Reply To: Attitudes and Behavior on Social Media

[nesgran]

I think it certainly does hurt their business, but not nearly enough. I doubt that many people actually check through facebook when they are looking for a photographer for their wedding/bar mitzvah/graduation/etc. However, if you have a bad attitude on there and are trying to get a job as a second shooter I doubt any real tog would hire them. I think that photographers are on average a bit older than many others who use social media and have probably not quite realised the difference between anonymous forum trolling (which tech interested people have been doing since the dawn of the internet) and being outright nasty when your name and company is attached to the comments. Also never forget that being able to get good shots don’t necessarily translate into being a nice human being.

As for gear, that is always a tricky one. Most pros and some keen amateurs have spent more money on light stands than the average person will spend on their DSLR which warps perceptions a bit. The problem is when people aren’t realising how good gear is for its price, this holds true for some gear like the canon kit 18-55 IS and 55-250 IS lenses. Stopped down a bit they are very sharp and even wide open aren’t bad but only if you qualify it with “for what they cost”. It completely depends on the group you are talking to, one forum I frequent the canon 24-105L is one of the best lenses for most people out there yet on the next forum the 24-105L is a decent enough lens but not that many would actually use one because it isn’t good enough.