This assignment is all about building your professional practice skills and working to a real life client lead brief. I will be learning more about risk assessments, release forms, copyright and invoicing and what it's like to be a freelance photographer.
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The first step is looking at who your potential clients could be- Friends, family members or local businesses. Once you have a client in mind you can start researching other commercial photographers in the area to see what sort of prices they charge and what the general competition is. Although the general definition of a commercial photographer is someone who gets paid for their work this brief can be paid or unpaid as we are not yet professional freelancers.
The next step is to talk to the client- Discuss the work they want and create a professional brief. All correspondence or negotiation must be recorded whether that be emails, notes from meetings with the client or summaries from telephone calls
Before you do any work either in a studio or on location you must do a risk assessment.Risk assessments help to identify and minimise risks so all work can be carried out safely.
During the job you must do everything outlined in the brief and anything else you feel may beneficial to the client- This comes down to artistic license, common sense and instinct.
When it comes to editing commercially it's more about what the client wants from the images and where they will be used that determines the amount of editing rather than what you would personally do. This must be discussed during the creation of the brief.
When the images are finished and you have made a selection of your best work to show the client. If they are happy with the work they can have the images as previously arranged- By email, CD, memory stick or hard copy prints. Provided all relevant legal forms have been completed. If the client is unhappy you may need to negotiate by arranging to re-shoot or by lowering the price.
The final step is to invoice the client for the work. This will include a break down of everything the job entailed and it's individual price. If this was an agreed unpaid commission then you must make an invoice based on what you would have charged.
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