I work for a small agency/web design company as their main photographer. Well, their only, more or less.
I like my job, for the most part. We’re only a small team of 4-5 people, and we don’t have high status clients per se (mostly builders, roofing companies, medium tech retailers, small beauty brands and the like).
The agency is built with above all speed and efficiency. Basically, a lot of bang for the buck. We invoice the clients per hour, and many of them are used to low prices and very rapid delivery. Run n’ Gun style of shooting is to put it lightly. To have a full day for something is a rare luxury.
Now I find myself needing some advice.
My boss has zoned in on the fact that he thinks our production and delivery pipeline is too long. Specifically the editing and delivery part.
We shoot in RAW for photo and V-log for video. He wants the customers to see pictures “right away”, and preferably a short edit sample of video as well. Right away can mean doing it while travelling from the shoot, basically. He also wants everything (all files) uploaded to Google Drive after very shoot regardless of end time, and insists on giving all clients access to all files, regardless of their knowledge of raw or log-formats.
Naturally, we’ve had complaints from clients who look at the unedited raw material and thinks it’s ugly/unfinished. I totally get this as most of them do not know anything about post processing, and can hardly take a decent mobile phone photo. Everything we deliver post edit and finished is usually praised and well received, especially the ‘cinematics’, colors, visuals etc.
Now, my boss has discovered the DJI Pocket 3. He believes it’s the holy grail to our problems. He imagines it will take our projects from - for example, 3-6hrs (which can be a project for us, which would be including travelling to location, set up, shoot, editing, delivery etc) to 1-3hrs. So, my role would be to go out, capture video with the Pocket 3, and chop it up in my phone. No edits, no processing and bam, case closed.
As a professional photographer this… honestly makes me feel bad.
I already combat the hectic, “fast food” way of making productions as high quality as we can, even on low budgets. I break my back to make a company selling renovations or cleaning services look like a high end set commercial, all remote, often solo, with minimal planning and guidelines.
My boss is not a photographer, he has no knowledge of the field outside of being a pretty skilled drone pilot. If he’s with me on a shoot he’ll use a gopro to capture “usable material”, which he imagines can be mixed with a Lumix S5iix straight out of camera. When we sometimes have disputes about the quality and editing times, he’ll say most clients would be happy with the shorts he creates from the gopro and drone in YouCut on his phone. I think he believes this, but I also know a lot of our clients who look at it and say “that’s nice” before waiting for the final product are probably just that, being nice.
So - long story short (sorry, guess I needed to vent a little): how do I talk to my non-photographer boss about all of this?
Am I being artsy, difficult and pretentious?
Is it wrong of me to want to have more time on shoots, more time in editing and use “proper gear” for focus, lighting, stabilisation etc?
Is he wrong for thinking that a Pocket 3 can replace a camera on the level of S5iix or FX3? Am I wrong for thinking it can’t, at least fully?
Maybe most importantly - do you, as experienced photographers and videographers, have any thoughts or arguments I can bring to what I imagine might be a difficult subject to discuss?
My boss is a nice enough person (if very stubborn), I don’t hold any grudges and I’d like to keep my job (at least for now), but I also feel more and more constrained and limited by the mentality and stress. We are absolutely not a Peter McKinnon outfit or high end studio working with RED cameras, 1000$ lenses or huge sets, but… I don’t know. I kind of got into this wanting to make something more than “fast content”.
Thanks for reading 📸❤️
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Some people just are dumb this way, usually comes with being very stubborn. This sort of attitude is so deeply rooted into personality, that its nearly impossible to make it much better, especially if they are old enough to be a boss already. Maybe, maybe if he starts to see you as some ultimate source of information straight from the Gods, he might learn to listen to you more, but dont expect him to change.
Even if you manage to convince him one time, he will most certainly come up with some new idiotic thing he acts the same with. If you manage to do it 1000 times, maybe then he will start to listen you a tiiiiiiny bit more.
Even if they are nice in general, i would never want to work with someone like this, especially them as my superiors. If i were you, i would start searching for a new job :/
I’ve had somewhat similar problems in the past and some people take the advice of wanting to use the highest quality, some just don’t.
However, what I’ve found that works for me is looking at the bigger picture of what the content is for. You’ve said that the clients aren’t high status, so what are they using the content for? Social media? Website?
