Totaly agree with you there "goldberry,"
Only do either free work, or stuff that is charged at a good rate... if someone starting out does "cheap cost" work then makes a name and decides to increase the rate a lot of potential clients will not be happy and will walk away from the deal... after all they were told "he only charged me x"
The bigest shock to myself was how much a photograph is worth... while it may only take a few mins, or an hour or so to take the shot(s) you have to take into account the value to the person buying them... and the fact that a single photograph may have taken 2 mins to take, but potentially has to pay a full months living for the photographer.
Its very much the same kind of market as with "stars" (TV and Movie) Where as normal people work for x thou a year and would hapilly do the TV work for the same, in the TV world that x might only last 6 months, with a "resting period" of 6+ months... so needs to be based on 12 months work.
True it doesnt hold out with the top stars, feck they are IMO well over paid, but its a basis of cost over time.
A basic "set" of shots for an adult magazine might earn 600-1000, which seems like a lot for an hours work, but take out the models fee(s) and the fact a magazine might only pic up 4 sets a year, and it doesnt seem like much.
The bigest problem is finding photographers that will be honest, and tell you how much a comission shoot should be charged at... and how much a unique photo should be sold for... I think more people fail not because they are not good enough, but because they only base cost on absolute time, then find they have under sold and locked themselves out in the long run.
I'm going to try to increase the challenges (from only one) on this site... not because I think it will lead to sales, but because the challenges will hopefully hone my skils and ideas from concepts that i would not have thought about previously.
If I look at a brick wall I see a brick wall, not a photograph, yet I have seen shots of walls that make myself go "oh wow... cool" now the skill of seeing things that others would not, is something I want to improve on... in the stuff I do, I have been told that I have an eye... but the abstract, mundain, and conceptual, I dont!
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