Why Are Freelance Photographers Expensive?

Hiring a freelancer photographer can seem overwhelming and expensive. You need to do research, contact the ones you shortlisted individually and ask for quotations.

Very often you will find that the photographer will not give you a quotation up-front, but will instead start asking about your budget. In reality, the photographer is trying to gauge what is the maximum amount he or she can charge you without you going elsewhere. It is not uncommon that different clients pay very different prices for similar jobs by the very same photographer. The reason this happens is simple, most photographers spend less than 30% of their time doing actual photography, so they try to maximize every opportunity for income.

You may be asking yourself if this is true then what are photographers doing with the majority for their time. Since most freelances don't have any staff or maybe an assistant, the majority of the time going to looking for new clients, preparing photoshoots, invoicing, preparing quotations, retouching (yes, many photographers do their own retouch), etc, basically all the things a business needs to run, except all are done by a single person. Really, it is no wonder that pricing is high. Being a freelance photographer can be overwhelming.

At 360Refinery, we have transparent prices that are the same for everyone, and we are able to do this because we provide a service to photographers by optimizing operations and helping them save a lot of time per photoshoot, and let them spend more time doing what they do best, take photos, this allows us to get great savings, that we pass to our clients, and so we can provide beautiful photos at a good price point with straightforward semi-automated management.