Pros and cons of photography work for hire
Looking to hire a photographer for your event? Here are the pros and cons of photography work for hire.
There are many reasons why you may want to hire a photographer, as the term ‘work for hire’ means commissioning someone to produce products for a specific purpose. As the client, you will be responsible for paying the photographer for the work undertaken, and the photographer is tasked with returning photographs of what they were hired to shoot.
Pro’s
There are many pros to photography work for hire, some of these include:
- Capturing beautiful moments at your event
- Taking photos of you and family you rarely see
- Creating bespoke memories that you will always have
- Can deliver digitally or physically, so you can always cherish the memories and create copies where required
Con’s
There are many cons to photography work for hire, some of these include:
- May not deliver exactly what you were after
- Footage has the potential to corrupt
- Delivery may take a number of weeks
- Someone at your event may damage the equipment
Learn to Compromise
One thing you will need to do when looking at the pros and cons of photography work for hire is learn to compromise.
There are hundreds of photographers out there that will perfectly realize your vision for your event, and will take the most beautiful photos you’ve ever seen, and on the other hand there are some photographers that have their own vision, and for their photos to live up to their potential you have to give them creative control over them.
Technology To Help the Cons
Photographers have a large range of equipment to help with some potential cons, such as corrupted footage or slow delivery.
Useful Technology Your Photographer Uses
Some useful technology, thanks to advances in recent years, include:
- Bluetooth camera to phone – for those photos you want to instantly share
- Photo recovery apps – to recover those files that may corrupt
- Cameras with dual card slots – to save photos with and without pre applied coloring
- Lighting – to get those perfect shots regardless of the weather or darkness
- Photo cropping – to get rid of that drunk embarrassing friend from the evening
- Photo enlarging – some cameras such as the Sony A7r4 allow stacking photos, so you can print your wedding photo extra large at full quality
I’m Not Happy With My Photos, What Can I Do?
The thing that most people fail to remember is that you can always ask your photographer to re-edit. Don’t be rude when you ask this, they expect re-edits, but if you’re rude then they can always decline.
You may want to threaten your photographer with legal action if they do not re-deliver what you want, but this is in vain as they have delivered a product for the price paid, so be kind, be courteous and you will get what you’re after.
What Kind of Cameras Will They Use?
Your photographer can use anything from a bridge camera to a drone.
The most popular cameras on the market for shooting events right now are DSLR’s and Mirrorless cameras, examples of these are:
Canon 6D Mark 2 Full Frame DSLR.
Sony Alpha A7r4 Full Frame Mirrorless camera.
Panasonic GH5 Micro Four Thirds Mirrorless camera.
Canon 90D CMOS DSLR.
The difference between the two is that a DSLR uses a mirror within the camera to reflect the image to an optical viewfinder, whereas a mirrorless uses an electronic viewfinder. The image quality does not differ much, but one method is more efficient than the other battery life wise.
What is Full frame, CMOS and Micro Four Thirds?
When looking at the pros and cons of photography work for hire, you want to know about what type of camera your photographer is using.
Full frame, CMOS and MFT refer to the size of the sensor. A full frame sensor will bring the most light in, so is best suitable for indoor events, whereas a CMOS (1.6x zoom to be full frame) and MFT are suited for outdoor well lit events. There are benefits to CMOS and MFT, as they are automatically more zoomed in than other lenses, so you don’t need a large zoom lens to get the shots you are after. This is why most photographers carry 2 cameras, for specific shooting arrangements and conditions.
To Conclude
To conclude, the pros and cons of photography work for hire are listed above, with advice on learning to compromise and also explaining some of the technology behind the cameras to help settle your nerves.
Based on all of the information, and weighing up the pros and cons of photography work for hire, we would very much recommend a photographer for your event, because the pros severely outweigh the cons in this instance.
