Are professional photographers using phones now ??

humberklog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118427460#Comment_118427460

Oh right. Holy moly.

Ah there's loads of Pro's out there well able to fulfil that brief with something better than their phone and for a modest enough €400 to €600 fee I'd imagine.

Faolchu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118426220#Comment_118426220

probably the "Pro" in question

Faolchu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118427506#Comment_118427506

at €175 including prints i wonder how any prints youre actually getting, on what grade paper and how long teh session was for because hat seems extreeeeeeeeeeemy good value for money

Quazzie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118427568#Comment_118427568

No pro. But if I walk into Tesco to buy a photo frame I buy it because I judge what I'm getting now how or where it was made. The OP looked at a portfolio and was impressed enough to commit to buy but then decided against it when he seen how it was being made. Seems a bit pretentious. If he seen the end product and decided it wasn't good enough then he'd have reasonable grounds for dismissal.

Then it became he wanted a portfolio of photos printed for €175. Says it all really. Ya get what ya pay for.

humberklog

Ah I missed the €175 part there.

Yeah. You were probably getting value for money there, depending on the quality of the phone tbh.

I think you're being harsh tbh. There's a YouTube series where a pro photographer has to use a crappy old camera, and most of the time they produce photos that you wouldnt believe had been made by that old camera. Some current phone cameras are much better than a DSLR made say 10 years ago, but if someone turned up with a Nikon D80 you probably wouldn't know that it was 15 years old. Similarly if they turned up with a small Fuji kit you wouldn't know that it was modern mirrorless technology and the equal of a huge Canon.

All that said, I'm surprised he only used a phone, these days a pro using a phone wouldn't make me bat an eyelid, but I'd expect a few also taken with a "better" camera capable of blurring the background, for example, too.

I'd have given him a chance and see what the results are like, not pay up front. A lot of the art of photography is the right framing, the right moment, etc and doesn't depend on the quality of your camera or phone. Using a phone might let him get shots that he otherwise wouldn't as people ignore someone with a camera, but not someone with a huge DSLR.

Mister Vain

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118428206#Comment_118428206

It can be done, but as Octopod said, there's no reason why you'd limit yourself to a smartphone. I was semi-pro before covid but I wouldn't dream of using my phone for a TFP shoot, let alone one where I'm getting paid. I wonder if the rest of the photos on his website were also taken with a phone.

Faolchu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118427614#Comment_118427614

but the website which can easily be fake by using prepaid stock images would probably not state what equipment is in use, so its reasonable to assume that a pro would use pro level gear not a smart phone. so when the"pro" turns up with what equates to unprofessional kit then its reasonable that the OP could say "not for me". similarly if you take your car to a mechanic you assume he has the tools for the job, if you then find that he's using a kitchen knife instead of a flat head screwdriver you'd walk away.

the OPs first red flag should have been the price, €175 for a session with prints from a "pro" = pay peanuts get monkeys. €175 from an amature using a DSLR wiuth prints done on thier own at home printer is reasonable. teh purchaser is getting a session and prints, teh photographer is buildinga portfolio. I suspect thsi is actually what is going on, that the OP googled "photographer near me" say this persons work and reached out. that person responded set a price and figured it was reasonable.

as i mentiond you can get extremly good images on a phone these days. and i know a pro that did a whole set on a phone then sold them at about €500 a pop. but he's an established artist, it was a limited run, 10 of each image only sold, and the price included mounting and framing. but the run was in teh Street Photography Genre and not portrature.

as a lay person, if i'm hiring the services of a pro for a portrait session I'd expect what looks like a pro level camera eg DSLR, id expect some form of off camera light be it a speed light of strobe, and id expect things to help modify the light in the tool bag such as reflectors, umbrellas etc. and if tehy turned up with a phone i'd show them the door.