Sunday, August 31, 2008

Why are Custom Photographers So Expensive?

I recently read an article written by a wonderful photographer in the San Diego area, Shawn Richter. He was kind enough to allow me to share it on my blog... so here it is!

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Why are Professional Photographers so expensive?

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $55 for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?
Here's why.

Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved. If you don't read this entire page, at least read this first part.


For a two hour portrait session:

  • one hour of travel to and from the session
  • two hours of shooting
  • 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
  • 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
  • 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
  • 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
  • 2 - 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.
  • For local customers, we also print a set of all of their photos, and meet them at our studio to review the photos and place their order. Meeting and travel time averages 2 hours.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.

For an eight hour wedding:

- I won't bore you with the details, but an eight hour wedding typically amounts to at least two to three full 40 hour work weeks worth of time. Again, if they are charging you $4,000 for an eight hour wedding, you are not paying them $500 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

We hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.


Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shawn, Pamela & Gavin Richter

Caught on Film Photography

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I hope you found this article as educational and informative as I did!

Thursday, August 28, 2008

OK, I couldn't resist another of Miss P...

... this time with her big brother, N!











Note to self: buy new props!! I think I might have to start carrying Green Bay Packers jerseys for my clients if they're going to show up wearing Chicago Bears stuff! As much as it goes against all my natural instincts, they are the clients and I guess it's their right to wear orange and blue even if I would prefer them in green and gold :)

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Pink stripes in her hair!!

I was so excited to do this session with sweet little Miss P, who is a family friend of ours (and she seems to especially like my 5-yr old son... wink wink)!! She is such a little peanut... I just want to take her home because she makes me smile.

She was quite a natural with posing and taking direction... just like a little model! Maybe we should turn some of these into a portfolio... hmmm... just an idea!

I thought it was so fun that her mom had pink stripes put in her hair just before school started... too cute :)

She is such a happy, smiley little girl... I wanted to try to get some serious shots from her and I when I asked her to stop smiling for a minute she looked confused at first.... so I had to try to explain that serious doesn't mean sad, or mad, just not a big smile.

Works for me :) Those eyes are killer, aren't they?!

Enjoy your quick preview... back to editing the rest!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Three crazy girls!!

When I first met L, J, and K last year, I never thought I would be describing them as "crazy"... J and K (who are twins, although you wouldn't guess to look at them!) were SO shy it took them over a year to start talking to me!! Now, you can't get them to stop!! This session was filled with giggles, faces, and just general weirdness...

Their mom, M, said she wants a photo of her girls that shows them as they really are, their true personalities... I think these definitely fit the bill! And, she loves b/w almost as much as I do, so we're on the same wavelength here - woo hoo!

I've been waiting for three siblings to try this pose (since I only have two kids myself) and was so excited to put these three girls to work! I had originally envisioned this with a serious expression, but since they couldn't seem to stop laughing I just had to roll with it!

And finally, a closeup in color of each girl. The oldest, L, is a dear friend of my daughter's... what a smile!




And the twins... when I first met them I couldn't remember their names so I just called them blond twin and brown twin...





So M, I hope you enjoy this little preview... it's just a sampling of the great photos we got from this session!!

Monday, August 18, 2008

One more sneak peek from last week...

Here's another sneak peek from last week's session by the waterfall... I think this is so cute!!

OK, now back to proofing...

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Family session... a reschedule from last summer!

So this session on Sunday was with my lovely friend L and her family... it was sort of a reschedule from last summer! Her oldest graduated in 2007, and she wanted a family photo before he left for college. We set the date, arrived at the location, and were there for less than 10 minutes before we got caught in a downpour! Then D left for college and we weren't able to coordinate schedules again.

Fast-forward one year... J graduated in 2008 and we went out for another attempt before school started. This time.... success!!

Here's one by the waterfall (in B/W, because it's always my favorite)...






And one in color by the lake - I just love the golden glow of the sun setting on the water and the trees! I was also happy with the natural expressions on this one - they were laughing at my "assistant" (AKA my 8-yr old daughter) who was apparently doing crazy things behind my back!!



Last but not least... an outtake! I was having problems posing J&D so I wasn't shooting up their noses (I'm guessing they're both around 6 ft 2 or 6 ft 3, and I'm 5 ft 7!!) so I found a rock I could stand on and told them to stand together and "look guy-ish"... and this is the result :)




I'm so happy we were able to get some great family shots for you, L... even if we had to wait a year to do so!