How to find a good photographer.
How do you decode all of their claims?
How do you really know if they are any good?
What does Award Winning Photographer mean?
Lots of photographers have won awards. We won an award last week for winning the ‘dads’ race’ at the school sports day.
Obviously, our recent award is not relevant to photography, so, your ‘award winning’ photographer needs an award that’s relevant to your requirements. The photographer may have won an award for wedding photography, that is not much use to you if you require great product photography, in addition because styles are continually changing an award-winning style from 5 years ago could look very old fashioned today. So, ask the photographer when they won their awards and what were the awards for.
Price.
As with everything in life ‘you get what you pay for’. Don’t simply buy on price. Bad photography can ruin your web site, make your staff look awful and worst of all, show you and your company in a bad way. At the time of writing a good photographer will be charging about £500 - £800 a day, however, always ask for a fixed price for the whole project, then there are no nasty surprises.
Insurance.
You must make sure that your photographer has both Public Liability insurance and Professional Indemnity insurance. Don’t commission anyone who does not have insurance.
Consistency.
It is very easy for anyone to put their best twenty head shots on to a web site. However, those top twenty pictures may have taken ten years accrue. You need someone who is able to deliver top quality images time after time. If you commission someone to shoot 20 head shots in a day, they all have to be top quality. Ask to see a complete shoot from a previous client.
Testimonials.
Don’t rely on the photographers’ web site for testimonials. They could be made up. Take a look on LinkedIn and Google. They are far more reliable platforms for testimonials, you can then message the person giving the testimonial, to check it out.
What does being a member of a Professional Body indicate?
Some Photographers are Members of a Professional Body, the organisations have names like BIPP, MPA, SWPP, AOP. They also have a qualification process. The three main qualifications are Licentiateship, Associateship and Fellowship. These are quite old-fashioned names that indicate the level of competency the photographer has reached within the organisation. However, some fantastic photographers do not belong to these organisations or have decided not to gain qualifications.
