The Business of Photography Revisited

The Business of Photography Revisited

by William Lulow

Here’s an article I wrote last October, but I’ve added quite a bit to it to bring it up to date with the Covid-19 pandemic:

I thought I would expound a bit more about the “business” of photography. All of us “professionals” always walk a thin line between what we think a job is worth and what the market will bear. There are clients who don’t have big budgets for items like stylists, assistants, location vans and wardrobe people, but still need to get photos of themselves and/or their products. I’m always trying to educate people about what goes into a professional photo shoot. Besides the years of experience and learning it takes to perfect any craft, there are many people in the background who actually make the photos look better and more professional. And, they are part of the cost of producing a quality shoot. It’s seldom just the photographer and the subject. Even in a portrait shoot, a hair and makeup stylist can make all the difference. I’m reminded by a colleague who used to assist the late photographer Francesco Scavullo, that there were several professionals on the set whenever he did a portrait session. There were the assistants (two of them), the hair stylist, the makeup stylist, the prop stylist (Scavullo used to like to photograph his subjects on the floor of his studio and often needed fancy pillows, or other props), as well as the regular staff of his studio. So, even for a portrait, there may be eight to ten people participating. But this was his STYLE. He was basically a fashion photographer and that mind-set was there no matter who he photographed.

It’s these types of “add-ons,” if you will, that can make the difference between a “Scavullo shot” and a normal portrait. Scavullo was rumored to charge a few thousand dollars for his portraits, but that was also because of his reputation. I suspect that many folks today are asking a friend to photograph them or taking “selfies.”

So, charging what the market will bear is dependent on what market you’re looking for and what those people consider regular costs of producing a top-notch photograph. There is also the very real and accepted practices in the advertising industry, for example, of charging higher fees the more places the ad will run. This is why I have stated that it is important for photographers to know how their photographs will be used and where they will appear. A small company may need a picture of its CEO for a website and he or she may think that the photo shouldn’t cost all that much. But, if that same shot was going to be used on the cover of Time Magazine, or in a national ad campaign, it would command a much higher fee.

Likewise, clients have to realize that there is really no such thing as “web use only.” Most small businesses I’ve worked for, really use the images I provide in a number of different places. If I’m doing a corporate portrait, for example, that picture may be used in an annual report, for the web, in a magazine, in a press release, for private use or any other way that the client wants. As a matter of fact, the greater the number of uses, the higher the fee should be. But my fees are basically a flat rate for these kinds of clients.

On the other hand, if I’m doing a portrait for a family or private use, those fees cannot be as high as a corporate rate. With this being said, It is often much less expensive for corporations who have a lot of people to shoot at one time. So, whereas I might charge $300 or more for one corporate portrait, if the company has say, twenty people to shoot, the fees could go down to only $50 per person, say because of the volume. So, a corporation can save money the more people they have to shoot at one time.

Photographers’ fees are never a simple matter. Many things have to be taken into account. So, when a client says, “Oh, it’s just a quick shot for the web. Doesn’t have to be great!” That’s nonsense. If you take the time to go to a location, set up your equipment (even if you do flash-on-camera) take the trouble to set up a shot in a studio, it’s worth it to make it the best it can be.

Here are some portraits done “on location” at the company’s office:

This was a corporate shoot that required just the photographer and an assistant. A studio was set up on the client’s premises and about twenty or so executives were photographed during the course of the one-day shoot.

The following images were all made on location at the company’s offices again, but required not only head shots, but full-length shots as well. This took a more involved studio set up. This was the main studio setup in a conference room:

This was a different shoot and location:

So, the more “different” shots that are required, the longer it takes to set up and photograph each individual. Therefore, this shoot was one-and-a-half days in order to get everyone photographed both full-length as well as head shots.

These days, there is no longer any film and processing costs or charges and many clients want other services such as retouching and delivery to be included in a photographer’s day rate. So, from a business standpoint, there is much less opportunity for costs to be marked up even though the photographer still has to complete all work. In the past, we would send images out for retouching which incurred messenger fees as well as the retouching fees which could be marked up slightly. Since all images are delivered digitally today, there are no messenger or other delivery fees. Today, the costs of all of these services need to be covered by the photographer’s total fee.

The business of photography is much different in the digital age than it was previously. So, photographers have to make sure that the time they invest in downloading, sorting, retouching and delivering images digitally is covered in their overall fee structure as well.

So, how do all of “us” photographers get these assignments anyway? I’m reminded of a lecture I attended a few years ago given by the well-known photographer Rick Friedman of Boston. After he meticulously explained how he made several of his more famous images and spent the better part of an hour at it, someone raised his hand and asked him how he got these jobs to begin with. Friedman’s answer was that it took some luck, a lot of skill and a bunch of networking.

These days, in which anyone with a decent camera (and sometimes just an iPhone) is a “photographer”, it’s sometimes harder than it used to be to get clients. Commercial photography, like so many other professions which are sometimes regarded as “trades,” is one of those things that becomes a necessity when someone needs an image for any promotional use. Otherwise, it becomes a case of “out of sight, out of mind.” I can’t mention how many times I have heard someone say, “I was looking for a photographer and I never even knew you were right around the corner.” So, I think it is necessary for photographers as well as other artists who depend on the commercial markets, to do as much networking and promotion as they can. These days, I use the social media as well as twice-monthly emails, some direct mail and a lot of networking both on the web and in person to try to make sure my name stays out there. When someone needs photography, they need to see your name when they Google “photographers” in their immediate geographical area. So, search engine optimization or SEO becomes really important for this to happen.

The other thing I have noted recently, especially with the loss of much business due to Covid-19, many people will normally ask their friends or someone else they know for recommendations for photographers (and other services as well). So, with a drop off of business from last year and now with the quarantine, I have had to give some thought to trying to build up my client base again, something I haven’t had to think about for a while. When business drops off in any field, if you want to continue in that field, you will sometimes need to re-invent yourself a bit. There are always ways to do this and you may have to do it more than once in a long career.

So, it’s worth it to invest a little, not a lot, in trying to learn what you need to do to see that you are at least on page one of any Google search. After that, sometimes, depending on conditions out of our control, it can be a while between jobs. If you are running a “brick-and-mortar” studio, you need to find clients who have a regular and recurring need for images. That’s the best way to keep your doors open.