Reasons Why Professional Photographers Cannot Work for Free

Ade

You're not part of the problem.

Today, the reality is there are many who are able and willing to take on photo assignments for free or minimal costs.

If a "professional photographer" ignores this fact and has a business model primarily competing against others providing the exact same services for free, well then he/she deserves to be driven out of business. Harsh but true.

Photography is a service business, but there is much more to a service business than just photography. A pro photographer has to figure out what added value he/she brings to the table, that those working for free aren't. That added value may or may not involve skill as a photographer.

I see photographers rant on places like Craigslist all the time against those posting "no pay" gigs, etc. Sorry but if you're a "pro" photographer and you are spending most of your time looking for cheap gigs on Craigslist, then you're all but guaranteed to fail.

Msmoto

A brief story about free photos.... As a volunteer worker for a car club, I went to a racetrack several times and photographed the cars, emailing the processed image file to the drivers who requested photos...all with no charge. My out of pocket costs for travel, etc., we're about $1,000 for the weekend each time. However, I enjoyed this and was among friends.

Last year I volunteered again and was told they had signed a contract with someone to take all the photos ....never asked me. Maybe this suggests folks believe they get what they pay for.

Oh well.

paulr

There has been some interesting points of view in this debate. When you become a Professional Photographer , well, it's your choice, you learn the pitfalls quickly or you go out of business. Doing work for free on the pretence that maybe paid work will follow rarely happens, Once you worked for free, you have set yourself up, and the only time that companies come back is, when they want the same deal. If you choose to offer your service for free, make it very clear it's a one off unless you feel that you would like to continue helping that particular organisation . I feel sorry for the young photographers who have just left college with their pieces of paper saying they are a qualified photographer, photograph for fun and photography for a living are completely different. Mind you, when I started my career, every body else said," Why don't you get a proper job".

Fritz

Msmoto, really, no good deed ever goes unpunished.

Rx4Photo

@Msmoto, on the other hand they might have thought your work was so good that you'd probably charge too much if they wanted you to be the contract photographer....hmmm

Vipmediastar_JZ

This weekend I went to a Little league game. My cousin is the Coach and I asked if I could go and photograph to get some practice doing sports.
Now this was a normal day for me photographing for fun and experience. My cousin never asked how much or if they could get the photos afterwards.

During the game we chatted about the game and he asked if I had any good photos and one player asked if I photographed the steal to third base and if he was out or safe. I showed him the photo and it was a tie really and he was called out.

The mom asked if I was with the park and I told her my interest in doing Pro sports in the future. At the end of the game my cousin asked if he could see them when I was done and I said yes and we left the park.

This for me was a first time shooting a baseball game and I couldn't charge even if my cousin asked me to photograph it since I have no experience with sports.
After a few more games and If I get good results I will consider.


For photographing other things I agree with @pitchblack do it for free or full. I have not given discounts recently but it is what it is.

after the game I went to go look for BIF at the local preserve (thanks NRF you gave me a new hobby with birds)

I found only a few birds on a bird feeder. While I was there about 4 wedding parties showed up and a family event shoot.

of the 4 wedding photographers only 1 had pro equipment but was dressed very casual. The other 3 were dressed formal but they had kit lens. The family event photographer had two cameras with two good lens but was using the camera flash and the second camera had no strap and kept putting it on the dusty floor.

I understand we all start from somewhere but starting out with the wrong foot doesn't help anyone.

When I picked up my D80 in 2007 it was merely for fun photographing cars shows, parties and whatever came up my way.

I can't remember if I got a business name because I wanted to get into business but I had one goal and that was to become a great photographer to get published in a magazine or book. However I did partially get it because I had art/poetry stolen/plagiarized from me before and thats is why you always see a logo on my photos.

The main reason I can't work for free is that time is money and if I get no money I can't continue doing what im doing and grow into a full time photographer and leave my current career.

Plus money = scratching of the GAS list.

Msmoto

@Fritz

How true…LOL

@Rx4Photo

This may have been true, but it was about some politics… the guy shooting his off brand 300mm and old crop sensor Canon got upset when I came up with the D4 and 400mm f/2.8. And, all of mine had lots of post processing to make them jump… his were jpeg from the camera…. hundreds of photos, all of less than stellar quality….

