Why are Photographers so expensive? | Ventura, California Weding & Portrait Photographer | Donya J Photography

So why are professional photographers so expensive? 

You’re not just paying for the actual photograph, you’re paying for time and expertise in creating the image itself. First, let’s look at the actual time involved If you don’t read this entire page, at least read this first part.

For a two hour portrait session:

• about one hour of travel to and from the session

• two hours of shooting

• 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.

• 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 – 4 Gb of data)

• 30 minutes to back up the files on multiple external drives plus DVD’s

• 3 – 4+ hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs

• 2 – 3 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment

• and mailing the package to you.

Now can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than eleven hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $200 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $100 / hour.  And if you look at it this way, I basically make $18 an hour which is not too bad.  But unfortunately new business's like me are not shooting everyday, nor can we when we don't have more people other than us working for us.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though our camera bodys average $4,000-$5,000 for just the body, and most of our lens are in the $2,000 category, taking professional portraits involves much more than a nice camera.  Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.
And let’s not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera – and posing people to make them look their best, yet completely natural in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way – the next time you pay $100 to get your hair done, a pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional to actually do the job.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?
Please don’t compare us to the chain store studios. Apples & Oranges!!! But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won’t come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs.

You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you’ll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you’re there, you’ll also spend $200 on other things. They don’t have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

In Conclusion

Thank you to those who have taken the time to read this, now you will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

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