Hi,

I could do with a good set of shots for my band to promote a forthcoming album. Any photography students or keen hobbyists willing to donate a bit of time and oranise a shoot to produce some professional looking pictures for the website etc?

Would be very grateful indeed.

Thanks

Is the album purely a freebie promotional item?

No, the album will be on sale.. The photographers name will no doubt appear on the sleeve.

So you are selling your work, but want others to give their work away.

I would do it, but I dont think I am good enough yet :D

I would do it if they can provide a complementary fisheye lens for me. :hihi:

I can do it .... but for a small fee

You cant expect people to work for free !! Im a student and need money !!!

Happy to have a go, but as others have said I'd want beer tokens in return ;)

So you are selling your work, but want others to give their work away.I have to agree with this sentiment.

How rude is that!? What makes you think that someone would give their time to do it? And, if they do give you the time then they're as bad as you.

Go and see if the company producing the physical CD, or the studio, or your band-mates to do it all for free... see how far you get?

Never said it was for free! lol. We can discuss the pay when discussing what we want but we're not after a masterpiece of artwork...Thanks for all the interest.

By the way in the music business, believe me a lot of hard graft is done for free.. its all swings and roundabouts. Not to mention the publicity of the photographers name appearing on the album.. think about it again Matt.

Not to mention the publicity of the photographers name appearing on the album...

Are you a known band?
Do you sell hundreds of thousands or millions of copies of the CD?

If not I'd be more interested in cash than publicity myself.

We're not after a masterpiece of artwork...Thanks for all the interest.

Not worth doing if its not done right though ... Every job ive done hasnt been seen by the client until im 100% happy with it.

Havent had to reshoot anything yet lol

Agreed, and as I've said payment can be discussed prior to any work..

By the way in the music business, believe me a lot of hard graft is done for free.. its all swings and roundabouts. Not to mention the publicity of the photographers name appearing on the album.. think about it again Matt.I know, as in the photography business too. At the end of the day - business is business. ;)

Would be fair to offer some cash though, I think, if it's an album that is being sold... even if it is at least expenses and a bit of money to cover time.

You said in the OP "Donate some time" - that suggests free.

I'd be happy to do it, if the terms were right. :) Drop me an e-mail with more details and we can have a chat. In the mean-time, take a look at my site if you want to know my competency. :)

Hi,

Personally, I would do it for free, since I'm starting out.

Was just wondering, did you get your photo shoot sorted?

Im a photography degree student, and what many of you fail to understand is that in order to make it into the photography profession you have to build up a portfolio, and a client base. The only way you're going to do this without a prior reputation is to offer those services for free. Youre going to get much more interesting projects to work on by accepting free work. The value of the addition of interesting photographs to your portfolio is priceless, no amount of money can make up for a boring portfolio. Did you get a photographer for this shoot in the end?

Im a photography degree student, and what many of you fail to understand is that in order to make it into the photography profession you have to build up a portfolio, and a client base. The only way you're going to do this without a prior reputation is to offer those services for free.

I have to disagree here to some extent... I started with no real portfolio but made sure that the first few jobs I got were spot on... A good professional approach and image can make a big difference. I'm not saying that a portfolio isn't needed, but it isn't everything... In many respects I find the photographer's personality can sell their services to clients.

With regards to the OP... in business you generally get what you pay for... that is unless you get very lucky...

I have to agree with Livestrong on this one. No photographer 'needs' to offer their services for free. You're starting off on the wrong foot. Surely your degree left with you a decent enough portfolio to start showing potential clients?
Photographers are all too keen these days to stab each other in the back and undercut massively or offer jobs for free. I work for free for my very close friends who are also students but would always charge a client a fee.
It may be true that new photographers can offer their services as a Photographic Assistant for free to gain experience but this is a completely different matter...
For those of you willing to work for free, how do you think you'll feel in a years time when you're ready to start charging clients and some new photographer comes in and offers to do it for free?
With the latest bout of redundancies in the UK, more people are trying their 'hand' at photography as an easy way to make money, but in reality they're just pulling a hole in the bottom end of the market...only those that have the tenacity and excellent people skills will come out on the other side and those are the people will ask for a fee on EVERY shoot..
We should all be pulling in the same direction and trying to create some sort of generic range of fees for our services rather than trying walk over each other....Have you ever heard of a new solicitor offering free services to practice his skills? It wouldn't happen.

I've never used a solicitor, so don't know anything about that, but you can get haircuts/dental work and so on for free by inexperienced students. It's not about undercutting 'competition', since you would expect those charging a fee to be somewhat more experienced & competent. You're taking a chance on someone who works for free, but sometimes you just don't have the money to do otherwise. And personally if it was me, I would prefer to work with someone interested in whatever project it is rather than someone who is just doing it for the money

someone interested in whatever project it is rather than someone who is just doing it for the money


Why have you made those two things so mutually exclusive?

We should all be pulling in the same direction and trying to create some sort of generic range of fees for our services rather than trying walk over each other....Have you ever heard of a new solicitor offering free services to practice his skills? It wouldn't happen.

http://www.nuj.org.uk/index.html

:)

Why have you made those two things so mutually exclusive?

I don't quite follow that either...

With regards to you other comments about the hole in the bottom of the market I couldn't agree more... there are some many "shoot & burn" wedding "photographers" these days its just not funny. At the end of the day clients will pay for quality.

By making some services more expensive you can actually do better and gain a better reputation that those who offer services for next to nothing... PROVIDING that your work is up to the task... bad photographers will always eventually get found out. Given that word of mouth is one of the best advertising and promotion methods available quaility and professionalism is paramount. (Just read that back and it was a little disjointed... oh well).

Back to the OP I would suggest if you are wanting services on the cheap... not free then you could try and offer something benefical to the photographer in return... I'm not sure what you could really offer in your case though.

kadath... with regards to dental work or haircuts it is always a big risk as to how "good" the finished job will be... hey its bad enough going to some "qualified or trained" ones... in short i wouldn't go to a student (no offence to any I was one many moons ago) if I wanted quality work... i'd pay for it and do my research first and not take the chance of getting the one who "might not make it in the end".

I can see your point with weddings and so on (which I would never do anyway, since I find them somewhat tedious), but I think it's not so clearcut when working with musicians/artists etc., where free collaboration is just the normal way of doing things. I know I've often required people to work for free on my projects. I couldn't get them done without these favours