Why photographers dont work for free

Simply put, you are decreasing the value of the photography market. Meaning, by accepting a job for free the client will expect your next job to be free.

Or that they can hire another photographer for free the next time. Your personal market price goes down if you are doing hard work for less than a penny to the dollar. Educate The Market: By refusing to work for free and you might not get the paid job , you teach the client a lesson. If everyone refuses to work for free and the next photographer comes along and does the same; you teach the market that this is not the done thing.

Resulting in the value of the photography industry going up. Charge what you are worth. Differentiate yourself in the type of work you do or what you offer. Undercutting competition creates a pricing war and screws the whole industry and is just short sighted. When people or companies have the budget, they end up going to the cities or people who are famous for the work. Educate them, be kind and be gentle. Try not to backlash back at them and come out as a professional. For example you can design a contract where you are paid at a later date for your work.

Gain Respect: By demanding some form of payment, the client ends up respecting you and the work you do. Also, from my experience they are more likely to return to you. What is the gain from this project and is it worth it? Where I am today, how does this help me in where I want to be in the future? Does this fit within my social projects and interests? For example: A print or media agency can design and print you business cards in exchange. An insurance company may give you a better rate in insuring you or your gear.

A website design agency can host your website or even better redesign your site. We have chosen this path in large part due to the passion we have for visual communication, visual art, and the subject matters in which we specialise.

The substantial increase in photographs available via the internet in recent years, coupled with reduced budgets of many photo buyers, means that our already meager incomes have come under additional strain.

Our profession is by nature equipment-intensive. We need to buy cameras, lenses, computers, software, storage devices, and more on a regular basis. Things break and need to be repaired.

We need back-ups of all our data, as one ill-placed cup of coffee could literally erase years of work. For all of us, investment in essential hardware and software entails thousands of dollars a year, as we need to stay current with new technology and best practices.

In addition, travel is a big part of many of our businesses. We must spend a lot of money on transportation, lodging and other travel-related costs. And of course, perhaps most importantly, there is a substantial sum associated with the time and experience we have invested to become proficient at what we do, as well as the personal risks we often take. Taking snapshots may only involve pressing the camera shutter release, but creating images requires skill, experience and judgement.

So the bottom line is that although we certainly understand and can sympathise with budget constraints, from a practical point of view, we simply cannot afford to subsidise everyone who asks. We did, after all, create the images concerned, so credit is automatic. It is not something that we hope a third party will be kind enough to grant us.

As we hopefully made clear above, we work hard to make the money required to reinvest in our photographic equipment and to cover related business expenses. On top of that, we need to make enough to pay for basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, etc. In short, receiving credit for an image we created is a given, not compensation, and credit is not a substitute for payment.

We also know that no reasonable and competent photographer would agree to unreasonable conditions. One other experience we have in common is that when we do provide photographs for free, we often do not receive updates, feedback or any other form of follow-up letting us know how the event or project unfolded, what goals if any were achieved, and what good if any our photos did.

In instances where we do agree to work for free, please have the courtesy to follow-up and let us know how things went. A little consideration will go a long way in making us feel more inclined to take time to provide additional images in the future. We hope that the above points help elucidate why the relevant photographer listed below has sent you to this link. All of us are dedicated professionals, and we would be happy to work with you to move forward in a mutually beneficial manner.

Text by Tony Wu. So eloquently, but more importantly, so gently yet firmly phrased. Thank you for this wonderful service to photographers! Much appreciated! My 15 years of experience says the free client will only call you for the free work.

The first job you do for someone sets a precedent. After reading your post we feel lucky to be not professionals photographers. The lack of our professional identity allows us to give away all our photos for free with any restrictions with NO copyright. Sharing is caring. Global Nomads: I agree sharing can be constituted as caring. However, photography is how I earn my living and yet I still do a fair amount of work for free but not for nothing. I will choose the causes I want to support and will happily donate time and work towards those causes.

My general advice on working for free is that there are situations where it absolutely makes sense, but as a full-time photographer, you have to be careful to find a balance between paid gigs and non-paid since you have bills to pay. But there is no question that working for free has unexpectedly opened many doors for me.

In terms of providing a service as a photographer, I would never work for free. I have a skill and that skill has a value. You need money to live. Ayesha Malik : I am slightly nervous answering this one because photography can be a career path for people, their way to survive in this world, and they should absolutely get paid for all they have to offer. On that note, yes, I would work for free, under certain circumstances. To me, some experiences are worth so much more than any paycheck will ever offer.

If someone told me they could provide me with the tools and access needed to pursue a project only if it was the kind of project that would keep me awake at night , but they could not pay me for it, I would easily say yes. It is safe to assume such chances do not come along all that often. Ed Thompson : I help my mum in the garden. Yana Paskova : Nearly never. Giordano : Yes. But they are none of your concern, as well as the photographers who decide to work for them.

I learned it the hard way, but the important thing is that I did learn it. So, instead of ranting over those who charge little or nothing for photography, focus on your work and never stop honing your skills.

They are your clients and the people you should focus on. Leave your thoughts and experiences in the comments below. Dunja Djudjic is a writer and photographer from Novi Sad, Serbia. You can see her work on Flickr , Behance and her Facebook page. It might be true for actual professional photographers in a corporate world.

But how about those who are trying to get up there? You need to pass the small local businnesses first, who are all slowly getting used to free photographers and their mediocre work. They, indeed, are no threat to professionals, but in my opinion, they do harm the ones that are trying to grow. Frankly, I had more problems with this when it comes to translation and writing those are my primary areas after all. I just think we should aim to cooperate with them. The author clearly never took an economics class and knows nothing about supply and demand.

Just great; the world of photography needs a few more fools like this.