But, the club apparently thought it was nice to help out a guy who would sell prints and was the second cousin of someone….LOL

donaldejose

Msmoto: So sad. Life just isn't fair and good deeds are not always rewarded.

Fritz

Back in the day when I had my "fun" second occupation (paramedic) I had some dealings with car and motorcycle clubs- they were different! On the other hand, I had 100% facility access to a Nascar track and the photo ops were fantastic. However, one should never leave your D700 on the hood of the first out ambulance if you want it to survive. I used to watch the pros shooting their sponsor shots: they had an interesting economy of movement, there was no lost motion, no fumbling, and no time wasted. They also knew to pick their locations during the super bike racing for the best lines in the turns. It 's really something to watch a first class pro do his job.

Ade

@Msmoto @Fritz

In my younger days, racing motorcycles, we had a talented freelancer who used to come to the tracks, hang out with the marshals and take some pictures. All the racers liked him and when he had good action shots occasionally he'd sell a print or two. His pictures were definitely a step up from the ones taken by "friends & family" but he was probably losing time & money being at the races.

The next season a different photographer signed a concession contract with the race organizers. This guy was super prepared. He had a few assistants (I believe his wife & kids) and he had a tent setup at every race, from the first Friday practice to the last Sunday race. At the end of each day you can pop into his tent, tell him your Race #, and he will bring up a catalog one of his assistants already keyed-in with every single picture you're in. He can make nice Inkjet prints right on the spot, and he will also sell you a CD with all the pictures you're in for cash. He was probably also supplying pictures to the news media.

Depending on the day, our races were a mix of club-level, regional, and televised Canadian national events, and this second photographer & his crew were always there to cover it all. He went to all the different tracks. On non-racedays he also made a deal with some of the track day organizers to become their official photographer.

That first freelancer guy, he was basically 'out of the picture'. He didn't understand his value as a photographer. He competed against free pictures from "friends & family".

The second guy had the service business down pat. He eliminated all others by signing a small concession contract. The race organizers liked him because he brought some revenue for the club. The track day guys loved him because his pictures get posted on popular motorcycle forums and excited more riders to join. The racers (me included) made it a habit to stop by his tent after sessions to see & buy pictures of themselves. Almost all of my race pictures were taken by him & his assistants.

Today I see a lot of supposedly "pro" photographers behave like the first guy, chasing after bread crumbs. The second guy wasn't necessarily a better photographer, but he sure knew a ton more about photography as a service business compared to the first guy.

Benji2505

If you are trying to make a living with photography, then free shoots can only be an investment into marketing of your service. This means that the publicity of your service must be there and the expected return from the orders triggered from that publicity must be bigger than the effort you put into it. I would guess that if you impress (!) 50 viewers with your pictures one will give you an order and you will need two follow up orders to get out more than you invested.
This idea gives one a pretty good idea what free assignments make sense and what is just a waste of time. If you give away free photo shoots to friends, do you get free consultation from your lawyer friend or a free check-up from your doctor friend? Don't devalue your service by being a nice buddy.

SquamishPhoto

Great post, Ade.

Fritz

Ade, you are very right about the service end of any business and the second guy understood how to create a market. Sad to say, but most people do not "need" photography (they need food, clothing and shelter) but they may "want " photography. Consumerism is really about fostering the want.

Msmoto

More "back in the days" In the late 1960's, when I was a working commercial photographer, the studio had an account rep, art director, studio manager, model director, and my grips. The majority of shots were fairly large budget, such as taking a live goat 150 miles to the ocean for one shot on a rock, or going into the backwoods, possibly running into moonshiners, just to have an "old store" venue, and it was all about providing what a client requested, total service. The clients were professional art directors along with the individual from the firm for whom we were producing the ad. As a professional I was all about service.

This was what I grew up with. I can only work this way. While I shoot a lot of "snapshots" for a variety of reasons, when I go after a particular image,e.g., the lighthouse in Maine, I attempt to do it at the same level I worked at over 40 years ago. Full service, highest quality end product. And, today, there is no way a working professional can do this for free, IMO.

sevencrossing

Ade has it right
Being a good photographer is not enough
You ALSO need to be a good business man

ThomasHorton

I wonder if in the future, the concept of the Full Time Professional Photographer will be the exception and more professional photographers will be part time -- having another job that puts food on the table and doing professional photography when they are off (during the day/night/weekends)? Especially if they can get a job with the flexability of hours.

sevencrossing

I wonder if in the future, the concept of the Full Time Professional Photographer will be the exception and more professional photographers will be part time -- having another job that puts food on the table .......

