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10 Ways to Insult a Professional Photographer

Generally, most people won't want to offend others to avoid trouble. There are, of course, people who are arrogant or with low EQ who may want to stir trouble. Putting them aside, people who aren't in the photography trade may likely do or say some things that may insult. annoy or hurt a professional photographer unintentionally.

What should you not request or say to a photographer?

1. Quote the photographer a low price Every photographer has his value in terms of monetary. A good photographer who puts in lots of effort and does produce quality work will charge higher than others. By quoting a low price, you are undermining the skill and value of the photographer. You are indirectly telling the photographer, "I think you are worth much lesser than you think you do."
2. Approach the photographer to pay you for shooting you This may sound unbelievable but it is happening all the while. The champions are those aspiring models who are doing freelance photo modelling, targeting hobbyist photographers. They usually cannot judge the quality of photographs to see the status of the photographers and they simply do mass spamming, hoping some "photographers" will pay them to do a photoshoot. This means that they spam professional photographers as well.
   
   This has happened to me a few times in a networking website/ forum where I have already indicated in my profile that I will only accept paid assignments and thus people who approach me should set a budget to pay me. The spammers didn't read nor did they bother to use the site's filter while browsing for potential hobbyist photographers who might pay models.
   
   Read: Do you need a model?
3. Ask the photographer to shoot for free to "get portfolio" or "gain exposure" This incredible thing is usually done by friends or some event organisers. This is indirectly telling the photographer that he does not have a sufficient portfolio to showcase to clients. Of course, sometimes the person may mean well, but most of the time, the person is just being too cheapskate or cunning (given the budget by the organiser but want to pocket more money).
   
   Read Cheapo the photography story for details and real-life examples!
4. Ask the photographer to modify another photographer's photographs to build up his portfolio It can be because the original photographer doesn't do skin retouching or doesn't do it properly, the model may seek the photographer's help to edit the photograph. The model may propose to "grant permission" for the photographer to put the final photograph into his portfolio.
   
   Firstly, why would an established photographer want to use another photographer's work and claim its credit? Secondly, it's common sense that the copyright of all photographs belongs to the photographer who captures them, unless, there's a contract to state the ownership of the photographs. Lastly, if the original photograph isn't being edited properly, it may reflect on the skill of the actual photographer and the quality of the photograph, to begin with.
   
   This is indirectly claiming that the photographer is lacking portfolio and has to resort to stealing work.
5. Doubt the photographer's judgement Since most photographers are male, female models (clients) may sometimes doubt the photographers' judgements, ignoring the fact that they have vast experience.
   
   Therefore, some female models may not trust the male photographer's taste in a certain aspect, such as choice of outfit or styling.
6. Doubt the photographer's ethics One common doubt from clients is the number of photographs. Some clients will try hard to find out the number of photographs that the photographer can capture during his past events to make an "estimation" or indirectly force the photographer to keep up with the "pace" for their photoshoots.
   
   The quantity of photographs will depend on various factors during the photoshoot. If the photographer were to give the clients an "average number", the clients may use it to pin against the photographer if the actual day's number falls below the "estimated number", thus accusing the photographer of cheating.
   
   For male photographers, female clients or models may also be warier of them since there are incidents of perverts holding the cameras. It's very hurtful to a male professional photographer to be doubted in this way although he has a solid portfolio and reputation.
7. Collaboration without providing full details Photographers, hair & makeup artists and models may sometimes work together to create some artwork. The collaboration is known as TFCD shoot. Unfortunately, some of the team members may be too full of themselves and thus not cooperate well during the planning phase. It may be partly due to their past experiences of working with hobbyist photographers who don't follow rules. The role of a photographer is supposed to oversee everything but people are beginning to show disrespect to photographers unintentionally since they know nothing about doing a professional shoot, which will likely result in reducing the quality of work.
   
   The most common problem that occurs is the model not showing the wardrobe (when the wardrobe is to be provided by the model) to the team. Somehow, a few minutes of effort to snap the photographs of the outfits seem like taking their lives away. The newbie and spoiled models' mentality is that the most important thing during the shoot is their faces and thus the wardrobe doesn't and that they think they have extremely good fashion sense. Eventually, there may be problems like the model cannot find the outfits just before leaving her house for the shoot or she brings the wrong outfit due to miscommunication. There are also chances that the outfit, whether in terms of colour or design, does not suit the shooting location or mood. I've also experienced models telling me they couldn't fit into the outfit right before the photoshoot.
8. Tell the photographer no editing of photographs is needed I get to meet other photographers occasionally. The so-called experienced photographers who have done actual day wedding shoots for my friends always sound confident and are willing to exchange knowledge with me. Most of them tell me that they can actually return the photos immediately after the shoot but my friends do wait for months for their photographs eventually. This shows that most experienced professional photographers won't be able to deliver the photographs immediately because there is always some post-production work to be done after the shoot. No one is perfect. Lighting and distance change constantly during an event and I haven't heard of any photographer who can nail every photograph perfectly at every single click. Besides, every photographer has his own set of setting for his photographs to deliver his style.
   
   Now, back to the topic of editing the photographs. Some clients want the photographs almost immediately. For example, the corporate client may want to showcase the photographs at the end of the few days' events in a slideshow to the guests. I've also got a request from a bridegroom-to-be to deliver the actual wedding day's Gatecrash photographs on the same day for the wedding luncheon. It takes time to filter and process the photographs and these clients who cannot tell the quality of the photographs may request the photographers not to edit the photographs to meet the schedule. If the photographer were to accept the deal just for the sake of the one-time income, all the guests of the event will get to see the raw (unedited) photos. Although the unedited work may already be much better than other people's photographs, the photographer's reputation is at risk by showing photographs that don't represent his actual work.
9. Request to edit the photos for the photographer Image editing software such as PhotoShop can be easily available and some of the clients or models may have had a hand in it before. Some IT or media students have taken a module in school that includes using PhotoShop. I have also met some people who are ex or existing designers who are proficient in the software.
   
   Eventually, these people may request to edit the photographs for the photographer. They are telling the photographer indirectly that their editing skill is equal to or far more supreme than the photographers.
   
   Every photograph's colour, contrast and exposure, together with the actual photography, make the photographer unique. This is why you want to work with the photographer - for the quality of work. For larger photography companies, they may be employing retouchers to do the post-production work, they also have some default settings in place to standardise the photographs to produce the personal style of the photographer or company.
10. Ask the photographer for the RAW files RAW files are different from unedited photographs, although they are also unedited. They are the actual and much larger files that contain more details than JPG. For example, Canon's RAW file format is in ".CR2" and Sony's is ".ARW".
    
    The motive for asking the photographer for the RAW files is of course to edit the photographs. Similar to the above, these people simply think they can do better work than the photographer.

You may be interested in:
- Unreasonable requests for photographers in Singapore
- Misconceptions and Myths in Professional Photography
- Clients from hell (photography services)
- How to tell if someone truly appreciates a photographer's work
- How to offend and piss off models