What Photographers do besides taking pretty pictures?

I sometimes get asked by clients if I could give them a significant discount just because they don`t need many portraits, or only want to shoot for 30-40 minutes. Clearly, this question comes from the lack of information as to what Photographers do besides releasing the shutter on their camera.

The photo shoot is just the tip of the time involved, and a Photographer spends most of the time before and after the shoot when working on an assignment.

• A good Photographer invests a lot of time in researching for the upcoming shoot, working out a shot-list, or at least pre-visualizing the main ideas, shots, lighting setups.
• Preparing equipment for the shoot - this is the most annoying part for me, however, it is very important, and requires my full attention.
• Loading the equipment into the car and getting to the location of the photo shoot.
• Finally, the photo shoot! (it can be 10 minutes, all other parts or most of them will remain the same nevertheless).
• Getting back from the photo shoot location.
• Editing, post-production:
  - downloading the images onto the computer;
  - copying the images to the backup location;
  - weeding out bad (whatever it means for each Photographer) shots;
  - making sure the color and exposure is correct in the rest of the images;
  - finalizing, resizing;
  - submitting the images: burning a disk or uploading to a website, shared folder (I am using DropBox to make this part easier and quicker for everyone);
  

All this varies from one Photographer to another and the post-production stage can be longer or shorter depending on the Photographer`s style and skills. And if Photography is a Business and not just a hobby, one have to always remember not to waste the time, resources and energy that could have been spent on growing their business.



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