Month: October 2016
What if Your Client Wants a Reshoot
For what seems like an eternity, professional photographers have had to contend with others telling them how to approach their own work. And with camera phones now widespread, there is no shortage of ‘armchair’ experts who believe they are ‘qualified’ to take photos. Sometimes, this includes clients. What should you do when a client tells you that they don’t like your photos and want a reshoot? As we’ve detailed in the past, a good relationship between a photographer and client centres on the principle of managing expectations. Where you’ve set your policies in place, there is less room for ambiguity when it comes to unwarranted claims and criticisms. But even with a contract, a client can still find reason to remain unhappy with the work you’ve done – leading to the request for a reshoot. In these circumstances, it’s important to understand what is behind the request. That… | Read the full article
Dealing With Clients’ Budgets
Pricing is among the more challenging components when establishing and running your own photography business. After all, in a competitive industry that is so heavily driven by cost savvy customers as well as the reputation of your peers, many photographers feel that their pricing is what stands between them and a more prominent pipeline of work. However, when clients stipulate a particular budget for work they are requesting, what considerations should one be affording such factors? First of all, using your clients’ budgets as means to price your work can deliver some benefits. Among new and emerging photographers in particular, who are looking to attract customers and build their marketing via word of mouth, budget-focussed pricing can be beneficial. Similarly, this approach is also flexible enough to allow more experienced photographers to continually increase their customer base by taking on work that they otherwise might not normally do. Furthermore,… | Read the full article
Street Photography Ethics
While street photographers and privacy advocates have long been engaged in a dispute over the ethics of street photography, recent months have seen an escalating level of tension. The most recent incident came within the last week, where photographers were left ‘outraged’ that participants at a BDSM street fair had elected to wear stickers which stated “ask first”. In the context of this particular application, this was a message to photographers requesting that they ask permission from the individuals before taking a photo of them. Hopefully, all would agree that photography within private confines (without permission) can certainly amount to legal complications. However, in the public realm circumstances are widely different, even more so at open events. In public settings, it’s not unreasonable that photographers would like to capture photos, and they shouldn’t really need to seek validation for approval. After all, in today’s day and age, just about… | Read the full article
