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Take a minute to wipe off the greasy fingerprints of your iPhone, iPad, or other "smart" media device. Yes my friends you are looking straight into the soul of Satan himself! No I am not talking about technology itself, but rather you, the evil photographer who works for free. For centuries people have blamed technology for the misery of society, but rarely do they take the opportunity to examine themselves. Last week we found out that CNN had laid off 50 of their staffers, 12 photojournalists included. While economic times are indeed tough, CNN Senior VP Jack Womack referenced the increased participation of "citizen journalism" and advancement in consumer technology as the key reasons for laying off seasoned professionals. Much to the chagrin of these professionals, now everyone is a photographer because they have a smart phone with a camera. Apparently by extension, now everyone is a professional journalist, reporter, videographer, designer, etc... However, the loss of professional media jobs shouldn't be blamed on technology itself. Technology is great and so is citizen journalism, the problem is too many people are willing to do this for free. It appears that major media outlets have now fallen for the disastrous disease of "good enough" that plagues our society today. Yet I don't blame CNN. Personally, I think it is a bad choice and that it would be NICE if they would keep professionals working for them in order to maintain their integrity, but their objective is to provide news and turn a profit. Ultimately, I can't blame them because people are willing to give away their images for nothing. Say whatever you want about big companies like CNN, but if you keep working for free, you are only compounding the problem. Let's take a look at a few different scenarios that you as a photographer may find yourself in and if it is ever ok to work for free.
1. Charity/Pro-Bono
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The first thing I want to do is discriminate between donating your time to a charity and working for free. I personally know many photographers who do this frequently and it doesn't impact their business at all because it is an entirely different realm than working for free. Please, by all means dedicate your time and skills to helping those that are less fortunate. I think it is truly one of the best things you can do with your talents and even though many of us see a simple portrait photograph as being the same/similar to thousands of others we have taken, someone else will cherish that same image for the rest of their life. So I think it is pretty clear that volunteering your time is much different than working for free. There are even instances when you can get paid to photograph for non-profit organizations and you shouldn't feel guilty, they have funds allocated for costs like this. This being said, you should not enter an area and start offering free portraits masked as "charity" while other local photographers are struggling to get by. That wouldn't make them too happy and I imagine if someone did that to your business, you wouldn't be too happy either. Believe it or not, this does happen and it is disgusting.
Joao Carlos, a young professional photographer, addressed this perfectly in his post "Exploitation as Opportunity." I highly suggest checking out his blog.
2. Trade for Prints
This is an area that I never really explored myself. I really have very little interest in perusing a career as a fashion/beauty photographer so it never became something I was interested in. In general I suppose this could be a fair trade for photographers and models, as long as both parties see it as being beneficial to their portfolios. You should be aware though that you are probably working with a beginner on both ends. More experienced models and photographers don't typically spend their time doing trade for print because no one is making money. Still this is a good way to get experience and experiment with lighting, especially if you don't have as much time or money to put towards workshops. This is an area where I would say it is probably a positive thing to do a few times to get your feet wet. From what I hear, it can be a nice way to meet and network with other aspiring professionals such as stylists and makeup artists. As long as you feel you are truly gaining something out of this, go for it, but once you have the experience and have confidence as a photographer, try to move on to more serious work.
3. A "Favor" for family or friends
This is another gray area, but I would always lean towards saying no unless you are feeling very generous. The degree of this "favor" should also be taken into account. When I am out in Ohio seeing family whom I only get the chance to see every few years, I embrace the opportunity to take some family photos. However, if my family asked me to photograph their entire wedding or other event for free, I would have no problem telling them no in a polite way. The same goes for friends. I made my best friends during my time at Montclair State University, mostly in art classes. This included dancers/performers who needed headshots and artists working in other mediums that needed photographs of their work. Everyone generally had enough mutual respect for one another's craft, that asking for payment was natural.
4. Unpaid Internships
Klaus Schnitzer my mentor, friend, and former Montclair State Univeristy professor will rant for hours on this topic if you let him and I have to say I wholeheartedly agree with his position. Unpaid Internships are generally utter crap. Unless there is a clear path for you to advance into a paid position, there is no reason to be an "intern" for free. I have heard countless horror stories from fellow young photographers who have participated in these kind of circuses. Generally, you have to pay for your own transportation to New York City, which isn't cheap. Then you are given anencephalic tasks such as sweeping up a studio space or fetching coffee for the entire crew. So much for that "valuable learning experience" in the industry. I am not insulting photographers who hire interns to do these kinds of tasks. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a coffee runner and working your way up from the bottom, but you should be paid to do so. Unpaid internships are one of the ugliest demons in the industry. Think about how it makes you look as a professional. Here I am! Willing to work for free! If a studio isn't willing to invest money for your time, chances are you mean very little to them. You could vanish off the face of the earth and there would be another drone from another school ready and willing to fetch the morning coffee. I would say to avoid unpaid internships at all costs, unless you have a realistic chance to eventually fill a paid position. However this day and age, those opportunities are far and few between.
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5. "Well it isn't in our budget, but..."
This is the real grinder of all photography job offers. I'm paraphrasing here, but the line usually goes something like this, "Well we really need a photographer, but it isn't in our budget so if you could work for us this one time at no charge, we would be happy to pay you for another job in the future and refer you to other paying clients." The wording may be a little bit more enticing, but to me it is all the same crap. A slightly more noxious version is when you get a similar proposal with a small stipend attached. Example: Shooting an entire wedding for $200. This is even worse than working for free because not only are you ripping off yourself, you are an active accomplice to the degradation of professional photography. Believe it or not when you undercut by a significant amount, you are hurting your potential to earn more in the future. Everyone who is a newbie obviously has the advantage of being able to charge less, but that's what a normal market price would dictate. If you don't have the experience, your services will not be valued as much. However, when you shoot a wedding for $200 you are essentially creating distortion in the market and letting people know that you work for REALLY cheap. Trust me, brides talk and if you do even a decent job for $200, chances are you'll get a ton of phone calls... for $200 jobs. If there were only a few people doing this, it wouldn't be as big of an issue, but the massive amounts of people undercutting professionals by significant amounts has distorted the photography market and led a large portion of the population to believe photography is something cheap or worse, something that shouldn't be paid for. I am sure there are some photographers that will disagree with me on this, but I am basing my opinion off of the conversations that I've had with many professionals that have been in the business for decades. Even if you've never worked professionally before and are just starting out in your professional career, chances are, you are better than $200. Some people look at working for free as "advertising" and I appreciate their argument, but I don't think it is a healthy practice. Let your photographs represent you as a photographer, not how cheap you are willing to work for.
The Bottom Line
At the end of the day you need to decide for yourself what a reasonable rate is to charge for your services. If you think working for free will lead to many big opportunities for you, then maybe you should consider it, but I wouldn't. Every photographer has their own business strategy and at times you have to be willing to take risks, but I'm sorry, I just don't work for free. I also have a full time job here, so I am not making all of my income from photography. You need to consider the position you are in when making these kind of choices. If you are truly trying to be a professional photographer and earn all of your income from photography (not teaching workshops or working part-time like I do, but an actual full-time working photographer), then you should never work for free or an extremely low amount. Always consider how you want to be perceived and what your actions will do to the rest of the market. If you keep working for free or next to nothing, this will ultimately haunt you down the road. Many people say, "But I don't know how to get started!" We will cover that in a future post! If you know your way around a camera, have a friendly personality, and you are willing to take criticism, chances are you can land some paying photography jobs pretty easily.