Essential The Official Photography Thread
- Thread starter wutang512
- Start date
Shot a small backyard wedding
Tommy Gibbs
Superstar
had the dog in a tux 
. Dope pics!!
. Dope pics!!
@Kamikaze Revy with you being a working videographer/cinematographer do you watch all these new release videos as entertainment? Also with tech being so cheap and competition being so high has your business been affected?
Black Excellence
All Star
Honestly any modern mirrorless camera will do. For food you don't need a high megapixel camera so you don't even have to waste money on the flagships like the Z9 or A1ii.
honestly any camera made in the past 10 years you'll be fine. I'd just cop a mirrorless and get a macro lens like 100mm
Tommy Gibbs
Superstar
Film making, music, and videos games are my biggest passions. I watch content daily and really study a lot of cinema. I watch a ton of the latest and greatest as well as old stuff. It's what I love and it never feels like some kind of chore to do for business sake. I'm 100% doing what I love for a living.
You're question about tech being cheap and competition being high is a great one and I could dedicate a full hour long podcast on discussing it.
I think we're in very interesting times with the industry being so easily accessible along with all the unknowns of AI.
In my line of work, I deal primarily with non-profit organizations that want to film testimonials and presentations as well as small business that are looking for advertising content.
I have a lot of competitors in the video production world that I'm cool with and we share experiences all the time.
What I'm seeing is the real competition is in people curating their portfolio, polishing their communications on social media and their website, and really being selective with who they work with. I see the most competition in the low budget market (which in my experience has been music videos and solo-preneurs that want some social media content to look cool and get likes and views). It's the classic "race to the bottom" when it comes to pricing for these types of clients. They don't put the value on the content itself because they have an iPhone and feel like you showing up with your camera and lights is really no different.
Where I've personally seen the most success is in focusing on larger budget clients. For a general reference, I don't leave the office for less than $2,500 with projects on average costing $5,000. I've found when you start working at that level, the client's priority is their own time, the content itself almost doesn't matter. They have an expectation that when they're paying that much they are paying for the freedom to do other things that are more important than being involved in a video and that to them is almost priceless. That's the space I like to work in.
From time to time you'll still hear someone say they can do this and that with AI and a smartphone, but I can almost guarantee (at least in my experience) is that is coming from a person that doesn't really value your skill set to begin with and shouldn't even be the client you're speaking to.
So yes there's competition, but I've sharpened my focus over the years and learn to deal with my ideal client 90% of the time.
I have pushed a TON of "business" away when the conversation doesn't pass the smell test. I've created a few videos explaining how people can create marketing videos on their own, and when I see a client isn't for me, I typically smile and tell them something like "honestly, I don't think you need to hire anyone for this project. I'm confident this would be within your own skill set. Let me send you a couple links with some recommendations of what you can do on your own at no cost to you other than your time".
Allen Poe
All Star
If you don't mind me asking, for a $2500 project, how much shoot time is typically involved? How long spent editing?
I don’t mind at all. I think pricing is a major challenge for everyone especially early on.
$2,500 is typically my half day rate which I consider 5 hours. For the right project I might let that go beyond 5 hours. All my work is either testimonials (typically talking head and b roll) or commercial ads. My editing time is usually 5 - 20 hours depending on the complexity of the video.
I used to charge $150/hour but then clients wanted to haggle and argue about how long they think it SHOULD take me. For shoots it was a nightmare. I would quote the hourly rate and how much time I needed and they would argue that they don’t have that much time on their schedule to commit and would try to force me to do 5+ hours of work in 2 hours. Once I went the half day and full day rates those conversations pretty much went away.
Now, to pull back the curtain completely, I hardly ever break down the rate to clients. I end up quoting them a project rate but internally I calculate that project rate based on my estimation of half day and full day rates.
What I've seen often is that people will struggle with the idea of charging more for their service because they think no one out there will pay it.
I was blessed to have a high level client pull me aside one day back when I started and tell me that my pricing was going to put me out of business. At the time, we landed the client through a friend of a friend and the client was basically throwing us an opportunity to test us out. We did the shoot for $600. When the client told us the pricing was going to put us out of business I got scared and thought we priced it too hight; Instead he told us it was way too low and that companies doing our level of work for them in the past charged them several thousand. He went on to explain if big clients already have the expectation that quality work costs a lot and you quote them a low number, it doesn't matter how good your work is, they're going to assume you aren't as good as the more expensive option.
So the question I get most of the time is "how do I increase my prices? How do I offer more value so that people are willing to pay more?"
For me, the answer was take the time to do everything correctly; What I mean by that is a proper production should have pre-production, production, and post-production phases. Most people just quote via email, agree to a shoot date, and edit. Today, my productions start with a zoom or in person meeting to discuss what the clients wants and why they want it (what their goals are). I take the time to listen and offer recommendations to achieve their goal and set expectations. I don't send quotes in an email; I send a full proposal presentation that breaks down who we are, why other people have chosen us, it includes an introduction video, some client testimonials about us, and then I get into breaking down their project scope. The last page of the proposal has the price and our terms of service. To move forward they have to sign that document and pay a 50% deposit. Once they sign and pay, I schedule a meeting with them to begin pre-production (site visits, messaging, rough shot discussions, schedule limitations, ward robe, participants, etc.). I then put all that information into a production book that I present to the client that includes every detail you could imagine to walk them through the shoot. After the shoot, my turnaround is 2 weeks MAX. They look at it, (99% of the time I don't get any edit requests because I'm so thorough with my pre-production) they tell me they love it and I send the invoice via Quickbooks (no cash app or paypal- why? because Quickbooks organizes all my income and expenses but also because it's another layer of perception for the client that they are working with a more serious business and not "homie with a camera and a gimbal starving to take anything to make ends meet).
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its crazy how expensive cameras are still. I bought my r7 for 2000 cdn and its still 2000 cdn 3 years later.
Tommy Gibbs
Superstar
A camera I just bought in April has not gone up $400 more for the body when I checked it this morning.
shot a wedding this past weekend, 28mm 1.4 and 85mm f2 only lenses i use all on a canon r7
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