Exploitation from friendsSome friends are more than willing to invite their photographer friend to their parties because he's able to help them to capture the moments, for free. It doesn't mean all these friends are being super cheapskates but, for sure, they don't know the actual cost of professional photography (cost of equipment, energy and time required for post-production work) is very high. The most insulting thing some friends can do to a photographer is to suggest he help them with some photoshoots for free so that he can "build up his portfolio". Unfortunately, they are belittling his existing portfolio and/or think that no client is engaging his photography services.
Of course, all these are probably unintentional and may actually benefit a photographer if he's really new to the trade.
Exploitation from clientsOne common thing is that some clients will try to help a photographer to determine the duration he will need to do certain photography jobs. For example, some clients may approach a photographer to do a one-hour interior or product shoot.In fact, many things are doable, depending on the quality of work. There was once, staff from a big property website approached me to shoot both the interior and exterior of a property, telling me that they would only require half an hour of time from me for each session. When I went to the website, the few albums that I randomly clicked on were all poorly done. Given the quality of the work, no tripod stand was even required; besides, given half an hour of time, there was no time to use and adjust the tripod. Well, I could have worked with the property website, despite having to provide substandard work, on a long-term basis in order to secure a regular income so that I could continue to produce masterpieces outside the "working hours". Eventually, I couldn't get over my passion for producing good work.
This is the reason why many professional photographers will charge by the number of photographs for non-event shoots so that they are able to do their work properly to create excellent photographs without rushing to meet the (short) timeframe.
There are also various other ways clients will try to exploit a photographer, such as asking him to turn up early for event shoots, instead of booking his timeslot earlier.
Clients and models set their own ridiculous expectationClients may be on purpose or not, by not reading the service agreement. They may then end up throwing ridiculous expectations during or after the shoot, which may sour the relationship.For example, some clients will request the raw files that most professional photographers would not provide, unless it's agreed upon for a commercial shoot. There are two main reasons why they want the raw files. Firstly, they want to have a "memory of the actual shoot", which is common but unfortunately, will likely tarnish the reputation of the photographer somehow in the short or long run. Secondly, they know that professional editing is expensive and thus they want to either do the editing work on their own or send the files to some cheap editing services to do a cheap work since non-professional photographers couldn't really tell the quality anyway.
There are many other misconceptions and myths in professional photography that will lead to all the wrong expectations.
There are nasty clientsA photographer may be lucky most of the time but not always. Sometimes, there will be nasty clients who are ridiculous. Some of those who have low IQ or/and EQ may even try to spoil the photographer's reputation via social media even though he has done nothing wrong at all.For instance, there was a return client who hired me to do a wedding shoot for her brother. For event shoots, as mentioned to the client and also stated on my service agreement and through my website, there's only basic enhancement (colour, exposure correction) and no skin-retouching (advanced editing) that would require a huge amount of time for professional work on every photograph. After sending them the photographs, her sister-in-law then requested me to do additional editing and I quoted her my usual rate for professional editing. She didn't reply and started a false accusation on a Facebook group for budget bridal, saying that all my photographs were "bad angle" and "wrong focus", without posting any of my work as evidence.
There are nasty co-workers (models and HMUAs)Many photographers do collaboration work with talents to produce good artwork for their passion or to do marketing. Many talents have approached me after seeing my work and thus I have encountered some very nasty ones.For example, an aspiring model was pissed off with me because I didn't want to do any free shoots for her. She then sowed discord between me and an HMUA, by twisting words (and tone) from the stories I had shared with her, which involved the HMUA. She continued badmouthing me while working with others when I had done absolutely nothing wrong to her. In fact, I had already helped her with two albums of professional work before I realised something was wrong with her character.
The mentioned HMUA who I used to work very closely with, in return, started sowing discord between me and other mutual friends. The first time I realised she was backstabbing me was when a model confronted me after they spoke in private. It's normal for co-workers (photographers and HMUAs) to have a debrief or discussion about the shoots and models, to make improvements and judge whether they should work with the models/talents again. The HMUA asked the model about the shoot suddenly, to arouse her curiosity and told her that "Skai said don't expect too many good photos". The model didn't even realise the HMUA was intentionally trying to hurt our relationship.
