outside of just people being cheap, a lot of people dont understand that you aren’t buying a photo, but paying someone with the skills to take a good photo and then edit that photo to make it look even better.

a photo is cheap, but a person’s time of setting up equipment, time of taking photos, and editing aren’t. but because there things are things that a buyer doesn’t see, they don’t fully understand that they are paying for that as well. they see 20 for a picture and think, thats a lot i can take one on my phone for free, even if its of lesser quality.

actually just had a similar discussion with someone about the cost of custom knives.

at that point, you really need to pull the “im the professional” card.

they are hiring you to take high-quality photos of a subject specifically because they lack the skill or equipment to do so. so why are you listening to their unskilled suggestions for setting up your equipment?