I think we will see an increase in professionals in other fields doing there own photography. As these guys often have a grater insight in to their businesses and their customers needs, than an outside photographer
Web designers often do there own photography or simply use library shots

My advice, to any one wanting to make a living from photography, is to specialize . In a subject you have a lot you have lot of knowledge, experience and most important of all, contacts, in.


People earing a sensible living from photography, don't just seem to make money form taking photographs, they also have a BLOG generating income from adwords; write magazine articles; give lectures; sometimes gives one to one tuition; did I mention reproduction rights both directly or through a library

Fritz

I think seven crossing is correct. Auction houses are certainly a case in point as most now do their own photography and catalog layout. One outfit that I'm aware of has a commercially produced light box and a D800.

NSXTypeR

Agreed, being a good businessman is part of surviving as a professional photographer.

That's why I can be so lackadaisical- I don't depend on photography to pay my bills and I can pick and choose whatever I want to shoot.

safyre

As a semi pro photog in the SF bay area for the past 2 and a half years, our photography situation is like this:

a. High costs of living - It is extremely difficult to raise a family solely off of photography. Most pro photographers I know do it on the side or have a spouse that is the breadwinner of the family. The successful pro photogs already had established businesses dating to last century, before the digital boom.

b. Saturation – There are a lot of people with DSLRs where I live. Especially since this is silicon valley, there are a lot of techies who are amateurs and don’t mind doing photography for free or at a very low price. To them, anything they make is just as a bonus, not to actually feed themselves. Having an influx of amateurs devalues the overall market on photography.

c. Lower value of photography - Generation X’ers and newer generally do not have as high a value on photography as previous generations like Boomers. Especially with the movement to mobile; photography has become more of a quantity vs quality thing. As long as the pictures look good on instagram and facebook, then that’s all that matters. For them, it’s like who cares about quality if its gonna get downsampled and resized for the web anyways.

d. Demographics – I’m going to speak in general here but different groups of people on either social or economic levels will play a major role in how well you do professionally. If you live in a very rich, affluent area or are able to really get a hold of this type of market; you will do a lot better financially. The hardest part of course is starting and marketing yourself well enough to start the snowball effect.

If I were to give any advice to anyone thinking of doing photography as a living; have a stable income source first, that gives you enough flexibility to do photography on the side. This way, you can build up your clientele without having to stress about paying the bills. There’s a lot of difficulties that I see with new photographers going headfirst into this business. Most of them don’t want to accept lowball offers, but some are forced to because they need to eat. I once met someone that graduated with a degree in photography and did an entire wedding for $75 (I’m not kidding, Seventy-Five Dollars!) because he literally had nothing left in his bank account and needed to survive. Cases like this are more often than you think; and quite depressing to hear about as it really is not good for the photographer, and all photographers in general.

MikeGunter

Hi all,

Either I have good friends that have known me well enough not to ask or ask me and know and I would be happy to oblige.

Mostly I've worked for large companies and government agencies.

@Symphotic - My first full-time job as a photographer as a kid before being drafted into the US Army was in a studio that specialized in children's photography. It was rather enjoyable, and I count my time there with the owner as my mentor as the best experience in learning on the same scale (or better) with experience with workshops with AA and other photographers I've studied with over the years. The children were a hoot to shoot.

@safyre - Your story is the new reality for sure, but some of it has always been true. The cost of living has always been high, even when it was $300 a month. Making that $300 was dear then - at least I remember as so.

Saturation is a fact of life. You can't throw a rock without hitting a photographer. I think the trick is becoming a specialist. What that means is up to you, which leads into your next topic - you're going to have to create value. I did it by being a darkroom monkey. You might be a Photoshop wiz - children's specialist (I can assure you, no one dislikes pictures of their children), or some other niche.

There's never been a shift that has moved the middle class downward in the US like now. That's going to matter a lot. I'm glad I'm not in the market.

Your example of the graduate is sad. I have a very young friend working for a large (as in the largest) Internet marketing company because she can't find a job as a photographer after graduating from Brooks. Her loans total over $150,000. I don't know how she'll pay off the debt. I don't question the market outlook for graduates.

