pricing

Amazon Killing Off its $60/Year Plan for Unlimited Storage

Amazon is tightening its belt when it comes to its cloud data storage services. The company has just announced that its $60 a year plan for unlimited data storage is being abruptly discontinued. For that same rate, you'll now only be able to store 1TB of data.

How Much Do Oliphant Backdrops Cost? Answer: Over $1,000

Oliphant Backdrops are iconic backdrops used in portrait photography. You've probably seen these backdrops in photos by Annie Leibovitz and many other famous photographers. Art always comes with a price and rightfully so, and the biggest question many people ask is how much the backdrops cost.

Canon Canada Hikes Lens Prices 20% On Almost Everything

Canadian Canon users woke up yesterday to some unfortunate news. The gear price hike confirmed by Canon at the beginning of March has taken effect, and the price of almost every Canon lens in the Canon Canada store has increased by 20%.

This Photographer’s Minimum Price is Zero*

Natalie Brasington is a New York-based advertising and entertainment photographer who shoots for a variety of clients, including Comedy Central, Pantene, DirecTV, Details and Rolling Stone. She recently spoke about pricing at a round table discussion put on by PhotoShelter, and we were intrigued by her approach and outlook.

Is Great Photography Worth Less Than a Small Coffee?

Yesterday evening, I received a troubling email from a student athlete at a Western-Canadian University, who we’re going to call Frank for the purposes of this story. (Frank is obviously not his real name, but I like the name Frank for this purpose).

How Much Should Photographers Charge In 2016?

I write an annual article to help photographers with one of the toughest parts of their job: pricing their work. In the 2016 version, I’m going to add some new elements such as a little advice for photography buyers. Another section I’m most excited about is the question and answer portion at the end. Each year I receive many questions about photography rates in the comments. This year, I address some of the common and interesting follow-up questions I have received over the past few years.

Ball Drop Test Shows the Strength of Sigma’s Ceramic Lens Filters

Back in December 2015, Sigma announced the world's first protective lens filters made of ceramic -- filters that it claims are 10x stronger than traditional filters and 3x stronger than chemically strengthened filters.

Sigma has just published pricing and availability info for the new filters, as well as the above video, which demonstrates the filter's strength through a ball drop shatter test.

Fujifilm Announces Big Worldwide Price Hike on Film

Kodak's film business may finally turn a profit this year thanks to support from Hollywood, but the photographic film industry is still seeing declines in demand.

That's the latest word from Fujifilm, which today just announced a major worldwide price increase for its film lines.

Photographer Accuses B&H of ‘Bait and Switch’ After $7,100 Mistake

Camera gear retailers almost always have legal disclaimers that protect them from major pricing mistakes -- if a $10,000 item is accidentally priced at $10, the order can be cancelled and there's no obligation to honor the order and take a huge financial hit.

But, as one photographer just found out, pricing errors can sometimes hurt quite a bit. He's accusing photo megastore B&H of a "bait and switch" move after a $7,100 mistake involving a Hasselblad camera kit.

How I Deal with Price Haggling as a Photographer

People are always on the lookout for bargains. Everyone wants to spend as little money as possible while getting as much as possible in return. After all, the more money you save, the more you can do with the same budget. There’s nothing wrong with this at first glance. However, in practice things often get out of hand when people start to get motivated by greed and when there’s a lack of trust.

The Unspoken Reason Why Wedding Photography is So Expensive

Here's a common complaint: "Why is wedding photography so expensive?"

One of the most common complaints about wedding photography is that it’s too expensive. I’ve seen this sentiment uttered from all corners of the Web. I’ve also seen just as many photographers jump at the opportunity to defend their prices by writing articles that only an accountant could appreciate.

Sony Officially Announces the a7II in the US! Will Ship in Time for Christmas

The Sony a7II and its impressive 5-axis in-body stabilization has generated a ton of well-deserved buzz since it was officially announced. There's only one problem: it wasn't officially announced in the US yet.

The main announcement was made in Japan and no US release date and pricing has been available... until today! The news just dropped, and American Sony fans can enjoy Thanksgiving tomorrow knowing they can have the a7II in time for Christmas.