Many clients don't know what they wantMost event shoots are usually quite straightforward. However, for others like editorial shoots, the clients may not know what they want exactly, even though they can tell the photographer "this and that". Eventually, the photographer will be confused and not know the focus and there may be many unforeseeable problems, especially if the client isn't easygoing.Some clients may have doubts in paying booking feeWhile it's essential for clients to place a booking fee (deposit) to secure the timeslot of the photographer, some of them will hesitate to pay upfront. They are afraid that the photographer would "run away" with the money even though the photographer has a good reputation to maintain after spending so much time, effort and money to set up the website and social media profiles, and also have large portfolios and testimonials from previous clients. They are likely not going to think in the photographer's position that they (clients) are actually unknowns who may find another (probably cheaper?) photographer after confirmation, which will waste the photographer's time and cause a lost of income due to rejecting other clients' requests.Unfortunately, there are stories of photographers (and service providers in other related fields) who have spoiled the market and the trust of clients. They are very rare but they still exist.
Clients may give problems unintentionallyReal-life experience:
1. Slept earlier
2. Woke up early
3. Ran after train
4. Ran after bus
5. Reached slightly earlier
6. Client late
7. Gotten bitten by mosquitoes
8. Client postponed shoot
Awkward relationship with clients and modelsThe tone a male photographer uses with a female client and model can be very sensitive. The person may misinterpret the photographer if he sounds too flirtish or she may find the photographer too boring, which may affect the shoot.Keeping in touch with a client or model as a friend may also give her the wrong impression that the photographer is doing it for the sake of getting more jobs.
Photographers get weird requestsIf a photographer were to reply to all messages/emails, it will definitely drain his time and energy. Not replying is bad while replying with a short "yes/no" answer may be harmful. Somehow, a photographer may just receive too many weird requests that he's unable to reply to or reply appropriately.A photographer may be approached by people to ask him to retouch their photos so as to be "rewarded" by having permission to add the edited photographs to his portfolio, which he doesn't need. In fact, the copyright of the photographs obviously belongs to the original photographer who captured them and not the retoucher or the subject inside the photographs. It is also an indirect insult that the photographer's portfolio isn't good enough.
Random strangers may approach photographers for advice or even do surveys regarding photography. The photographers may want to help but are likely to be overstretched.
Many models/clients cannot handle truthThe job of a photographer is to make sure the models look nice in the photos. One way to make the models look nice is to rectify their flaws. However, not everyone is open to unflattering comments no matter how harmless the photographers try to phrase their sentences. The worst scenario is to work without a makeup artist and yet the model is too full of herself to fix her flaws.Photographers can get backstabbed easilyFor a photoshoot that more than two people are involved, such as the photographer, model and HMUA, it's easy for the photographer to get backstabbed.For example, in order to improve on the photoshoot, the photographer will be discussing everything about the model with the HMUA, including the flaws in terms of both physical and character. Therefore, it's easy for the HMUA to tell the model "honestly" about the negative things the photographer has mentioned, taking content out of context. In reality, no matter minor the flaw is, delivering from a third person (probably in a bad way) will only make the photographer seems like a villain.
People do malign professional photographers with fake storiesYou can't please everyone and so do photographers. No matter how detailed or "naggy" the photographer can be during the discussion, the model can cry foul months or years later, probably due to someone (a hater of the photographer) instigating her.For example, I did an implied nude art shoot with a girl. I confirmed with her thrice during our discussion that she wouldn't be wearing her underwear during the shoot although none of her private parts would be shown. She was very open-minded and enthusiastic. In one of her replies, she even made it sound like I was a bit dumb to be clarifying with her again, "Cause we already discussed that it is gonna nude, put panty for what". She was very friendly towards me throughout but I didn't keep in touch with her after sending her the final photographs. However, she worked often with a toxic HMUA who had been sowing discord between me and other mutual friends/models. A year later, I realised she was spreading rumours about me and even bluffed everyone that she didn't know she had to be nude until during the shoot.
Other "photographers" do get jealous and toxicIf you've established yourself a little after doing years of photography, you might be inviting jealousy from other "photographers" who can find all ways to badmouth you just to make themselves look better in front of aspiring models.I've heard from a freelance model friend that a few "photographers" were criticising me in a Telegram group because they thought I had shared too many photography-related things online. I didn't even know them. They also talked about my Instagram account that I didn't have time to manage (interact with other users). Thanks to them, I might have enjoyed some free publicity, except that that Telegram group likely wasn't going to generate any clients for any professional photographer. They probably made a fool out of themselves when people start comparing the qualities of our work.
