How Do You Value Photography?

Perceived value in photography is, mostly, in the eye of the beholder.

What ‘value’ does a photograph have?

What do people really want when they take pictures and buy photography?

What determines an individual’s perception of what is the ‘value’ in a photograph.

Photos' Values & Special Times

Many photographs are taken in conjunction with special times in people’s lives:

• Weddings

• Graduations

• Birthdays

• Anniversaries

• Family reunions

• Confirmations

• Awards

• New baby

The special times themselves have high value as memorable times in people’s lives, so the photos taken of them are memories, if nothing else, and have an intrinsic value to the people involved regardless of the quality of the image of the photograph. Grandmother’s Polaroid, in this sense, is as valuable as an Annie Liebowitz portrait.

Many people conceive their lives in a series of milestones, and documenting them with photography is an insurance policy that the milestones will be remembered by future generations and the subject’s place in history, no matter how small, will be immortalized. Photographs are a key component to the value of such milestones in people’s (your clients) lives.

Photographers can tap into the emotional value associated with the events to produce photographs and sell them to clients. One family may feel that a $3.00 5 x 7 is just fine to record the growth of their baby, while another family will pay $1,500.00 for a sitting with the best photographer in town for a creative child’s portrait, a wedding portrait, or a family portrait.

Value Factors & What To Consider

What are the factors that generate this range of values in the typical consumer?

1. The significance of the event in their lives.

2. The significance of demonstrating to other people (family and friends) the event that has taken place.

3. Perception of portraiture as an art form

4. Recognition of the photographer’s ability to make better photographs than the subject could get done somewhere else.

5. Ethnic conception of the visual image as important in recording events.

Time, of course, is a factor to be considered when determining value of photos. This image is a picture of two portraits of the same person taken 25 years apart. The portrait on the left is the young lady, on the right, as a toddler. The portrait of her as a toddler is much more valuable than the current portrait – which will be more valuable in the next 25 years, etc. Using a little imagination, you can see how time is an element that should be considered when determining value in photos.

Please feel free to visit our photography book section to find more information regarding determining value. You’ll be glad that you did!

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