I did a survey to find out the cost for maternity, newborn, kids and family photography in Hyderabad. While there are many wonderful photographers and offer excellent services, many customers felt that the pricing was outside their budget. In this article, I attempt to throw some light on why professional photography can be affordable.
Business of photography:
This is a tough question, because of two contrasting opinions you might get if you ask this to a customer and to a photographer. The business of photography, should be looked at differently – while everyone has to make their profits, the margin of the profits can be debatable.
As a customer, if you come across a well-equipped studio that uses “branded” camera’s, lights and other camera equipment – you may call this professional. True, the quality of the images would also be satisfactory. You pay for the image quality and walk back home and share the pictures with your friends and family.
As a photographer, professional photography will involve many technicalities. The camera, lens, strobes, backdrops, cost of running/owning a studio, salary paid to your team, software costs and other miscellaneous charges all sum up a “package” that you offer to your customers. True, you would hold a certified photography degree, awarded by recognized bodies and got all the experience. This makes sense since you need to make a living from doing what you love to do.
Understand what you are paying for:
As a customer, you can make your choice walking into a studio or hiring a freelancer to do the photography session. As mentioned above, walking into a studio would lead the photographer to charge you quite a bit because of the reasons I have pointed out above. Keep in mind that some freelance photographers will have the ability to set up a home studio as well.
A typical maternity, newborn, kids and family photography session in Hyderabad would cost you in the range of 8k-25k and can even go up depending on the various packages the studio offers. You will get excellent quality images for sure; however could a freelance photographer provided you with a better deal and almost the same quality images?
Take a look at the shot below, 90% of above people felt that this photo was taken in a studio. You can find the truth on @photosbyrushab
Studio cost vs freelancer cost:
As mentioned above, to run a studio there are various costs that need to be considered when pricing the session. Add to that, the studio will also need to pay certain taxes. All in all, as a customer you end up bearing the cost of these “hidden” charges and are provided with your images where none of these things are shown. The only aspect of the image you see is the beautiful moment that is captured. Of course, there are many advantages of taking your shot in a studio as well.
A professional freelance photographer usually works alone and does not uses much gear. These two things itself brings down the cost of the photography session. In addition, you have a single point of contact and need not be dependent on anyone else right from the meeting before the shoot until the time the photos are delivered. Freelance photographers have social media presence as well hence you can see their work and reviews before you take a call. Some freelancers may not “look” professional but the quality of images they provide will be excellent – this is because they know their art inside out and exactly know how the images will be produced after post processing.
You also have the advantage to have the freelance photographer take images in your house or any other location you decide. This makes it convenient because you do not need to travel to the studio. Also, for most maternity and newborn sessions customers usually prefer a place that is comfortable. As with photography studios, there are also some cons for freelance photographers. As a customer, you will need to schedule someone who is trustworthy and friendly to work with.
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