Models may doubt a photographer's judgments of their looks because the photographer is not an HMUANo matter how experienced a photographer is, models may not believe his judgment in their looks as long as the photographer isn't a renowned makeup artist. Not being able to draw their faces does not mean a photographer cannot point out flaws in their faces and it can be quite insulting to doubt a photographer who has great experience and has also worked with various makeup artists.Many models and HMUAs don't cooperate fullyThere are chances that the photographer has to work with inexperienced models and HMUAs and some will definitely be full of themselves. Some of them may have done a few photoshoots with random photographers who usually don't care much about the procedures as long as the models can show some cleavages during the shoot. Eventually, the newbies are led to think that photoshoots can be done easily without much planning. The most common problem from models is that they don't think it's necessary to show the outfits to be used for the photoshoots, in (usual) cases that they are supposed to provide the outfits. Whereas, new HMUAs may have their preferred comfortable environments for doing their work, even for outdoor shoots.Many models/clients waste the photographer's timeMany models and clients who approach a photographer to collaborate or engage his services are actually much less enthusiastic than they sound initially. Most people will eventually change their minds soon because of the Chinese's saying "three minutes of heat" (directly translated). Some people may suddenly realise they are too shy for a portraiture shoot while some think they do not need to spend the money to get professional photographs taken for their events. When the person asks the photographer for ideas and somehow doesn't go ahead with the shoot, it's certainly wasting the photographer's time and effort.Ideas may be stolenMost people don't realise that ideas are important assets of a photographer. Photography services do provide ideas (or solutions), that many photographers may have overlooked. When a client or model approaches a photographer, the photographer may propose a special concept for the photoshoot or even come out with a unique idea that suits the model. The photographer's ideas may be stolen, such that the person can use them, with or without modification, with other cheaper photographers.There was once when a staff from a big brand approached me, she requested me to come out with an idea for their commercial shoot so that the company would decide whether to use my photography services or not. I turned her down.
Most people think photographers make a lot of money easilyMost people think paying photographers hundreds of bucks per hour is ridiculously expensive. They don't know the cost of the equipment and its lifespan, the effort to carry the heavy and bulky equipment for the shoot, the experience, knowledge and skill of the photographers... and they choose not to know that for every shoot, it may take hours just to edit one photo. They just don't know the actual cost of photography.It can be hurtful when people unintentionally make wrong remarks about photographers who are still struggling with their art, especially for those photographers who always make the extra effort to produce the best photographs possible.
Being undercutThere are many new or inexperienced photographers out in the market who are charging very little amount for their work. Most clients do look at prices rather than the quality of work and will skip a professional photographer if they happen to come across photographers who charge much cheaper rates.Of course, photographers who undercut the market are usually hated by other professional photographers and they are likely not able to sustain their photography business for long unless they have other full-time jobs and simply take photography as a hobby.
I have witnessed a photographer, with at least a year of experience, charging my friend less than half of my rate, which was even lower than my starting rate. There's also a hobbyist who was paying models money to shoot them and had charged my model friend $30/hr for her actual day wedding photography.
Black sheep have spoiled the marketThere are quite a number of blacklisted photographers who have spoiled the reputation of all photographers. Potential models and clients are quite wary of being taken advantage of during the photoshoots. There are also many types of photography and modelling scams that are scaring people.Even after displaying a huge quantity of quality work online, there are still many girls who may be slightly wary of me when it comes to solo portrait photography, even for outdoor photoshoots.
Excess useless enquiriesMost people who approach professional photographers are mostly interested in finding out their charging rates. These people are likely to be sourcing around only for cheap packages. Therefore, photographers will get lots of enquiries that are wasting their time replying, unless the photographers are going to undercut the market too by quoting a low rate.Most companies and organisations require their staff to get at least three quotations from vendors, including photographers, for every project. Therefore, many staff have to approach different photographers in order to hit their quotas, such that there's a high chance that the enquiry for a photographer would lead to nothing.
Even after stating my charges on my website and without listing my number inside, so as to reduce people from casually approaching me for price-checking, I was still bothered by people every now and then. Quite frequently, I would receive enquiries from people who would sound very keen on getting my photography services. They would even sound satisfied with my rates and request me to provide them with an official quotation that would require some time for me to prepare and email to them to their official email addresses. After that, they would go MIA. It's very likely that these people are just looking to hit their quotas for quotations as a standard operation procedure (SOP) in Singapore.
