Reasons To Hire a Professional Photographer

I put this on Facebook awhile back, and I think it bears repeating. There are alot of people that question why they should have a professional photographer, when it's just as easy to run into your local walmart or department stores and have them done. Hopefully this will clear up some of the reasons why! :) This is a compilation of several different articles.


Average One Hour Portrait Session With Professional - What you pay for:
-Travel to the Session
-Setup and Preperation
-actual taking of the photos
-load images on computer
-back up images
-2-5 hours photoshop time, processing, editing, cropping, etc
-2-3 hours talk to client, anwser questions, recieve order and payment, place order, recieve order, verify and check order, package order, and deliver order.
Your photographers job starts before your session, and definatly doesnt end after the photo taking is done.

Wedding Photography
A wedding photographer does many hours of planning before the actual wedding. Add to that ending up with between 1000-2000 photos to sort, process, and enhance.When looking at the wedding photographers price, please consider the time and work involved. Again, its not just the time it takes to take the photos! There is so much more involved. That spectacular portrait hanging over the fireplace? It did NOT come off the camera that way.

Expertise and Cost of Doing Business
Lets be honest - the camera alone is expensive. Then there is the cost of the education. Then the cost of software, editing programs, and everything used to process photos. Lets not forget - props, backdrops, batteries, tripods, memory cards. Plus the expertise - posing people is a skill all by itself! Plus the knowledge of how to meter and use light, how to judge a background, and the important knowledge of color.

The Chain Store Photo Studio
Now to anwser the question of why these places can work for cheap. We have covered the basics of what the professional photographer offers. When you go to one of these places that takes your photo in 20 minutes and processes them almost as quickly - you get what you pay for. Most of their photographers have no experience, they are just taught to point and shoot. You get a cookie cutter scene and the same 5 minute processing that every single other person that walks in the store recieves. No personal attention, no tailored photos. You get what they give and that is that. And after that cheap entrance package, notice how EXPENSIVE their options are for their poor quality photos. The point of these studios is to get you in the store, take your pictures, and for you to spend 200 elsewhere in the store. Obviously people are catchin on as walmart recently had to close 500 studios for lack of funds!

The Real Deal
Personal professional photographers are just that - professionals. No different from a doctor or a mechanic or a lwayer. They take the time to know the family, they are there capturing milestones, and they become a friend. Maybe we need to look at it this way - a pair of scissors cost $1.50 at the drugstore, but for that special event, we bet you'd rather have a hairdresser!