3 Common Misconceptions from Photo Buyers

These misconceptions come up because most photo buyers work with students/hobbyists and amateur photographers and not a professional photographer.

A professional photographer may seem much more expensive, but their many reasons why they are which I'll explain in another blog post. On this blog post I'll explain the common misconceptions that are caused from the other non-pro photographers that allows photo buyers to push them around to such low costing photography gigs and other demands can cost a lot of money to pros such as the following...

1. All Rights or Print Rights...
• All rights, a professional photographer will not give this away without a cost and generally a cost to all, but equal ownership of the copyright. The misconception here is non-pro photographers will give this free, at no cost. Just remember, a photographer creates a copyrighted image automatically when they hit that shutter button on their cameras and they own the rights 100% (unless its work-for-hire). 
• Another misconception is when you the buyer pays a photographer for a job you assume you are getting the rights to use the photos in any way you feel like, this is completely incorrect. You pay the photographer for their time to create the images, basically the cost of labor. When photographers create an image its just like creating a product. If you paid someone to build something unique and artistic you may assume ownership, but most professional photographers they have in their terms of service that you are hiring freelance not work-for-hire services. So any images the photographer create will be the photographer's ownership in copyright, automatically. Also if the terms of service stats the photographer retains copyright, they retain this unless they have another contract stating they are not.
• Print rights. I understand the reasoning behind photo buyers wanting the print rights, to save a lot of money. Just keep in mind what you are losing from doing all of the printing on your own or even hiring another source/print lab to do it for you, you will lose the artist/creator's opinion and expertise on how the prints should look like which may seem nothing, but trust me as a photographer myself I know a bad print can be done from a good print. There are many different types of printing paper, and there is tons of different methods to printing. Many pro photographers will know how to provide a great quality print of their own work.
2. Hiring a Non-Professional Photographer
• Just in case you're unsure what I mean by non-professional photographers I mean student photographers, amateurs, and hobbyists. 
• You are hiring individuals who generally couldn't care less about the industry and respect towards professional photographers. 
• When hiring a non-pro photographer you will be risking everything normally, or at least taking a huge risk of not being happy. Of course this could happen with a professional but a professional has a lot more to lose, a non-pro photographer has nothing to lose. Is this worth saving a few hundred or a thousand dollars, you may still say yes, but if its your wedding where its just planned to be your only wedding in your entire life... worth the risk then? I understand this would depend how important your needs to have a perfect experience with photo services, a professional that has reputation to protect and grow, plus has an official business will give you a much better chance in receiving your services in perfect condition.
3. Research, Research, and Research some more! 
On hiring a professional photographer. Not all pro photographers are the same. This is a common misconception from buyers. Just because the buyer is used to one way with one photographer the buyer assumes its the same for the next photographer which is completely untrue, some photographers may work similar fashions but all of them work differently. Especially when working with a non-pro photographer and then working with a pro photographer as they are both very different beasts. The differences are literally everything, from the style of the photos and quality of photos to even the terms of service and business models to customer service styles. Such as some offer print rights, and some don't. Some include digital copies of your photos with a watermark logo, some don't. It's just how it is, you may ask to change some terms with some photographers and some will say "okay" depending the job they're getting and some won't.

How to Choose the Right Photographer for your Wedding Day. (Series Post) - Part 1

This is a series blog post where I'll be discussing the important factors of selecting the right photographer for your wedding day.

How do I know the differences of a good photographer 
and bad photographer?

Quality

As for the quality side, there is no plain or simple answer because what is good or bad to myself is not the same good or bad to you. You'd have to know what you like in imagery that is perfect for you on your wedding day. You may need to look at tons of wedding photos from local to world-wide photographers to find out what style do you like in photography. Not every photographer shoots in a certain type of style, some shoot in a unique style some shoot a type like photojournalistic wedding photos to traditional portraiture. Some can shoot all types, or certain types, or even some would prefer just 1 type like photojournalistic wedding photographers.

Important Facts: Hiring a Commercial Photographer

1. Equipment: When hiring a photographer equipment can or cannot tell you how well the images will come out. Such as if any person who buys $10,000 worth of photography equipment does not mean they will produce very high quality images. It only means they have the opportunity to create high quality images. You will need to know based from the portfolio images presented that is the quality you want to hire for, so you will need an experienced eye to help you hire the right commercial photographer. 

2. Education: Honestly in the photography industry we have “officially” educated and the “non-officially” educated, both are irrelevant because it comes down to skills shown in a portfolio. It is only relevant when photographers hire other photographers for some photography studios. 

3. Rights: 

                  a. When hiring a commercial photographer it is understandably assumed you’d “own” the images as you hired them to do a job. Unfortunately that isn’t true unless it is clearly mentioned in a written contract before the production of the photos. But in most cases is you hire for the labor and production of the photos and then talk about rights. Automatically when a photographer clicks the button on their camera they own the copyrights to that photograph. That photograph, either worthless or worthy images, is considered intellectual property (IP). Just like every other uniquely designed pieces in the world, like car designs, buildings, a person’s face, a logo, or sketch and many, many other types of art. Some photographers could care less about their IP, but the serious photography businesses in the photography industry takes rights very seriously when its mishandled especially when it’s their own work being abused.