Photographers are targeted by spammersHaving their contact details on the web means the photographers are very vulnerable to being spammed. Photographers will get all sorts of spam for SEO services, printing, stock image and directory companies. I often receive messages in my social media accounts from random people who try to befriend me but they are actually just mass-spamming every photographer to advertise their services, such as photo-retouching services or websites.Not everyone appreciates the photographer's photography skillMost people are looking only at prices and not the personal touch of the photographer. Many people also think photography is solely about clicking the shutter button. Most people cannot tell the quality of photos and they only want photographs to be taken. Eventually, most photographers have to get used to the fact that their work is not being appreciated.Some people think photographs don't need to be editedSince not everyone can tell the quality of photographs, most people are clueless about post-production work. They may suggest that the photographers not have to edit the photographs before sending them. DSLRs are really powerful tools but they are not smart enough to know what setting the photographers want. Even the auto flash using the technology, known as through-the-lens (TTL), may fail to produce the "correct" exposure. Therefore, most photographers' work will need to be processed to be "perfect" before sending to the clients.Photographs straight from the cameras may have their own colour tones added. However, the raw photographs won't look as good as what professional photographers will produce. They require as least basic enhancement by the photographers in order to look professional and unique.
Photo editing requires time and effort and if someone thinks it's not necessary, then he or she will never appreciate the photographer's talent and likely not be willing to pay a reasonable price for the photography services.
Many people think post-production work is easySome people expect photographers to return them the photographs soon after the actual photoshoot. They do not understand that photographers may have even taken duplicated photos sometimes for a backup purpose (for example, in case one of the subjects blinked) and thus will need extra effort to choose the best out of the photos taken. They also don't know that photographers will need time to do other adjustments like cropping, colour correction and exposure adjustments.Many people think that post-production work, including skin touch-ups, is simple, probably due to the availability of many phone applications (apps). They don't know the differences between working with high and low-resolution photographs, partly because they usually view photographs only on small screens, such as screens of mobile phones. They also don't know how to appreciate the quality (natural and detailed) of photographs, just like how they know nothing about professional skin retouching.
Therefore, they may belittle photographers, their skills and their effort. It can be insulting. Unfortunately, the belittling would also lead to the low rates clients are willing to pay for professional photography.
A small percentage of people do complain photographs are too well editedMost people are vain and will push photographers to edit away their flaws in order to make them look "perfect". However, there are some weird ones who complain about the photographers that photographers make them look too nice and that they "look different" in the photographs, when in the first place, they don't state any preference, even after seeing the portfolio.A thick girl approached me to work with me on my personal project. Instead of doing a boudoir shoot, I proposed doing an art shoot with a black backdrop so that I could make her look slimmer. I did low key shoot to shape her using my lighting, played with angles and props and taught her to pose in a flattering way. She looked much skinnier in the raw photographs and I finished it in post-production to shape her furthermore, including removing her body full of scars and stretch marks. She didn't sound anything out and continued to interact with me months later. However, she suddenly started grumbling about me making her look too good and that "the photographs didn't look like her".
The facts are: (1) Everyone can still recognise her in the photographs, except when viewers zoom in, they can't see the stretch marks and she also doesn't look fat - I made her look a little meaty still. (2) She looks slim in the photographs she uses on her comp card, which are taken by other photographers.
People edit the professionally edited photographsWith the availability of many phone editing applications, it's easy for anyone to do basic editing on a photograph using her phone. However, many people start getting over-confident and think that they can do the same or even better job than professional photographers who have years of experience working on large resolutions (to the extent that even tiny flaws are visible) and sharp photographs on their large monitors. After the professional photographer sends them professionally edited photographs, they will edit them before posting them online.People think photographers can do wondersSome people think photographers can turn a black duckie into a swan without engaging the help of a hair and makeup artist. Many others, including some models, may think photographers can produce great photographs for outdoor shoots under bad conditions like shooting near noon time. Photographers will get lots of unreasonable demands that will force them to provide bad-quality photographs, or at least, much lower quality than they could provide.The usual remarks are "you're the professional photographer and I trust you!", after giving really bad constraints for the photoshoot. On a side (happy) note, these clients usually won't have a high expectations of work, or at least, not at the level of a professional photographer.
