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Photography Culture

7 Terrible Reasons to Not Pay for a Professional Photographer

Chris Gampat
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01/19/2022
3 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Tamron 18-300mm f3.5-6.3 Di III-A2 VC VXD for Fuji Review product images 2.21-250s400

Last Updated on 01/20/2022 by Mark Beckenbach

If you’ve ever done photography as a side-gig or as a profession, then you’ve probably heard the excuses why you shouldn’t pay for a photographer All of these reasons have always been terrible. Back in 2010, not too long after I founded this website, I rounded up a few reasons. Then in 2014, I shared more reasons. The year is now 2022 and as much as things change, a lot of them stay the same. Here are some terrible reasons to not pay for a professional photographer.

“I’ve Already Got a Friend with a Camera”

The old saying goes that you’ll pay for a professional photographer, but you’ll pay a lot more for an amateur. And that remains true. This is an excuse I’ve heard before. It’s the idea that you can get good enough photos from a friend with a camera. Amongst the many terrible reasons to not pay for a professional photographer, it will always reflect on you. A professional photographer will find ways to make your image stand out more than anything else out there. They’ll work with you on a unique, creative idea. And ideally, they won’t sit around and capture a scene: they’ll work with you to create one. 

Years ago, professional photographers used to have access and a little bit of gear. That’s still the case today, but as the lower end of the standard has come up, so too has the higher end. We’ve worked to profile these types of photographers in our No Photoshop series. But there are lots more that we’ve talked to as well.

I’ll Just Get the Photos Off Instagram or Google

Instagram and Google are a whole different ball game. If you’re getting a photo off of Instagram, then legally you need to embed it using the HTML code. This is best done on websites of some sort. It’s not like TikTok where videos are ripped off and go anywhere or everywhere. I once talked to a BBQ pitmaster that ripped a photo off of a Blink 182 album cover to promote his own work. 

Here’s the thing: at the end of the day, people know deep down that ripping off images from the web is illegal and wrong. But, they ignore it because they consider it an offense no one will take seriously. So instead, when they get in trouble, they’ll ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. They only end up more being sorry because they got caught in the first place.

“We Can Unsplash the Photos”

If you support Unsplash you’re making an awful decision. We each have something about us that makes us special. When a company forces us to give that up, they exploit you. We’ve even seen a few other photo publications using images from Unsplash. Those photo publications include Photofocus, Shutterbug, support from FStoppers via Medium, DIYPhotography, and others. Speaking of terrible reasons to not pay a professional photographer, these are just awful. 

We find it unethical to not ask professional photographers for permission, licensing the images, or finding more ethical ways of acquiring photos. It’s pretty easy to do. 

I’m an Influencer and I’ve Got a Huge Following, You’ll Be Famous

If anyone ever says this to you, screenshot the images before they delete them. Then run for the hills.

We’re Doing a Trial

Get a contract or create one. Make sure they don’t get to use the photos unless they pay.

We’ll Pay You Free Samples of Our Product

This can sometimes be acceptable. But being paid in brisket won’t pay your bills.

This Is a Charity Event and You Can Use It as a Tax Write Off

I’ve worked with a few non-profits over the years. This is an awful excuse. Non-profits can be very predatory toward artists. 

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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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