We can safely assume that you’ve tried your options already. You’ve tried using a someone’s high end cell phone camera and you’ve tried handling a professional camera yourself, you’ve tried all the photography ideas for beginners but no matter that you tried in the past, the pictures you now capture for your efforts are just not good enough to ever be called ‘professional.’
Everybody wants to look good and wants what is captured on camera to look good too. However, photography and mastering photography techniques is something that takes years to understand so once you know that you need a professional photographer, it’s time to gather some information about what you will be saying to your next photographer.
Need a TL:DR? Here:
Figure out why you need a photographer.
Figure out how much you can spend on a photographer.
If you can’t figure out a budget, figure out the look you want and ask a photographer for a quote.
Figure out how often you will need a photographer.
All of this makes it possible to create a brief before you hire a professional photographer.
1.) For what purpose are you looking to hire a photographer?
Think about the place that the photography is going to appear at and who is going to gain the most from it. Think about the medium that the pictures are going to appear in. E.g. Is your professional photographer taking pictures meant to appear in a website or is it supposed to be part of a video or will it be printed out? You might need a photographer to do a journalistic style of picture coverage for an event or you might need to click pictures in a studio for photo manipulation later. Understanding the purpose behind taking the pictures will make you understand if it’s necessary to hire a photographer.
2.) What’s your budget?
You’ll never know what’s possible until you can put a number to it. The budget you set will determine what level of experience you are likely to acquire amongst other photography jobs in India. There’s a chance that you have no idea what is an appropriate number to set for the creative photography jobs you want to accomplish. How much will you know about the cost of lights, makeup, models, studios etc? What do you do then? Well, you read the next point about asking the photographer to set your budget.
3.) What kind of look are you trying to capture?
You need to start finding images to use as references for the kind of job you need to hire a photographer for. Then you show the professional photographer the images and you can let him or her set the budget. Alternatively, you could discuss how much it would cost and decide what you want to add or subtract to make sure that all your creative photography jobs come out absolutely perfectly. Be willing to talk about the imagery you want before you hire a photographer. Professional photographers have various specialisations like photojournalism, product photography, wildlife photography, sports photography etc. so make sure that the images you provide as references don’t have too much variety or you might need more than one type of photographer.
4.) How often will you need a photographer?
The frequency that you will need a professional photographer is an important thing to think about before deciding to hire one. If it’s a wedding where there’s a photographer needed then you can be sure that it will be a one time project you need a photographer for. However, let’s assume that you are in the fashion business, in this case, having a full-time photographer will be more cost-effective in the long run than a photographer you hire regularly. Knowing how often you’ll need a professional photographer in a year will also help you set a budget. Having someone around all the time can be a bonus too for teaching you and your colleagues a few creative photography techniques.
All of these things are important to know before you choose to throw in just another ad that could probably get lost among ‘Photographer Needed’ listings and similar photography jobs in India. Knowing the purpose, the budget, the look and the frequency you need to pull this off will be appreciated by company you represent and the talented photographer you will eventually hire.
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