Irregular meal timeAs most of the event shoots, such as gala dinners or weddings, are held during normal meal time, photographers are likely to take their meals at weird timing (early or late) on days with on-site jobs.Even though many clients are very nice and would want the photographers to take some food during the shoot, most responsible photographers would not want to miss any good moment/shot during the event. Will a responsible photographer sit down comfortably and enjoy the food together with the guests when he's being paid to capture good photographs? Of course, in special situations that the corporate clients have, without the photographer's knowledge, catered food for him and when all the guests (not many kids) are busy eating (can't snap any photographs), it will be a different story. Then, the photographer may be busy throwing food inside his mouth and risk having indigestion. For example, I may take 45 minutes for my usual meals but during event shoots, I will likely finish it within 10 minutes.
As for portrait photoshoots, the golden hour (sunrise and sunset) are crucial. It takes time to set up and dismantle the equipment after the photoshoots. Therefore, mealtime would be irregular as well.
Photography equipment are expensiveCamera bodies are expensive but many lenses are even more expensive. Even the lens filters to protect the lenses cost over a hundred bucks. "Good things do not come cheap" usually does apply to photography gear. Other than common items such as rechargeable batteries, there is more equipment that is required to be purchased in order to produce better photographs like light modifiers. To sum up, a photographer would need to spend a lot of money before he can produce very good and unique photographs.Photography equipment will wear and tearEquipment easily gets worn off over time or can be dropped accidentally. Even the shutter button of a DSLR has a lifespan. Replacements of parts may not be worth the money and thus photographers may need to get a new set. It's about money again. Replacement of parts can cost hundreds of bucks easily.Photography equipment are heavyA basic set-up for an event shoot like a Canon 6D (lightest full frame body at a period of time) with a Canon 24-70mm F2.8 II lens and a Canon 600 EX-RT speedlite can weigh nearly 2kg. Imagine you have to hold it up for a long duration and even on a single hand when you need to change the direction of light to produce better-looking photographs. At times, when the venue is too crowded, you have to keep the camera by your side and thus, you will be supporting it with a single hand. You may not be able to leave the camera hanging over your neck in case anyone hit it accidentally and thus your hand will be holding it most of the time in such a situation. I have injured my right hand from bisect to wrist a few times.For a portraiture shoot, a basic setup will require a few light modifiers such as umbrellas, softboxes and light stands. There are also smaller items such as adapters and triggers. The total weight of equipment is usually over 10kg unless a photographer is going for natural light casual shooting.
For paid work, many photographers will usually bring an extra camera body and lens along just in case.
Marketing and PR work requires more timeObviously, most photographers love photography. However, marketing work actually takes up more time. If a photographer doesn't market himself, such as posting his work online, nobody will know about how good his artwork is. He also needs to talk and discuss with clients and models before the shoot and often he will not get the business somehow.The marketing and PR work can be very draining physically and mentally.
A freelance photographer will appear to be very freeA photographer's time can be flexible but busy. Other than going out for the actual shooting, the photographer actually spends a lot of time doing post-production and marketing work. The editing work will usually take longer time than the actual shooting, depending on the effort spent. When a photographer is deemed free, people will try to push things on him or simply approach him for help even without trying on their own. Most of all, if you put yourself in a photographer's shoes, it's very annoying to be viewed as free when you're very actually very busy.Distraction from work at homeMost freelance photographers are working from home when they are not out shooting. Their working hours may be very flexible and they can stay up late at night to do their work, such as post-production of photographs and marketing. However, working from home means there are endless troubles. Neighbours can be a nuisance to start making noises in the early morning, salesmen or scammers may knock on the door and family members may use the photographer as their receptionist. Most of all, photographers may be required to run errands since they are "free and has nothing to do" at home.Refrain from personal photographyWhen a responsible photographer "owes" his clients photographs, sometimes, he may refrain from taking out his camera during his personal outing with family or friends because he doesn't want it (photography of the outing) to become part of his burden.Passion gets killedIf a photographer has to keep rushing work, he may not enjoy the process. From my experience, it's not possible to do a good set-up for many projects due to various constraints and it can cause a big frustration for a passionate photographer to be unable to produce the work that he's actually capable of creating.After all the encounters above for a prolonged time, there may be one day that he will get sick of photography.
