If you’re shopping for a box of Cheerios breakfast cereal, it’s possible to shop price because Cheerios is exactly the same at every store.
When shopping for shoes, you look at, touch and try on every pair that catches your eye. Shoes usually vary from store to store and shoe shopping is based on look, fit, feel and price.
How do you shop for a commercial or corporate photographer?
Every professional photographer works differently so how do you compare? You can’t see the photos before they’re made so how do you choose something before it exists?
Is the $4,000 photographer twice as good as the $2,000 photographer? Will $750 pictures work as well as $2,000 pictures?
When hiring a photographer, you’re not just paying for a bunch of digital 1’s and 0’s, you’re paying for:
• Experience and reassurance – The photographer knows their stuff and can produce the pictures you need even if you aren’t exactly sure what you need.
• Creativity – There are many ways to photograph any subject, from cell phone quality to studio quality, from quick snapshot to inspired work of art.
• Support – The photographer stands by their work and will stick with you until you’re completely happy with the pictures.
• Consistency – The photographer maintains a quality level you can depend on, over and over again.
For most people, time is more valuable than money. Whatever money you pay to a photographer, you will regain sooner or later. But the time spent on your photography project is gone forever. Can you afford the time to reorganize everything and everyone all over again if the pictures from a cheap photographer fail?
You know that no good photographer is cheap and no cheap photographer is good because you get what you pay for. The question is, how much risk do you want to take?
Price should be the last thing a business thinks about when choosing a photographer. Shopping only price is always too expensive.
