How to hire a photographer.

How to hire a photographer.

Bringing on talent, whether on a contract/freelance basis, or for a full time position in your company, can be a daunting task. As with any profession, there are a few ways to ask the question “how to hire a photographer” and you shouldn’t start with the cost. Rule number one, and this will apply to any hiring that your company is doing. You can get rid of applicants or potential interviewees if they’re tight lipped about their specific plans for how they will work with your business. For instance, if you were to hire the Pagosa Creative Company, you’d first receive a full proposal and plan for shooting your product.  We go the extra mile to even include a mood board which will show different scenarios and light conditions that we’d like to replicate for you. 

I can remember years ago for one of my businesses trying to bring in someone for marketing. This candidate didn’t make it into our employ because she could only give extremely vague ideas for what she wanted to do instead of getting granular with it. You shouldn’t except this either. When negotiating with someone that you expect you’ll pay a significant amount in the coming months you should expect that they’ll give you the detailed information that you want. This should come complete with samples of the clients work. If they can’t provide any samples or testimonials it’s safe to assume that you might be their first client. 

This doesn’t mean that you should expect to pay this person less but it means that you should make sure there is a clear contract with specific deliverables in mind. This way you can keep the person accountable and get what you need. You may wind up hiring a brilliant photographer who appreciates the break you’ve just given them and may be inclined to go above and beyond. Fun fact, our first client, we wound up giving them double the photos because we appreciated the work and had a great time working with them. 

Don’t lead with the question how much does it cost to hire a professional photographer. You need to get the photos and it may just be worth it to spend a little extra to get somebody who can shoot to your brand or companies personality, and resonates with it. That being said…

How much does it cost to hire a professional photographer? The answer to this question, like so many, is that it depends. Some photographers will charge you per photo and some will charge per hour. If you’re looking to hire a photographer for a specific shoot such as a product campaign you can expect that you’ll be paying between $25-$125 dollars per photo. For events, conferences, and other day long events, you can expect to pay between $100-$200 dollars an hour. For hourly events its good to let your photographer know how many images you are expecting. Above all, always make sure that you have a proper contract in place so that everybody understand expectations. 

Find a photographer who is willing to go the extra mile for you!

How much does it cost to hire a drone photographer.

Drone photography and drone videography are a whole different animal and you can expect that these specialties will charge a little bit more, even upwards of $200 dollars an hour. There are a couple of caveats here. Firstly, even though this hour charge may seem quite high, it would be pretty rare for your drone operator to be actually in the air for more than an hour. Second, you should find out what type of equipment your potential drone operator is flying. Quite frankly, unless you are hiring a specialist drone pilot, there is a very good chance that you’re going to get only decent images. Because drones are so accessible these days so many people have them, including hobbyists, who may just be trying to make a quick buck. Consumer level drones ARE capable of getting you terrific high quality shots but they require expert pilots and photographers. 

The Pagosa Creative Company employs two types of drones. We utilize an Evolve 2 from Xdynamics, which actually utilizes a Sony mirrorless sensor and professional lenses from Olympus. With this drone you’ll get photos and videos that look like they were taken with a professional camera in a helicopter. It’s pretty wild. We also employ a DJI Mavic Air 2.  In full transparency to our clients we charge different rates for the two different drones. 

This image was actually taken on our DJI Mavic Air 2 at an original 48 mega pixel size. This is good for web use, email, and your social media.

What to look for when hiring a photographer. 

Let’s get into the nitty gritty. There are loads of photographers out there who are trying to earn your business, so how can you distinguish which ones to give your business? I bet that you get at least a dozen emails a month from people saying how much they love your product and would love to shoot it on their next adventure. Here is one simple question you can ask that will reveal 99% of these people as cold, copy and paste, emails. 

How long have you used our products? 

Unfortunately, most people are copy and pasting a cold outreach email to dozens, if not hundreds, of potential prospects every week. When hiring a photographer, it’s nice to go with one who is actually familiar with your product and actually uses it! Of course it’s not essential to go this route but its an added bonus. 

Take a look at your potential photographers portfolio. Take a good long time to review their work and make sure it fits with your brand. If your brand has a warmer tone there are lots of photographers out there who shoot in this style. Style and tone is important for conveying your brands messaging so don’t over look this.

You want to make sure that your potential photographer is adaptable. Does through portfolio have a lot of variation? Are all the shots mostly the same but with different products? Finding a photographer with a large variance in portfolio means they can shoot in many situations. This is something that you want to see. You can extrapolate from this and know that as long as you set up a contract and define the work, you’re going to get what you need.

The last thing to look for when hiring a photographer is communication. Do they respond in a timely manner? Are the responses thought out or does it seem like all they care about is money? If they ask what your budget is before they ask about the work, that’s cause for concern. You want to work with people who respect your time. Gravitate towards potential hires that communicate responsibly and on time. This should translate to getting your work done on time and delivered for when you need it.