pricing

Low Prices: A Cautionary Tale

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This isn’t just a picture of nearly frozen waterfalls in Niagara Falls, February 2015. The photo shows science in action! Normally you don’t see clouds being created right in front of you because the point of creation is much higher in the atmosphere. But here, with cold mist from the falls, warm sunlight and ice cold air, clouds quickly formed at ground level (okay, at water level) and rose into the sky.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

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.

 

Dancing On The Ceiling

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The Live 8 concert in Barrie, Ontario, 02 July 2005. Live 8 was ten simultaneous concerts held in ten countries on 02 July 2005, plus one more concert on 06 July. The concerts, held on the 20th anniversary of the original Live Aid concert, were meant to send a message to national leaders at the 2005 G8 Summit in Scotland.

This is another view-from-my-office photo.

All products, except luxury items, have a maximum price set by market conditions. A loaf of bread costs up to about $8. A bakery can’t increase the price to $20 or $30 no matter how good that bread is. The price of bread has a ceiling. To make more money, a bakery can expand into products that have a higher price ceiling such as cakes and pastry (which might be considered luxury items).
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Pricing for Business Event Photography

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If you’re lucky, the conference that you’ve been hired to photograph will be held in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows and big skylights. The afternoon light will let you shoot at ISO 400 and a reasonable shutter speed.

A few months ago, I was asked to quote for a three-hour business event. So I quoted for a three-hour event.

Two days before the event, the event organizer said they needed me onsite 45 minutes sooner to do some early photos. They also wanted me to stay after the event so I could edit “one or two pictures” right away for their social media.

On event day, I arrived one hour before the start and, as requested, I was ready to go 45 minutes before the start. But the event was 45 minutes late getting started. It also ran 1-1/2 hours longer than planned. After the event they wanted some group photos. Then the “one or two pictures” that they needed right away became 16 images. What was originally supposed to be three hours onsite turned out to be more than 6-1/2 hours.
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The Low Price Excuse

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A photographer recently emailed to ask about business taxes. Before I replied, I took a look at her web site. This photographer charges $40 per photo for family portraits and $30 per photo for business headshots. I answered their tax question and then asked why she charged so low.

The photographer replied that she always shoots at least 200 photos per family session and 100 photos per headshot session and the customer always buys several images.

We lose money on every sale but we make up for it with volume!

– Anonymous

Low prices can be an excuse for photographers who don’t want to get involved. They don’t want to work at their work. They don’t trust themselves to deliver good results so they don’t trust themselves to have higher prices.

Low prices are for photographers who refuse to take responsibility for their work. If their pictures turn out poorly, they can hide behind their prices and say, “What did you expect? It was only $99.”

A photographer who charges appropriately has their reputation at stake with every customer. Higher prices compel the photographer to deliver better results to the customer.

When a photographer sets higher prices, they intentionally have nowhere to hide. And they’re proud of it because they’re not looking for excuses.

Higher prices don’t just help a photographer’s bank account because higher prices are also a win for the customer.

 

Working Photographer

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Great customers want a photographer who does great work.

Good customers want a photographer who does good work.

Cheap customers want a photographer who does good enough work.

What kind of work do you do?

 

Customers who pay your rates take your work seriously.

Customers who expect cheap want to take your work.

What kind of customer do you want to work with?

 

Low Expectations

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Canadian goalkeeper Milan Borjan celebrates Canada’s win over Jamaica in their men’s soccer match in the final rounds of the Concacaf FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Toronto, Canada, 27 March 2022.

This is a view-from-my-office photo from a cold, rainy-snowy soccer game.

From the past two weeks:

 

• A Toronto professional photographer does family portraits for $500 according to his web site. The price includes a 45-minute session and 50 “fully retouched” pictures.

Fifty images in 45 minutes? Fully retouched? Ten dollars per photo?

At that price, who should have low expectations, the customer or the photographer?

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Price for the End Result

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A 19-metre-tall rubber duck floats in Toronto Harbour in Toronto, Canada, 01 July, 2017. The duck was in the city as part of the celebrations to mark Canada’s 150th birthday.

This is just another view-from-my-office photo.

Corporate customers don’t buy photography, they buy an end result. How much is that end result worth to the customer? Or to rephrase that, how much does your photography contribute toward achieving the customer’s goal?

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