baby photography rip off - should I just pay the photographer? so expensive

[kateonamission]

I was bought a photoshoot as a gift for my baby girl and have just been back to see the pictures and am so shocked at the prices to buy! £1000 for the images on a disk (there were 23 images) or £600 for low res images on a phone app. No prints included. Prints ranged from £60 to £200 each, and you don't get a digital copy of it with it, just the print.
Am I crazy or is this insane?
I'm finding it so hard to walk away from the pictures of my baby, obviously this is what they are banking on, feels so awful that her pictures will be gone forever if I don't buy them but at that price I feel really really reluctant and would feel totally ripped off.
I did ask if there was any movement and he was quite rude to me in response, with comments like 'I have to make a living you know' and 'you can't have your cake and eat it' when I asked about including the digitals if I bought the expensive prints from him. My heart and my head are torn! Help!

For comparison I live in a very expensive part of country.

We paid a photographer £60 for an hours photo shoot for which we got all edited photos on a disk and own the copyright to have them printed however so made calendars etc for grandparents.

Walk away from this and have more photos taken with a more sensible photographer

That is a ridiculously low price - once the photographer works out their actual costs:

• travel
• photography kit
• liability insurance
• time at shoot
• kit insurance
• editing time
• cost of producing the CD
• cost of providing CD to client (postage / delivering it)
• loss in ownership of IP (copyright)
• building overheads
• heating
• editing computer
• editing software
• tax
• NI
• pension
• insurance against illness

then I expect that photographer is working well below the minimum wage

the problem in the photography world comes down to a couple of recent patterns:

• lots of people buying good amateur kit and believing that the process is easy
• lots of people having good amateur kit and being told their photos are good therefore they should do it as a job
• photography working well as a job alongside children at school etc.
• people not recognising good / bad photography

meaning that this is what happens - the OP's situation is not necessarily expensive - but clearly very bad communications - but £60 for all of that is a photographer who is earning next to nothing and likely to struggle as a result - I appreciate that in this case you may have found someone independently wealthy who charges a token amount and doesn't want an income - but if not, then, sorry, but I work hard with photographers to encourage them to charge a realistic fee - if the client doesn't want to spend more than that then they can find a friend to take some snaps. My cleaner ends up with a higher Nett income than that photographer.

I agree, but given that is their advertised price what do you suggest?

My point was to highlight how insanely high the ops quote was

It's a common practice. Low price or free shoot but the actual pics cost a bomb. Never buy or go to a shoot without finding out the cost of the pictures first.
There is a firm near me that are always out promoting their company with free shoot offers and if you ask the promotional people the cost of the photos they won't tell you.
Avoid

These 'presents' for forty quid are a con.

They tug on your heart strings and make you feel guilty for not buying.

Walk away.

I paid £100 for a large print that was delivered to my door & 40 photos on a disc.

Find someone else to do it.

Make sure he does not display the photos on his website. If you signed a model release form then he may be able to.

That was a bit of a crap gift! You have to pay for any actual photos you want?! I wouldn't say that was a gift at all really.

Don't buy them and leave a review saying how much they cost and you were upset you couldn't afford them.

We had a similar thing with a gifted newborn photography session, although the prices were nowhere near as high as yours they were still ridiculous. We actually negotiated quite hard with the photographer, on the basis that the 'work' was already done anyway and we would either walk away and buy nothing, or buy something at a reasonable price. The photographer went back and forth with us but we settled on a deal we all agreed on and felt was fair. Might be worth a try in your case?

I understand that photographers costs can be high, but we had just got married and that (amazing) photographer travelled 200 miles to our outdoor location, spent 6 hours working and did all the associated editing and it was still cheaper than this newborn shoot!

I have used both Pixie and Venture and wasn't impressed with either - Venture were disgraceful. Shoddy photos and loads of waiting around.

Best ones I used were Max Spielman - £6.99, very relaxed and you can upgrade the images. I have loads from there in my house and they are always complemented on!

Walk away and find somewhere else

I'll second the photography student.

They will love the experience and will probably be a lot cheaper

Not quite the same situation but we used a photography student for my wedding.

Cost me a bottle of wine as she insisted on no payment. She got loads of photographs and even mounted them into a photo album with some poems.

