5 Most Annoying Questions Every Photographer Gets (And How to Answer Them)

Photography has an air of mystery around it. Not every client understands how photographers work, which leads them to ask silly questions. Perhaps you have heard some of these yourself, perhaps you haven’t. In any case, here are five of my top favorites and how to answer them.

Do You Need an Assistant for This Job?

An assistant is an integral part of the crew, they cannot be left out. Campaigns are stressful things, and to do the job well, you probably need a helper on set who will make sure you are hydrated, have extra batteries, are backing up, and doing all the behind-the-scenes work. It is stressful enough working against the clock, doing it without an assistant makes it even more stressful.

The best answer to such a question would be to double your rate and the time it will take for the job to be completed. Suggest that hiring an assistant is cheaper than having you do all the work as it will take double the time and stress.

Why Are You Not Retouching Your Own Pictures?

This one is in the league of “why do you not develop your own film?” or “why do you not do the makeup in your own looks?” The job of the photographer is not to develop and post-process the images. Back in the day, the job of a photographer was to take photos, while a lab technician did the retouching and fine-tuning. I have managed to find a retoucher who can take my “film” and develop it in the best way possible. I simply send him a raw file, he does the color processing as well as retouching. He and I have great chemistry which makes working much easier. As a photographer, your job is to create the image, not to retouch it, do the makeup in it, and so on. Stick to what you’re good at. 

My Phone Also Takes 50 Megapixel Shots, Why Do You Need a Camera?

Megapixel count simply shows the number of photo-sensitive areas in a sensor. However quality is not quantity. This can be easily debunked by comparing a shot from a phone and a camera. Despite not having computational photography and processing power, the raw power is far greater. Ostensibly, phones are very close to being as good as cameras, however, when it comes to detail, there will be a need for full-frame and medium-format cameras for professional photography. There is such a category of work as content creators who film on a phone. However, a client who hires a content creator instead of a photographer usually does not have the budget and knows what they’re getting. It won’t necessarily be a fine-art product, but rather a trendy video or still for social media. While small-scale campaigns can absolutely be done with a phone, larger-scale work requires a team and a professional camera.  

Can I See All the Pictures From the Shoot?

Selection is often one of the stages of the process that is overlooked. Yet, I believe that selection is where a lot of creativity happens. For example, my visual language might point towards one pose, while the client might like a different one. At the end of the day, there is no problem with providing the client with a short selection, but if they ask to see all the pictures it is best to politely decline. The explanation should go something along the lines of selection being a creative process. The images based on which they hired you were selected by you, and if they want your creative input as a photographer, they are not allowed to see all the images. This is unless you are in the upselling game and charge per image, there you should try to deliver a fair selection so that the client purchases as many as possible.

I Am an Influencer, Can You Do It in Exchange for Exposure?

A client who asks this clearly thinks too much of themselves and isn’t really bringing any value to the audience. If they see their audience as a gateway to free stuff, do they really deserve to have an influence? Sure, the bigger your audience, the more money you make, but you need to bring value to them, not just see them as a cash cow. Frankly, if this is their argument, they probably see you as their fan who would gladly do it for free. Instead of seeing the value you are bringing to them, they probably only see the value they are bringing to you. An influencer should understand the value of good images and be ready to pay for your work, perhaps even more than a regular client.

Having done a few free shoots for influencers, I got exactly 0 jobs from them posting me, tagging me, and “advertising” me. Frankly, influencers are overrated. Keep your brand image and kindly charge for your work.

The best answer to such questions from influencers would be that you can’t put exposure on the table, and you didn’t get to where you are now by shooting for free. Your time and effort are worth money, if they see the value in what you can give, they should pay for it. Exposure is not payment. 

Closing Thoughts

There will be a handful of clients who as these questions. Sometimes, it is simply easier to pass them on to the next guy who can take the stress of working with them, but sometimes all you need to do to solve these issues is simply educate your client. They don’t know the full breakdown of what you do, so sometimes educating is the way. Nonetheless, some red flags make me say no to the client as soon as I see them. Probably the biggest one from this list is the “pay in exposure’ question. In a follow-up to this article, we will discuss the clients you should probably avoid if you can.

What are some questions you hate answering? Let us know in the comments!