When it comes to picking a photographer for your family portraits, wedding or special event, etc. It’s so important that you do your research on all the photographers that you have picked. Before I became a photographer, I had no idea about what I should be looking for when picking the right photographer for my wedding day. At that time I had no idea what to look for.
That is why I am making this blog post to educate everyone on the differences between a hobbyist photographer and a professional photographer.
So, let’s get right down to it.
A hobbyist is:
A photographer who makes a small amount of money from selling prints or stock images, but not enough to live on.
A hobbyist does not do photography full-time or as a profession. Usually, they spend less time doing photography and more time working their full-time job which pays the bills. This means they don’t have enough time to go and focus on the clients as much as a professional photographer does.
Someone who is doing this to make a little extra income but has someone else supporting them financially during this time which is why their prices are so low.
A hobbyist is usually not educated on how to pose different shapes and sizes to flatter every individual’s shape and they can have trouble with lighting and end up blowing out the exposure. Of course there are some hobbyists out there that know what they are doing but it's rare
A professional photographer is:
A professional gets paid for a certain skill advancement or has done some courses in photography. Every photographer has a different CODB (Cost of doing business) depending on their level of skills, education, their lifestyle, products, quality of their work, and their time.
Professionals can either be part-time of full-time. It depends on their schedule during the days and on the weekends.
The only real requirements of being a professional photographer are having a keen eye for composition, being good at networking in your area, and being extremely self-motivated.
Professionals have all the proper documents in place to run their business via a contract, invoices, quotes etc for every customer they service so that both the customer and the photographer are safe. Also, ensure that there is a contract involved before booking with a photographer so that you as the customer know what you are getting from their service. Please read over the contract.
Every professional photographer price themselves differently depending on what is included in the experience. So you can’t compare Bob down the road to Sally because they both offer different types of photography services. If you have only experienced services with Bob you can’t judge Sally until you have used her services.
The same thing goes with hobbyist photographers. They are typically priced at a lower range because they are either just learning, offer little more than basic digital images, or they are doing this for a little extra money.
So, you can’t compare the prices of a hobbyist to a professional because that is like comparing apples to oranges.
The ONE thing you can do as a client is to research the photographer you are thinking of using. See if their work is consistent meaning that all the pictures are edited in the same style and skin tones are not orange. Check to see if they have a website, or Facebook business profile and see if they are actively posting on these social media platforms. Don't be fooled by google reviews as often times they can be purchased and not real customer reviews. When you decide, touch base with them see how they respond to your request and if they have the proper systems in place to service your request i.e. contract and invoices.
I know right, it's a lot of information to review and look through before picking a photographer.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below and go over and subscribe to my YouTube channel. The link is below.
https://www.youtube.com/@virtinef1858/videos
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