Since money is always a hot topic and a lot of people ask me for advices about how to price their services, here is a short -true- story.
A few months ago, I received a request from an “acquaintance” asking me to shoot her wedding. She liked my work and wanted me to cover her event. Thing is, she is still a student and was short on budget.
No problem I said, I would give her my rock bottom price (1200$). After all, she was a pseudo-friend and the girl was a cutie so the end result would look great and I could boost my portfolio while getting some cash at the same time.
When I gave her my price, she was a little bit shocked, expecting I guess something lower, and tried to negotiate. Since this was already my lowest price, there was no way I would go down so she replied she would think about it.
Of course, she shopped around and realized how good my price was and came back. We both agreed on everything and I booked the date in my calendar. Since she was somewhat of a relative, I did not ask for a deposit and we had a gentleman agreement.
I am sure you can guess what happened next: a few weeks later she sends me an email saying she found someone cheaper so she would not need my services.
I think I was more frustrated about the fact that she contacted me by email than the cancelled contract since it would mean I would have one more weekend with my family & my BBQ.
This was a few weeks ago and yesterday I had some feedback about the ‘replacement’ photographer who ‘undercut’ me. The guy was of course an amateur shooting his first wedding. He acted like an amateur in every single aspect of his job and while we have not seen the end result yet, expectations are low.
While I would love to feel happy about this, I am not. I am a bit sad for this little girl, and then again it is not like I did not try to help her out.
Here are a few things to remember from this story:
Stick to your price
Whatever your price, stick to it. If you open up the door for price negotiation, the bride will feel it and you will end up doing the same job for less. And how do you feel about doing a job for less than what you think it is worth? It will suck and you will think about it the whole time you will be shooting and editing the picture. Which is not the best creative mood setter!
Stay away from cheap people
People who try to negotiate on price will do the same for everything else. End result: not the kind of grand wedding you want to showcase in your portfolio.
Get a deposit
This is the last time I am reserving a date without a cash deposit. Ever! By getting a deposit, you are making it much more expensive for the bride to cancel. Even a 50% refund should be enough to secure the date.
Don’t try to compete with amateurs
Make sure you price your services according to your skills. There will always be someone to undercut you: people who are looking to get experience at the expense of revenue. There is nothing you can do about it. Try instead to compete with people who are more expensive than you and compete on quality, not price.
, as it is wide enough for pretty much everything I do, going wider would open the door for more creative shots. Ex: having an even better separation of foreground and background objects. Also, Dan reviewed lenses from a 1DMrkIV perspective so I wanted to see what was out there for full frame owners.
is the perfect walking lens, I find it a bit too short and I rather recommend the excellent 
. Indoor or outside, this lens has the reach and width to get great shots.
might do a nice job, its short focal range means that you have to be close to the subject which could distract them. This is why lenses such as the 
(
) or 
are preferred. While a lot of people suggest a zoom (24-70 or 70-200), I personally think it is better to have a fixed focal length in a controlled environment since since the image quality is better, the lenses cheaper and you can always zoom with your feet.
. While the 300mm is good for anything bigger than a dog or not easily scared, the 400mm is the minimum required reach for small birds. Both of these lenses have incredible image quality and focusing speed.
, if you are really into architecture, you have to take a look at the tilt-shift lens, such as the 
or the 
. Tilt-shift lenses allow you to do more than just correct the perspective, by shifting the lens you can create a mosaic of pictures that you can later on combine for a perfect panorama. This is why even at 45mm, you can take pictures of buildings right in front of you.
lens too! Surprised? You should not be. having a long focal length is the only way to create a perspective compressing effect that looks so cool when shooting mountains, or to take a sunset pictures with the sun taking half of the frame.
having the most flexibility. While the 
is incredible to shoot bugs, it has limited uses outside of the macro world. An interesting alternative to macro lenses, if you are shooting still life, is to use a 
tilt-shift lens. While the macro effect might not there, this is the preferred lens of food and gem photographers since you can tilt the plane of focus to have the whole picture in focus.
. While I have never been able to take a good macro shot with these without using a tripod, they offer the best bang for the buck and are easy to carry around.
is a great chose for most activities. Dont mind the IS. In sport the action is going on so fast that IS would never help you to stop it down.
. These are the two lenses you will ever need. But if you are interested in weeding photography, you probably already know that.
