Is she a fauxtog?

[zades158]

Thanks Ebi, I wasn’t trying to be mean to her I was just saying that if I were her I would at least try to get better and practice on people for free before I started charging. She needs a bit of practice and to be honest I wouldn’t pay her to take my photos. Just because you do one photoshoot with a model doesn’t mean you should automatically start charging people. I know you gotta start somewhere too, and people can always improve. But practice on your family members or friends, and if they like it and you improve on the way then you can start to get the word out. It just bothers me when people say “I got an SLR I am now a photographer” and try to start a business even if they don’t know how to use their cameras. I have seen it on more cases than this. I’m just trying to be helpfully critical here and not too harsh.

[ebi]

KitKat,

It’s called “testing”. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on testing to build my portfolio. And that testing lead to paying gigs that more than covered those expenses and provides me with a living. So basically, when you take test photos, you enter into an agreement where they get something out of you taking photos that may or may not be good photos or what they desired. Since no money changes hands it makes things far less complicated. And the photographer gets a little bit of relief knowing that if fuck it up, it’s not the end of the world. But it also gives everyone the ability to play, create, learn and perhaps make some good pictures.

She certainly deserves to make a living, but it also behooves her to be honest about it.

The advice you were given is great advice. The idea comes from the idea that if you are charging $1000 for something and they come back and say how about $500 and you say yes, you will probably never make anymore than $500 with that person again. There are ways to negotiate that don’t involve you making all the compromise. So basically you say. well for $1000 you get this, that and the other thing. But for $500, you are only going to get this and half of that but not the other thing. For $750 you can get this and all of that but not the other thing. You give the client options, but you make sure that you still get compensated well.

But all that really isn’t important until you get to a point where you should be charging.

[IHF]

KitKat “Practice for free” means (to me anyway) not soliciting to the public, or pushing or marketing in anyway, until you have the basics down and have some consistency to your work.  Hiring models to help you, or even just employing your friends and family or aquaintances.  Shooting for yourself and for your learning process (or port building or personal projects), not shooting for free in a professional capacity for others.  Your advice is sound.  Once that shingle is put out there, shooting for free really shouldn’t happen anymore unless it’s for some charitable type situation that you are interested in giving your time and expertise to.

In this case the shingle was hung well before it should have been.  A hiatus from being in business would be the best thing for this tog to do for themselves if they want any sort of chance at making it in this genre as a pro

[Author]

Posts