1) Do have a budget in mind when you contact a photographer. Be it for a family session, wedding, or editorial work.
Don’t ask to get something for free or for trade because it will be “Good Exposure”. If I had a nickel…
If you want beautiful top notch professional images, be ready to pay for them. Otherwise I suggest looking at local art colleges and asking students to work with you, but don’t assume they will do it for free either.
2) Do print your images. When you want to remember the good times while your visiting family, what’s one of the first things to come out? The family photo album. Printed images are true tangible evidence that you were here! Digital file storage doesn’t last forever and you keep having to update how they are stored, but a beautifully printed piece can last for hundreds of years.
If you want images from your session be prepared to pay for them. They are not included in Commission Fees. Nor are prints, albums or wall art. Those fees are for the time and talent of the photographer to come and capture what they’ve been hired to do and for the expertise of the editing plus the other general costs of running a business.
Also DON’T post your images online, unless the photographer has given you written permission. If they do give you permission, make sure you mention who took the image and link back to their site.
3) Do let the photographer do their job. Do listen to them on What and What Not to Wear as well. You are hiring them for their style and dressing the part helps the vision come to life. If you’ve done the research and love the style of the person you are working with, then let them do their job.
Do not micro manage the session or be a spaz. Give them control and have faith that they are doing the job you hired them for. For weddings and editorial shoots give the photographer a shot list of images and help them work down through the list.
Don’t give them a Pinterest Board of images that you want “recreated”. Wouldn’t you rather be the one being “Pinned” because of the original work you’ve commissioned. That is why you chose your photographer in the first place, right? Because you were inspired by their work.
