Why private photographers cost more than the studio at the mall

Simple: we're trying to make a profit, both short term and long term

The cost of professional photos is ALL OVER THE PLACE these days. It's really hard to know what you should pay for a set of good portraits. Big chains like Lifetouch/Prestige are working on a large scale and have all the resources and equipment to produce mass quantities of images, but you don't get the personal touch and variety choices you would have with a private photographer. It's more of an "assembly line" sort of system. Newbie photographers and hobbyists may charge lower prices than full-time photogs because they are doing it more for fun than for profit, or don't have the same costs of doing business to cover as someone who is making their living with their camera. Pros who plan on long-term success price themselves to be profitable enough to pay their bills and stay in business.

I, myself, used to work for a big chain corporate-run portrait studio company. They had a great marketing idea to get more people in the door: no sitting fees, and no obligation to buy! And it sure brought in many people that might have thought before that they don't need or can't afford professional portraits. My photography team and I converted many of those customers into regulars who truly cared about getting great photos of their families and would at least sometimes spend a decent chunk of money on a great collection. And even then, the prices were very competitive. That was the goal of the “no sitting fees” marketing strategy: the "upsell." The money you didn't spend on a sitting fee can now be used to buy more portraits.... theoretically.

This company also regularly advertised a ridiculously cheap “special” that they had going at all times. Sure, there was a limit to one “special” per family per promotional period, so you couldn't just come in every day with a different kid and get one amazing shot for $10 over and over. But the “special” really just attracted all the people who only had $10-$20 to spend on pics 4-6 times a year instead of attracting a quality client who really appreciated our work, understood the value of good portraits, and the art of portraiture. They just wanted a deal, didn't really care about the idea of putting your memories on paper... like a book of your life you can re-read over and over so you never forget the best parts.

I'm not trying to knock any of these customers, though. I might have hated getting “Aced” on my sales and felt like the customer I just served was ungrateful for all the hard work I put into their portraits, but looking at it from their perspective, they came there for the deal, and they left with the deal. Good for them for sticking to their guns and not getting upsold, which really is the whole strategy of the studio anyway. I might have even been this kind of customer at one time. But, however, it came back to bite the company in the butt in the end... continue reading to find out how.

As a salesperson, it upset me when someone only spent the bare minimum on their portraits. It hurt my sales average, which is what the company based the bulk of my annual evaluation/raise on. And it upset me as an artist, because while I had to follow a generic posing protocol, I still worked hard to get really great shots for my customers (at least 15-25 unique and beautiful poses and 60 or more total shots in about 30 minutes), and it felt like they were dissing my work if they didn't want to at least buy ONE more pose other than what the cheap promotion offered. I knew my work was worth more than $10.

It ultimately hurt the company, too.

The goal was to upsell, and that didn't always happen. Every time a customer came in and left ONLY purchasing the “special” and not upgrading to a portrait collection, the company lost money. Sure, it was better than someone not coming in at all, I guess. $10 in the bank is better than $0. But I got paid by the hour, and the time I spent on taking the photos, reviewing them with the customer, printing and packaging the portraits cost the company more money than what the customer paid.

For a long time the business was profitable and the went from a handful of studio to over 200 studios across the country within 8 or 10 years. Short term getting more and more new customers through the door and upselling them wherever possible was a decent strategy. But long term, repeat customers got tired of the same old poses over and over. They got bored with going through the entire process of taking 60+ shots on multiple backgrounds and sitting through the whole sales pitch every time just to get the one shot they had saved up their $10 for. The company put too much emphasis on bringing in new clients with “the best deal” vs. trying to target and maintain the right clients and prioritizing their needs which would have been better for long-term success. They mostly ended up attracting the ones who just couldn't afford more. Or if they could, they didn't care enough about it to bother spending more.

The product in a way was almost “too good to be true.” Not for the customers—they got exactly what was advertised, but the company suffered for offering a product that costed way more to produce than they were charging for it. Not a huge surprise, the company declared bankruptcy at least twice and they're now out of business.  

****So why do you pay more for a private photographer? COMMON SENSE: We're not stupid enough to lose money on your business and hope you'll spend more next time (if there is a next time), and then keep offering that money-losing deal over and over again. We are priced to be profitable and sustainable.