Why do most photographers fail?

As a professional photographer who has worked in Dubai for nearly 17 years, in the past eight years, I have encountered an increasingly disturbing phenomenon. This undoubtedly stifles the career of many growing photographers, whose career has not even begun. This message is a serious warning to all photographers because they make our business as professionals more difficult.

When customers ask for a job quotation, professionals should quote according to three basic standards of individuals and six standards of commercial companies.

1. time: (a) the time required to reach the main location, (b) the number of locations required, and (c) the time required to set and create a setting and/or complete shooting.

2. Manpower or support. Does he or she need a paid assistant?

3. The type of equipment you need, considering any special equipment you don't have, you must rent it, and so on.

4. How many images are needed. There's a reason this is all uppercase text. Yes, I'm shouting. Every time you click on a photo, you need professional knowledge, such as lighting switching, posture, expression, action guidance and so on. Hire all your expert qualities. There is a charge for each photo.

5. edit. Does the magazine need high-end retouching of pictures? Or just basic color correction, or the artistic talent of the photographer. The price of each photo may be three or four times higher, because most photographers must hire professional retouchers for high-end photos.

6. Right to image. All artists must pay for the right to use their works. If a commercial company wants to put your image on a huge billboard of a national marketing campaign, this image is more valuable than the low-resolution Internet version on his or her website. Make sure you get compensation.

This is the problem; There seems to be a habit that some inexperienced photographers cooperate with customers to provide fixed jobs, but at the end, if the customers ask, they give them all the remaining unedited images.

Dear colleagues, this is one of the biggest business killers you have ever seen. You must stop it at once. The reasons are as follows.

1. You gave up all your stocks. Think of it this way. A customer walked into a supermarket and selected 10 items they really wanted. Then I went to the cashier, turned to the cashier and said, I noticed that you have a lot of apples and oranges, and there are several scratches. I don't think you will sell them. Can you give them to me? The manager won't agree, and you will be laughed out of the store.

2. If the customer doesn't see any value in images and doesn't intend to use them, why does he need them? Please, use your common sense These pictures are very valuable and your efforts will be rewarded.

If it is a business customer, it is even worse. Last week, two business clients asked me for the unedited version of my work. I was shocked. If they don't find new interns to put my photos online or on social media, what do they need my photos for?

When I quoted them the price of extra pictures, they were very unhappy, accusing me of hijacking pictures and demanding ransom from them. I must remind them that there is a clear agreement between our quotation and the number of pictures provided. All unedited photos are not mentioned in the quotation. Then I was told that their last photographer gave them a storage drive to store all unedited images.