I retired from teaching some 12 or so years ago, and my students, fortunately, are working. Mostly they are in news or entertainment or in education. Some took my path and are working in government. One covered the last Superbowl for Seattle.

My best,

Mike

ThomasHorton

c. Lower value of photography - Generation X’ers and newer generally do not have as high a value on photography as previous generations like Boomers. Especially with the movement to mobile; photography has become more of a quantity vs quality thing. As long as the pictures look good on instagram and facebook, then that’s all that matters. For them, it’s like who cares about quality if its gonna get downsampled and resized for the web anyways.

I am not sure this is especially true.

We boomers did not invest a lot into professional photographers for casual photographs either. We used our Instamatics and 110's to take snap shots of our families, holidays, and vacations. I don't think my generation placed any more value on professional photographers than the current generations. Wedding photographers are still with us. The problem is that there are more professional photographers than we had in the boomer generation. Probably because the equipment is cheaper and easier to use now than back then. I think if you were to survey scrap books of the Boomer generation, you would find far more instamatic pictures of weddings than formal portraits. Not very different from today.

"As long as the pictures look good on instagram and facebook, then that’s all that matters."

Is this different from my generation? As long as the pictures looked good coming from Fotomat and were put in scrap books, that was all that mattered in my generation. The venue has changed (film to digital) and the accessability has changed (limited film to unlimited databits), the dissemination has changed (hardcopy prints to digital code) but the overall attitude toward photographs, I don't think has changed all that much.

Just like Aunt Doris used to pull out her instamatic at every family gathering, so do people today.. just that they are using their cell phones (21st century Instamatic). And almost everyone has a camera with them where in the old days you had to pack your instamatic.

We had a nice speaker at our club recently:Jay Heiser. He talked about social photography, which he defined as "a utilitarian form of record keeping and a highly creative genre enabling the viewer to know and remember who was there, what they did and experienced and how it made them feel."

That's what photography means for, in my opinion, the vast number of people. You don't need high art nor specalized experience for this type of photography. What you need is a camera with you.

I think he did a good job of defining the purpose of a common type of photography.

Photography is produced for a purpose and it is folly to assume that all photography must share the same purpose. It is equally folly to assume that all users of photography share the same purpose. Quality is defined as "good enough for the purpose". For many people a cell phone picture is good enough for their purposes. For other purposes, a more formal "professional" photograph is good enough for that purpose. There is a value in quantity and spontanity in photography. Being able to capture the moment as it happens is worth more, to some people, than a more formal picture. Not to everyone though.

Cost is a factor that can't be ignored. Few people ever consider quality independent of cost. Everything in life is a compromise. At what point is a photograph good enough at a price that is good enough? This become significant when considering paying a professional photographer thousands of dollars. I spend $3,000 more am I getting a quality that is $3,000 more than before. Hard to measure.

It is unfortunate that professional photographers who are concerned primarily with quality, are working in an environment where quality is only one of the factors of a photograph, not the only or even the most important factor that people consider. The people are not going to change. Especially with the current technology that allows many more people to be able to take many more photographs, that are good enough for their purposes.

An "Artiste" can distance themselves from the vulgar masses and proclaim that the quality of their work should matter. Hence the term starving artist. However, a commercial artist (being paid by someone else) recognizes that to be successful one needs to produce photographs that are good enough (defined by the paying customer), fast enough (defined by the customer) and often enough (defined by future customers) to stay in business.

Telling a potential customer that they need to pay more money in order to get "higher" quality then they need is a tough sell these days.

To end on a lighter note

http://newcameranews.com/2014/05/05/commencement-speech-at-photography-school/

We laugh because it is funny
We cry because it is true.

Fritz

So, if your son or daughter just graduated from college would you tell them to become a photographer or not given current conditions?

ThomasHorton

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be Phototogs
Don't let 'em pick Nikons and flash diffusers
Make 'em be doctors and lawyers and such

ThomasHorton

So, if your son or daughter just graduated from college would you tell them to become a photographer or not given current conditions?

Since New Camera News is the only legitimate camera news site

http://newcameranews.com/2014/02/20/parents-despondent-as-daughter-says-i-want-to-be-a-pro-photographer/