases, acquisitions have to be documented, events have to be shot for advertising and neither has the money . I would hope that anyone would feel that does not really impinge on the professional market place.
Here's where I confess: many of my clients are also car collectors and I've fallen into working for them as an accommodation. I charge my usual shop rate with a flat fee for editing. But this is not my business and I'm fully aware that every time I do so I'm taking profit from a photo pro. mea culpa. So you take me and a couple a hundred others like me and what have you got?