Reply To: Who are we to judge?

[iliketag]

Picarusslim pretty much hit the nail on the head there.

These are people charging folks for a service. People are paying for said service and receiving a product that is lacking in quality.
None of us here will say that we haven’t given a client an image we wouldn’t normally have for sentimental reasons. I have a photo of a friend of mine and her daughter where mom had stepped slightly out of my depth of field to hold onto her squirming child. Her daughter’s expression is fantastic (so was mom’s) but with her being out of focus, I will never include that in my portfolio or public (watermarked) work, but I gave it to her and it’s one of her favorites anyway.

The problem here is expectations.

Let’s look at what statistics among any consumer business say: A customer sees what they want to see.
In terms of a wedding photographer boasting a full day of wedding photography for $500 and one for say, $3000, a customer sees $500 and may not even go on to look at the portfolio, they want cheap and they’ll pay. A savvy shopper will look at the one for less and continue onto the portfolio and guage from there. BUT they still have the lesser price ingrained in their head. So they move on to the $3000 photographer and ask things like “Well, I don’t need an album. How much is it now?” or “I don’t think we need engagement pictures, we’ll have a friend take some, can I get a discount?” until they finally hit on “Well, this photographer will do my whole wedding for 500!”

They don’t necessarily see the value in the service you provide anymore, only the price tag.
A consumer can look at two photos side by side and see which is better… but if they don’t understand value per dollar, they will always go with the lower price tag.
How does this effect the business? A client burned by a cheap wedding photographer will have a hard time trusting another photographer later, let alone for more money. It devalues the market as a whole. People grow to expect lower pricing; even from a more experienced, higher quality photographer. It hurts those of us who paid our dues learning and investing. These fauxtographers are not even making minimum wage! So when potential clients expect that from a true professional, it actually does begin to hurt the industry.