Professional Photographer rates

I have a client of mine who I'm doing some marketing and web work for. He's a dentist. I contacted a local photographer in his town who I found on google. One of his specialties is commercial photog. I spoke w/ him over the phone and we discussed that I wanted 4 shots: 1 group, 1 of the Dr, and two of the practice.

He quoted me $400 and said it's going to take 2 hrs of setup. I relayed this on to my client and they contacted the photog directly who was very ridged about what he would and would not do.

He said 4 pictures, $400.


Is that normal? They were a little peeved that the guy seemed like an ass. They are going to cancel the shoot and go with someone else.


So to the pros here- when hiring a pro, what should my expectations be?

 

What in the world do they need pictures of?

I'll take 4 pictures for 20 bucks plus gas expense. I'm not a pro, but how hard can it be and what does he want it for?

 

Disclaimer: I'm not a pro, and honestly wouldn't really want to be.

I'd say that's about right for a price. I think he might be over exaggerating the setup time a little, but he's also not mentioning transportation time or (more importantly) post processing time. The other thing you're paying for in that price is royalties to use the image over and over again in any way you choose. It's not like the photog is going to see any residuals of re-use, so he has to be compensated for that somehow. The dentist is going to make money down the road off these images (in the form of more business), so the photog is entitled to consider that. It's not like wedding photos that will just gather dust in an album somewhere.

 

yeah, the client can use those on brochures, websites, print ads. Photographer has no say on it or how much it's used.


I mean, don't do business with someone who's just being a dick and makes you uncomfortable. You can find other people. The guy seems pretty fucking braggy about how simplistic the transaction's going to be (or you're phrasing it on his attitude) but I'm sure any idiot with a camera would know to take tons of pictures to make sure he got the four shots needed.