usual charges for photography shoots

[joko]

is it usual for photographers to charge for the actual shoot time of taking photographs, then charge again for the photographs?

my mate was offered a free photoshoot, in return for helping the photpgrapher with publicity by using the shots on their website...

well the shoot has been done, and now they want to charge full price for the photos £45 per print! or £200 for a few in a book. the only ones she will put on a cd as well are the ones purhcased for printing
i have told her just to forget it, but she wants a pic.

to me that seems a bit suspect... i mean whats the point of offering a free shoot, if you then charge for the pics?

a photo shoot is pointless without the final pics, and the pics are impossible without the shoot...so really, its not free at all is it...??

what do you think? a bit of a con? i have told her there are loads of photographers that do free shoots and to just forget it an find one of them instead, but shes deterimined to go an see the pics.
she thought shed get - a cd with them on so no real costs to either party, but in return the photographer gets to use the shots for promotional purposes, as they are bit differnt to what she is used to

and the fact that at no point was the costs mentioned, in emails or phonecalls...well just seems like a deliberate attempt to mislead to me...in the hope that once theyre are done the models will just pay rather than lose the pics...

thanks

[socket2008]

I've never heard of someone helping the photographer being conned in this way.

It does happen with the public though, 'free photo session' then you feel obliged to buy the prints costing £15 or more each. The other 'marketing' ploy is to offer the free photo shoot and free 1st pic. You feel even more obliged to do it then. The ultimate though (and I'm sure most on here have seen it) is the free make over with free 1st pic. The model (ie your female partner) sits there, has her hair done, nails done etc for 4 hours. The photographer takes all manner of pictures in different outfits and backgrounds. You feel obliged to buy the xx amount of pictures, even when your bill of £XXX hundreds is being given to you.

It's far cheaper to just go to a normal photographer, lay the ground rules in advance on what you want, how much it will be. Get your partner to have her hair cut at a proper salon, do the make up herself then just have the pics taken at the reputable photographer.

As to your original question. Con? Not totally, more manipulation, or a 'grooming' of the client to get what they want (ie lots of your money).

[Ankou]

well these professional photographer outlets are pretty much all the same. you often see them canvassing and offering vouchers for a photo session + a free photo which is the size of a postage stamp. these are usually offered when you have just had a baby or have a young family whilst out shopping. the obvious thing is that you will buy the voucher go along to the studio have an hours session and then come back and view the photos. inevitably you will like more than 1, so you use the voucher against buying more photos, usually mounted in a frame etc. a friend and her family were accosted recently in a shopping centre and offered a voucher with a ‘chain’ at £40 which entitled them to a photo session and a voucher for one 4x5 photo of their choice worth £95. they went along with it and ended up buying lots of photos all mounted nicely on canvas etc etc, and it cost them £2,800, less the £95.

it’s a con, but they went with it.

[saxy_jag]

As with any 'service' it's quite usual for photographers to charge for time as well as materials. But the prices quoted seem a bit steep, especially if the photographer isn't 'known', even if only locally. For instance, there's a studio here in Leicester that has a long history of creating the most stunning photos and people will pay high prices for his work.

What bothers me is that your mate was offered the shoot in return for being able to use his shots as publicity. Now, whether or not he pays for the shoot, those images actually belong to the photographer to use as they wish (as long as it's legal in publishing terms, ie not pornographic or libellous or anything), so your mate has little say in this, legally. As Ankou has said, this sounds like a sort of legal con, where you get the shoot time free but have to pay massive prices for the prints.

Suggest your mate offers him/herself as model for the local college's photographic students. Much cheaper and done under their tutors' guidance, usually. They learn, you get prints (if you ask nicely and offer to pay) and you don't end up paying over the odds.