She did a fantastic job and I would have begrudged paying £600+ for similar photos

"£1000 for the images on a disk (there were 23 images) or £600 for low res images on a phone ap"

that is totally bonkers -

Every time you looked at those photos you would remember the associated bad feelings.

Anyone else used venture? I paid £20 for a bauble which translates into a free shoot and a 7x5 photo worth £95 apparently. I'm a bit put off now.

My best friend is a family photographer and charges around £500 to have all pictures on a disc, which isn't cheap I know. There are photographers out there who charge less and ones who charge more but the main difference is all decent photographers should have gone through their prices with you when you booked their session so there were no surprises or shocks at what they expect you to pay. Don't feel emotionally blackmailed to buy any pictures if you don't think it's value for money. Find a photographer who can do it for a price you are happy to pay - there is a big range of prices and services - and make sure they disclose all print/digital prices before you book. If they won't tell you, chances are they'll be expensive & they'll be hoping to sell sell sell because you're emotionally tied to the pictures.

Don't pay! That's crazy. And the point about how much photographers costs are arnt especially relevant here in my opinion, selling a photo shoot at £40 and then trying to charge that amount for the actual photos is clearly not a photographer that nos how good he is so knows his customers are happy to pay that amount, it's drawing people in to buy a 'gift' and then trying to force them to pay far more than you'd expect (for a cheap shoot) to get any actual photos. If I wanted a new born photoshoot id either buy a package to suit my budget or pay far more for the shoot for great photos that I could afford. Hopefully he gets back to you like others have said and offers you them at a hugely reduced rate before he deletes them, but if not there just photos, your better off spending the money on your baby

Venture rely on hard selling you more than the one photo you have included. Don't they do a showing of your photos with music etc?

Walk away. Possibly expect a call in a few months offering them for a more reasonable amount but even if you get them now you'll always remember his attitude which stinks.

For info we got 24 images on a disc for £250 in the end.

I agree with akkakk all of the points she makes are true and valid.

Photographers have lives and families too I often found when self employed that I was out of pocket most of the time.

Digital images are the most expensive as you are effectively being given the negative of the pictures and there for can make and many copies as big as you like which is why it costs so much. We are not as expensive as that in my place of work but I can understand the costing behind this as newborn sessions take a lot of time and effort to produce the work.

I would never trust someone who has had no training with my baby as there are a lot of people out there who take serious risks out of lack of knowledge on how to handle and work with newborns.

I paid a little branch of Max Speilman to take shots of my DD, it was about £25 for the shoot, 30 odd digital copies on a disc, 5 different prints on various sizes and key rings.

£25 for the lot.

Ok the woman who took them isn't a highly trained photographer, but she had a decent fancy looking camera, several backdrops and lots of props.

It really isn't necessary to spend that much on photos, it's insane if it will make you struggle financially.

I have had a few photo shoots for h t over the years, you do get over letting photos go.

I understand that photography is not cheap or simple. But I do think that offering this kind of thing as a gift is a bit of a con/scam, really. Because they know that once you see the images, you'll want them. A more honest person would be upfront about the final cost to begin with or offer a set package as a gift set.

I mean perhaps the photographer didn't intend the shoot to be given as a gift, but they often do, and it's a terrible gift IMO, it's not like a voucher for a shop where you can choose to use the value against something much more expensive or just add a couple of pounds to use it up.

I've just handed out mounted large copies of a fantastic photo I took more or less by accident on my phone while out and about. Lots of compliments.

Cost £4.90 per print and £4.10 for each mount. So four nearly impossible relatives dealt with for under a tenner each.

And a really big one for myself too for less than £15.

What I meant to say really was that if you keep snapping away sooner or later you'll get a really good shot. So long as you've got 10 plus mega pixels on the camera you'll get a decent image in an enlargement.

@bertiebots I couldn't agree more that it's a terrible gift. We were given an engagement shoot as a present. The person that gave it to us spent £150 for the shoot and we spent £300 on photos that in the cold light of day we were too embarrassed to display.

Op, it's worth mentioning that we got a call from our photographer 3 months later offering the complete shoot on disc for £50. We declined because we had spent enough but I think a lot of them do this to rinse a final few pounds out of you. So decline to buy any and you might be offered them in a few weeks time at a vastly reduced price.

It would be much cheaper to buy yourself a DSLR, take a photography course, do them yourself and get them printed at a supermarket.

Find someone who will do them cheaper.