Hello all,
My girlfriend and her family recently booked a photographer for a shoot in a small studio closeby to them (Northern Ireland). They had seen her photography online and wanted to hire her for a shoot, shoot was booked online and a deposit paid. The photographer didn’t give a phonecall to discuss options, ideas, or anything about what she may have planned for the day of shooting, now this will come back later too.
So alls good and they get to the photoshoot today, get to the building, welcomed into the small studio, no contracts to sign, no discussion of ideas for what they wanted done today, just straight into shooting. Shoot goes ahead, they all take their photos and the family members dart off pretty quickly, photographer hands my girlfriends mum a booklet.
So they take it home and look at the booklet which then mentions the pricing, and that the photoshoots will not be given in any digital form and no loose copies, you can only buy framed prints with the cheapest of her range being a desk framed 7x5 image for £95. With some packages being as high as £2499. Also no mention of pricing on her website either.
Am I right in saying this all seems a bit bait and switch? Any clients I have ever worked with have had a consultation meeting or call before I take on what they want, aling with a discussion about payment and delivery.
It’s not bait and switch, it’s a classic old school business model that hasn’t changed from the film photo days when the only option was to receive prints. Nowdays it seems regressive and ugly but it’s still around. Sounds like they paid for a pretty high end photographer, and didn’t look at what they would get for the money. They only paid the ‘sitting fee’ which doesn’t give you anything in return unless you buy prints. They might have accidentally booked something much more high end than they can afford and I don’t think there is much recourse.
Doesn’t help to suggest they should have asked more questions before booking sorry! Only option is to negotiate with the photographer, be clear they can’t afford large framed prints and see if you can get a couple unframed 8x10s or something at a moderate price. The photographer might accept since they won’t get anything else out of it.
Honestly I would be surprised if the photographer had no options for digital images. Obviously everyone is different. But all the high end photo groups I am personally in offer digital single images. They aren’t magically cheap, obviously. But you can split the cost with more people and frankly, they shouldn’t be cheap anyway. It isn’t sustainable for the vendor.
The catch being you’ll just end up with a worse result anyway, if anyone wants to print that digital out. I’ve yet to see a client of mine print on their own and get an image that didn’t look like shit.
in the old days, this was clear for the customers… and most got a set of prints included in the shoot, with the option to buy more or where at least told beforehand how it worked.
Businesses should be more clear with customers but ultimately it’s up to the customers to ask questions if they don’t know.
For example if someone goes into a restaurant and start ordering off pictures in the window and didn’t see any pricing. Then complain about pricing when the bill arrived, who’s fault is it?
There’s multiple opportunities to ask as well.