Original Studios has been a professional photography studio in Seattle for only the past 2 years. One of the main driving forces behind our growth is the focus on providing value at an affordable price. Now, granted, "affordable" doesn't always mean we make the best business decisions. But, while consistently servicing events, we discovered a huge problem that needed to be solved.
The best headshot photographers in Seattle are extremely expensive and their budget competitors provide very limited value in terms of quality and delivery of the service. And they STILL average around $350 for ONE photo. So, we are tackling both issues. The extreme expense and the quality of work.
Here's why they're over priced.
#1 Professional Headshot Photographer's Are Greedy.
Photography isn't a hobby, despite how many customers see it. To produce a high quality of work, the best professional headshot photographers spend countless hours and investments honing their craft to create a beautiful image of you.
That means when you want their level of expertise, they value their skills and charge top dollar for their services. And they deserve it.
$1000 for a professional headshot is not unheard of here in the Seattle Photography scene.
The greed comes from the photographers who don't really provide the quality but charge the $200-$300 price for one photo. That's not right, but it's worth what people are willing to pay for it.
#2 Professional Headshots Can Be Hard
When it comes down to it, photographers are light benders (Avatar reference). Essentially, we play with light and darkness to capture a moment. Lighting is everything in photography.
And with that comes the infinite number of skin tones people have. Not every lighting situation is best for every skin tone. It takes a special type of experience and eye to really balance light to support the natural skin tone of a subject. If you're a lighter hue, your photo might be heavily bright (or whited out). If you're dark, you might have heavy reflections against the natural glow your oils produce.
Your professional headshot photographer should know how to make adjustments BEFORE taking your photos, so that they get it right where it matters. "Photoshopping it" doesn't fix all the problems that might occur. If photoshop is the wall paint, the work done at the camera is the wall itself. That's how foundational taking a great quality photo is before ever editing it.
#3 Lack of Systems - Jack and Jill of All Kinds of Photography
This is a haunting reality for most photographers. We tend to not specialize in a particular type of photography. What that leads to is haphazard systems for delivering the different types of photos. Headshot photography isn't the same as wedding photography which isn't the same as product photography, etc. So, servicing a multitude of different types of photography can make the systems that are in place take longer than they need to. Photographers will account for the time spent fulfilling their work, and it reflects in their pricing.
Whereas a photographer that specializes in studio photography, and further specializes in headshot photography has the ability to reduce their rates, and optimize their systems in place. If I only did headshot photography every once in awhile, there's a low chance that my studio would be setup in such a way that it makes it seamless to produce the work. If I do headshots often, I will have the setup in the studio space to accommodate the higher volume, which decreases the needed time and that can reflect in my pricing.
Original Studios is working on creating a space for just that purpose - providing high quality headshots and portraits at an affordable price since we will focus on creating the systems to streamline the processes. Thus, reducing the overhead.
#4 Cost of Living Just Never Seems to Stop Increasing
This is just the way it is. Our costs increase as the world around us sucks us forever drier of our time and capacity. And things only ever seem to get more expensive. So, to combat that, photographers are left to increase their prices, and/or optimize their systems to deliver a higher volume at a more affordable price.
It's the balancing act that never stops.
#5 Cost of Being in Business
Professional photographers in Seattle account for the cost of their studio, their software, their gear rental, etc. And depending on the depth of their process, the amount of time it takes to delivery a high quality photograph can be a lot (3-5 hours).
The question then is, what are you using the headshot/portrait for? You don't need the $1000 professional photographer if you're primarily looking to replace a selfie on your social media platforms. So, yeah, go for a more budget option.
Social media platforms are often much smaller in resolution and quality. For a budget price, you can still get a very eye-catching first impression and have money for lunch that day.
If you're needing a great headshot for a keynote speaking gig where your face is going to be plastered onto a huge jumbotron for 500 people to see, you might want to go for a more premium servicer to make sure you look your best in that situation. And, the photo is always reusable (depending on the use agreement...but that's a whole other topic).
What is a reasonable price for a headshot/portrait service for you?
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