hiring a photographer

The (F)utility of Low Prices

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Photographers, how much would you charge to deliver 24 business headshots, 12 full-length environmental portraits and 4 environmental group shots?

Well, a Toronto photographer quoted $800 for this recent corporate job. This works out to $20 per delivered picture. The corporate client turned down this quote because even they knew the low price was ridiculous.

Photographers who try to discount or lowball their way into a job only hurt themselves. It’s been shown that customers are not fooled by bottom-end prices. So why do some photographers keep doing it?
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If nothing else, business portraits

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You’ve probably seen or heard a movie advertisement that used a phrase like, “If you see only one movie this summer, be sure to see . . .”

On a somewhat similar theme:

If you hire a photographer only once this year, be sure it’s for business portraits.

If your business sells a service, the photos on your “About Us” page are the most important pictures on your web site.

A 2013 survey showed that the About Us page is the second most important page on your web site next to the home page. Anyone who views your About Us page is more than a casual window shopper. Taking the time to find out who you are means that these people are starting to kick the tires. They’re looking for credibility.
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If it sounds too cheap

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A Toronto-based mining company just found out that if it sounds cheap, it probably isn’t a bargain.

In February this year, a mining company requested a quote for business headshots of six executives for its new web site. I quoted about $1500 which might be average for a job like this. The company replied that it had “decided to go in another direction.”

A few days ago, the same company e-mailed to ask if my February quote was still good.

Before replying, I went to the company’s web site and saw six business portraits. The photos’ EXIF data revealed that these were shot by another Toronto photographer in late February, about two weeks after my quote was turned down.
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Original photography for social media

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Recently I produced a number of photos for a sporting goods retailer to use on its social media channels. The company doesn’t do too much hard selling on social media. Instead it offers fitness tips and tries to motivate people to exercise more.

This retail chain uses a lot of original photography and video to get its message across. And that message is that the retailer cares about its customers’ fitness and well being.

Some companies make the mistake of using social media for advertising. But for long-term gain, you should be showing customers that there’s more to you than just selling product.

Help your customers use and enjoy your products. Cheer on your customers. Otherwise you’re just another store.

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Placebo Photos

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Most companies want to use custom photography because they know the importance of being authentic. But instead of following through, they’ll use cheap stock pictures since they think these photos are just as good.

We like to believe in our decisions. We want to think that we make smart choices. So we always try to justify the decisions we make. If you use cheap photos for your company’s marketing, you might think:

“At least we have pictures on our web site!”

“Other companies use cheap stock pictures so they must work.”

“We saved a ton of money by using cheap stock pictures, so we made a good choice.”

A cheap stock picture is just a placebo. A sugar pill. It’s a substitute for the real thing. Placebo photos only provide a psychological benefit to you. They do absolutely nothing for your customers.
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Cut out the middleman

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If you’re a photographer who shoots corporate events like conferences and conventions, you may have noticed there are some online businesses that offer to connect you with customers. How nice of them.

Right now, one such European company is sending emails to photographers in Toronto, and apparently also in many other cities around the world, claiming that it has a customer with an urgent need for photo services in the photographer’s area.

If you ignore this email because of its generic nature or because it looks like spam, you’ll get more similar emails in the following weeks and months. The emails have a fake “unsubscribe” link that does nothing.

All these emails claim that this company has yet another customer with an immediate need for photography in your area. Of course, there is no customer. The oddly worded emails are often the same with maybe the name or date of the unidentified event changed.
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Creating memorable photos for marketing

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Researchers at MIT recently published a study and online demo about trying to understand and predict image memorability. The study used 60,000 images and a few thousand participants.

A goal of this research was “[u]nderstanding why certain things are memorable…” so that it might someday be possible to create better images thereby “allowing people to consume information more efficiently.” (If you’re a photographer, please stop laughing at this.)

Researchers found that the most memorable pictures usually included – wait for it – faces or other human body parts. The least memorable pictures were those of generic scenes, especially landscapes and other types of nature. The researchers called their results a “trend.” Most photographers know that this “trend” has been around for almost 180 years.
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