Low Prices: A Cautionary Tale

A photographer asked me to take at look his recent food photos (mostly photos of product packaging). His customer wasn’t happy with the pictures. The photographer wanted a second opinion before replying to his customer.

The photographer is mostly a headshot and event photographer and, according to his web site, has been in business for about 12 years. He did some headshots for a company that makes packaged food products and that company asked him back to do some product photos. The photographer said he intentionally quoted a low price (about one-quarter of what the job was worth) because he thought the low price would get him more jobs from this company.

After looking at the photos, it was obvious the pictures had problems:

1.  The depth of field was much too shallow for this type of photography. The front face of each package was in focus but the rest of the product was out of focus. With several product packages together, only the front item was in focus. For food on a plate, only a narrow section was in focus. The Exif data showed 24-120mm lens, 1/60, f4, ISO 400.

• Why didn’t the photographer rent a tilt-shift lens? He said it wasn’t worth the effort and it was too expensive for what he was charging.

• Why didn’t the photographer use strobes to get enough light for f11 or even f16? He said it wasn’t worth the effort for what he was charging. The pictures were shot with available light in the customer’s office.

2.  The props (plates, cutlery) and backgrounds (patterned tiles, mirrored tiles) had fingerprints or were dirty. The customer supplied the props and backgrounds.

• Did the photographer talk to the customer about the props and backgrounds before the shoot? No.

• Why didn’t the photographer clean the props and backgrounds before the photography? He said it wasn’t worth the effort for what he was charging.

• Why didn’t the photographer retouch the photos? He said it wasn’t worth the effort for what he was charging.

3.  Some products and all the background tiles were crooked.

• Did the photographer use a tripod to properly compose each photo? He said it wasn’t worth the effort for what he was charging.

• Why didn’t the photographer retouch the photos to straighten everything? He said it wasn’t worth the effort for what he was charging.

4.  The props were haphazardly arranged. It looked as if the product packages were just tossed onto the table. The food items looked like they were dumped onto plates.

• The photographer said he wanted to do the job as fast as possible because of the low price he was charging.

Low Price Is Bad News for Everyone

The photographer’s repeated excuse was that he charged a low price. Because of the low price, he couldn’t be bothered to consult with the customer ahead of time. Because of the low price, he did the job as fast as possible. Because of the low price, he did the least amount of work and gave the customer the least amount of photography.

Remember the saying: “Good, fast, cheap. Pick any two.” This photographer gave his customer fast and cheap. Is that what the customer asked for?

Customers want good photography rather than just a low price. What’s the point of a low price if the photos aren’t good enough to serve their purpose? If the photos aren’t good enough, will the customer hire the same photographer again?

A very low price hurts both the customer and the photographer. Cutting quality and working fast and cheap is a fool’s errand.

You have to charge high enough so you can achieve at least minimum professional quality. But if a customer wants a low price, you should reduce the workload so can still produce at least minimum professional quality.

If a customer wants a very low price then you should reduce the quantity, not quality, of the photography. Tell the customer who wants the low price that you can do, for example, only 15 product images but not 46. If they still want all 46 images then a higher fee is necessary. Doing all 46 images fast and cheap and delivering almost unusable photos doesn’t benefit anyone.

Because of the low price he charged, the photographer said he has no interest in doing a reshoot. He said he will try to convince the customer that the photos are okay. If that doesn’t work, he will offer the customer a further discount.