ON THE SUSTAINABILITY OF STANDARDS

UNDERCUTTING AND IT'S EFFECTS ON FUTURE OF PHOTOGRAPHY.

I recently picked up some older Australian photographic magazines and there was an article on how price cutting in the realm of  professional photography had the potential to affect the future viability of the industry.

Move forward a few years and it appears this prediction has now become an unfortunate fact of life.

When I first took up photography there was a distinct gap between most amateurs and those who made their living from taking and selling high quality photographs.

As an amateur, we had fairly basic equipment as the price gap between what we could afford and the top pro gear was almost always out of contention to say nothing of the qualifications and skill levels that were required to produce an acceptable standard of work.

Today, a very high quality camera can be bought for a relatively modest outlay and the result being that with the help of sophisticated firmware and software a technically high quality image can be quite easily achieved.

Whether or not it has any artistic or emotional merit may be over-ridden by what a client may be willing to pay.

Unfortunately many of today's amateurs consider themselves as being just a step away from a lucrative career in the industry where fortune and fame await the talented.    Realisticly, it's only for the fortunate and hard-working few.

In an attempt to get their foot onto the first rung of the ladder, many gladly give away their work or charge a mere pitance for their services which can seriously undermine and lower standards right up the chain.

Given the choice between a $5000 wedding with amazing prints from a professional and a $300 one with  snaps and a CD from uncle Jim, many take the cheap and often regrettable option of going with the latter.

So, as amateurs, we are probably all guilty of helping to lower the standards and profitability of what should be a rewarding and sustainable industry for those producing consistently high quality output.

What do we do?     Well, I think we can start by not giving away our prints in digital form for nothing.  If we are doing paid work we should ensure that sample pics are watermarked and in low resolution so  they can't be just taken down to the local photobooth and printed off for a dollar a piece.

Make it a condition that you supply prints or have a print made by a proper lab and charge a reasonable price for it.

Refuse to do free photography outright and don't fall for commercial ruses to get access to your images at little or no cost.

I'm all for helping worthy causes for little or no reward but I think it's up to us all to stop undermining an important industry by underselling ourselves and contributing to the lowering of professional standards.

I realize that with the advent of phone cameras and other cheap devices anyone can turn out a reasonably sharp photo and this is  unfortunately becoming even more apparent in so much of the media.

Let's try to raise standards all 'round and get true value and reward for good work and do our bit to ensure a future for existing and future professionals.

It's just another example of the widespread devaluation of skills that we may someday wish we had acted on before it was too late.

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