For hiring a professional photographer, the notation of spending could be hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on what is your purpose or requirements but before hiring you need to know “how to choose a professional photographer”, in age where everyone with cameras call themselves a professional photographer but it’s you who need to choose true professional photographer who can make your photos or ads worth of money you spend.
So this is three tips from Porfyri Brisbane Photography to hire a professional photographer.
- Interviewing the Photographer
Before hiring a professional photographer you need to interview the photographer by asking several questions related to your purpose and this is how you will get to know his abilities and views regarding your requirements and purpose of the photoshoot and this is how you can utilize his abilities for your work whether it’s for business/events or individual.
So you can simply add this question to your list which will be very helpful.
- What is your photographic style?
- What kind of equipment do you use?
- What is your experience level?
- Do you require a written contract?
- Are you properly insured?
Transparency
You might be thinking why it is important to keep it transparent but let me clear you, it’s very important to have a transparent discussion between you and photographer because it will reflect in your work procedures, if you don’t keep your plan/purpose in front of him then you will face several problems during the work.
- Always explain what your aim is and what you need.
- How you will be using his photos.
- What’s the location?
- Whose photo you want to shoot (person | product | business)
Once you explain him everything regarding your purpose of photoshoot he will start explaining you as per your requirement and this is the main phase where you will get to know his experience, his thinking, his confidence and this will give you a complete overview of the photographer and then finally you can make your decision.
Portfolio
It is very important to check the portfolio of a photographer before hiring because it reflects his work and you can understand whether he is capable to provide you with the desired results that you are planning to have.
It is also very important to know he has real talent because many photographers edit their every picture and the natural feel is being lost so always hire a photographer who has good knowledge about photo editing but uses only when it is required.
Insurance
Eventually, a professional photographer always carries business insurance with them, which is often required by their clients and it is mostly required by companies/events/organizations clients because insurance reduces the liability for the company and no one knows the future so before anything goes wrong you should hire a photographer who has insurance with them.
Do you have backups?
Now it is very-very much important to ask a photographer whether he has a backup with him, because if any of his equipment doesn’t work at the spot it could be very bad nightmare for you so you should hire a photographer who has backup with him and if time is not the priority for you only then you can take a chance with a photographer that doesn’t have backup, but it is good to have photographer who has a good backup with him.
- What is the turnaround time?
Turnaround time is the total time taken from shoot to delivery of files, so some photographer are too quick they can deliver you the unedited photos right away but some photographers need some time between shoot and delivery for original and edited files.
So it is all up to you if time is your priority then go with photographers who can deliver you the work quickly and even if time is not the priority you need to set a deadline so that you don’t get carried away with too long delivery time.
For business, it is a very tight schedule so it is good to go with a photographer who can work for you quickly and provide you fast delivery of files so that your marketing team can start their work.
- Understanding Photography Pricing/Licensing
Now here comes one of the most major concern and many people don’t actually care about it because they actually don’t know how important it is to understand the Licensing of photography.
When it comes for events like wedding photography, senior portraits, etc then in such situation the photographer provides you print or digital file of photos but it has some hidden components that are licensing so in such situation photographer generally provides a personal use license and owns the copyright which is similar to buying a song from an online media where we get an extended license of personal use and a buyers can’t use such media commercially.
When dealing with business or organization the licensing is bit different because here it is made more explicit and this costs more than an ordinary licensing of a photo because photographer are very well aware of the value of commercial use so generally there are two options obtaining rights buyout or WFH (work-for-hire) but it is not that simple WFH costs very less compared to buyout so photographers avoid this type of agreements.