For social media, if it’s getting compressed and sucked of all quality that a high end camera would do, are you just giving yourself more work that a pocket 3 could bash out quickly and the content to be lost to the algorithm within a week? The algorithms love the lower end content now anyway - it’s an absolute disaster when I shoot a well it, composed, edited photo or video for someone just to do a phone photo and get more traction than the camera stuff, it’s becoming draining. Also if it does do better, your boss & clients will be happier all because of what it was shot on. Tbh a new iPhone would probably do the same thing with a DJI phone gimbal.
For website I would push for the better quality stuff, it’s longer lasting and should be a showcase. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that.
But “fast content” is what your boss wants. He doesn’t want to spend extra time and money to give out a product that’s of a quality that customers can’t even appreciate, when they would have appreciated an expedient return more.
I’d explain the tradeoff between quality and speed, and help your boss understand where he wants to draw that line. Sounds like he’d be happy with jpegs and a preset.
Yeah, it sucks, but while you’re doing this, you can look for a job that will better suit the type of work you really want to do.
The only problem with what the boss wants is that as the OP said, customers complained about that level of quality.
I completely agree that the boss doesn’t seem to understand the relationship between time and effort put into the final product and final quality. Based on the fact that customers have complained it does seem like the boss is definitely pushing to be too much towards the get it done and get it out the door, okay is good enough end of the scale.
This is definitely a case where the old good fast cheap pick two saying comes into play.
Yeah, and this is part of my worries - there is an outspoken will and direction to make “better stuff that we can charge more for” in the company, but also faster and faster.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed things work out, eventually. Thanks for responding!
Howdy! I have substantial experience in a situation like this as this was the last year of my career.
I’ll give you the TLDR first: looking for a new employer or building yourself up for freelance if this style of work isn’t for you.
My boss was the exact same, wanting things done fast and cheap, no actual video production experience, and cared more about his sales pitch (which he wears a $250 suit from Macys for) and literally hounding clients for Google reviews than the product we were creating. It’s exhausting from a creative standpoint and annoying from a client stand point knowing you can produce good work but being forced to create mediocre non-sense because hey, roofing company #1248 needs it for social NOW (the content will drive $0 in sales and be viewed by 14 people).
I’ve also notice a large uptick in sales/marketing/no production/non-creative experience (and no, basic drone shots are not creative by themselves) guys making web/content studios that cater to the absolute bottom tier clients because it is easy to make a quick buck. To put it bluntly, they’re annoying and a dime a dozen.
If you want to avoid freelance, chase after production houses/studios you actually enjoy work from, reach out to other photographers to shadow or assist and overall don’t let someone like that stifle your creativity and make you feel jaded, it’s not a fun time.
This was heartening and helpful 🙏 Thanks for giving a perspective towards the creative side, because just like you said, some days you stand there with roofing company nr. 47 and just wonder what you’re doing with your time.
Start saving all of the client info because when this company plummets below cellphone level of quality - you should quit and take over the media needs of clientele directly on your own.
If I have a website guy, under no circumstances would I trust em to also be a good photog, videog, a chef, and a barber - that website isn’t gonna up up to par.
A tough lesson for creatives is when they realize that many businesses don’t need visual quality, or advanced to be profitable.
The role (generally speaking) of the in-house creative is to create the collateral that drives sales goals…and if customers are buying from a flat, inauspicious design vernacular – don’t rock that boat.
The new hire, or smaller cog isn’t in an informed position to make the case that the design language that creates customers should be swapped for a design language that satisfies artistry.
Let your customer feedback/market research bear that out. Not the opinion of the unsatisfied creative.
There are always tiers to clients, and if OP’s employer is going for lower end ones - they honestly do not care about quality. Higher end businesses do care about quality, and OP should try to approach those on his own time and make proper money if his current situation dissatisfies him.
i had the same issue with an agency i was working with as a freelancer a few years ago it basically ended with the boss of the agency reducing the prices he is willing to pay and them turning down the quality he still has a lot of clients, but if you want quality and highet levels of content youre in the wrong place i stoped working for him because i couldnt conpromise on my own quality…
Take yourself out of it. This content isn’t for you. It’s for your boss’ clients. If he and they are happy, it really shouldn’t matter to you.
He made his choice, I’d switch from RAW to JPEG and from LOG to NATURAL. Then make a good preset for both of them for the “touch up” and go to town.
Let your creative mind do other projects and make your pride there. Express your concerns, if this still feels bad later down the road I suggest changing company.
Edit: I’d also point out if this is for Social Media then nobody will indeed actual notice. Your videos will maybe be watched for 10 seconds on average and then completely forgotten, your pictures half a second before the users are onto the next - their impression of quality and your impression of quality is very different. Your boss understands this, and so does his clients.