Sigma Slaps a $950 Price Tag on the 50mm f/1.4 Art Series Lens, Shocks Us All

The first reviews have been clear: the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 Art series lens delivers quality on par with the exceptional $4,000 ZEISS 55mm f/1.4 Otus. That's no small feat, but just how impressive that fact was revolved entirely around what the company decided to price the lens. Well the answer is finally official, and it's going to blow some minds.

You'll be able to get Otus-quality PLUS autofocus for, get this, only $950!

Free Pricing Guides Help Budding Photogs Navigate the Business Side of the Industry

One of the challenges if you're just now carving out your niche in this crazy world of professional photography is figuring out how to price your work. How exactly do you determine how much your photos are worth, what expenses can you expect to run into, what contracts are you likely to run into and what exactly do they mean?

All of this and more is explained in a series of free guides that PhotoShelter has released over the course of the last year. Starting with Magazine Photography, then Corporate & Industrial Photography and finally finishing off the series with a guide for Photojournalists.

Impossible Instant Lab Shipping August 29th for $299

When The Impossible Project announced its Impossible Instant Lab back in September 2012, it turned to Kickstarter to raise $250,000 to fund the project. After the Internet got wind of the smartphone-to-instant-photo printing device, the fundraising campaign blew past its goal and ended up with a total of $559,232 from 2,509 supporters.

Today the company announced that the Impossible Instant Lab will be hitting store shelves on August 29th, 2013 for a retail price of $299.

Sigma’s Game-Changing 18-35mm f/1.8 Zoom Lens to Cost Just $799

Sigma shook up the camera world back in April by announcing its new 18-35mm f/1.8 DC HSM lens -- the world's first zoom lens with a fixed maximum aperture of f/1.8. It turns out the revolutionary lens will have a revolutionary price tag as well: the company announced today that the lens will cost just $799.

Adobe Thinking About a Creative Cloud Bundle Geared Toward Photographers

Adobe caused quite an outcry from the photography community yesterday after announcing that its future software offerings will only be available through subscription plans to its Creative Cloud service. The main gripe was that the $50/month cost for all the programs in the CC suite--or $20/month for just Photoshop--didn't make financial sense for independent photographers and smaller photo studios.

Well, the sound of grumbling has reached decision makers over in the San Jose-based company. In a post published on the Photoshop.com blog yesterday, the company revealed that it's thinking about introducing special Creative Cloud packages geared specifically at photographers.

Greentoe Lets You Save Some Dough on Camera Gear by Naming Your Own Price

If you're a frugal photographer who's constantly searching for ways to save some dough when buying gear, you might want to look into the new Los Angeles-based startup company Greentoe. It's a shopping site that's trying to turn the e-commerce world on its head by taking pricing power from merchants and putting it into the hands of consumers.

Basically, it's a site that lets you buy camera gear at prices you want to pay.

WiFi-Only Samsung Galaxy Camera Set to Arrive Later This Month for $450

Samsung did a lot to advance the idea of a "smartcamera" late last year by announcing the Galaxy Camera -- an Android-powered compact camera that looks and feels more like a giant smartphone than an traditional point-and-shoot. However, some smiles turned to frowns when people learned that it would be sold through mobile carriers such as AT&T with 3G or 4G data plans.

If you're one of the frowning photographers, get ready to turn it back into a smile: Samsung has announced the pricing and availability of the new WiFi-only version that it unveiled back in February.

SmugMug Brings the Ability to Price and Sell Prints Back to All Pro Accounts

Subscription-based photo-sharing service SmugMug caused a lot of grumbling back in August by effectively raising raising prices by 67% for Pro members who wanted to retain all of their existing features. Members who didn't want to pay double their membership costs could stay at the same rate but lose their ability to price and sell prints. The story and reaction was strikingly similar to Netflix's poorly-received pricing change enacted earlier this year.

That Cheap Photo Job Will Be the End of Your Career

One of the most difficult things I found at the beginning of my professional career was discussing money. I’d happily accept anything that came my way and was pretty short-sighted at the implications it had, not only for myself but the local working community and the economics around that.

Adobe Announces CS6, $50/Month Cloud-Based Subscription Service

Adobe is currently holding the launch event for the highly anticipated Creative Suite 6 in San Francisco today, making it a big day for Photoshop enthusiasts everywhere. Official release will be coming "within 30 days" according to Adobe, but the event has revealed enough to whet our appetites and give us some pricing options we can chew over.