Cheap labour?


jov89

New Member
Jun 15, 2010
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Hi all,

I'm kinda new to the forum, and this is my first post. Just needed to hear some opinions on this.

A few days ago, I chance upon an ad on gumtree.sg for a part-time photographer to take 1,000 pics about Singapore life. The pay is $50@250 pcs with a deadline of 7 days for each batches (250 pics).

Thinking in mind that each batches will be taken fm the same site and wanting a chance to add something extra to my portfolio, I applied for the job.

I was told by the client to propose 25 topics abt singapore life other than 25 topics that he already had, and was to take 10 pics for each topic. Furthermore, I'm required to prepare a powerpoint slide for the pictures. Attached with the email is a ppt sample with a picture of a mouse on one, and the english and chinese title on the 2nd.

As the client didn't elaborate further, I thought I only need to insert titles for each topics. I know that the pay wasn't really worth it, but since I've promised the client, I agreed to try it.

However, when I was almost done with the pictures and halfway through my editing, I was told by my client that I actually need to insert the eng + chinese titles for EACH picture in the ppt.

I didn't agree to it, since the client also refuses to increase the pay, and we just couldn't come to an agreement.

By principal, I should complete the task that I promised at the initial price, but I just isn't worth all the effort. Moreover, the ppt slides are for kids fm 3 mths - 3 yr old.

So, what do you guys think? I just hope that others will be informed about this so that they won't get into the same trouble =)

[And there goes a super long post to announce my stupidity to the whole world ha!]
 

lollollol, even if do with p&s and snapshots i will cry blood for that amount of money.
 

A few days ago, I chance upon an ad on gumtree.sg for a part-time photographer to take 1,000 pics about Singapore life. The pay is $50@250 pcs with a deadline of 7 days for each batches (250 pics).

This alone is not worth doing it.

Thinking in mind that each batches will be taken fm the same site and wanting a chance to add something extra to my portfolio, I applied for the job.

This is not a good reason for you to take up that job.

Moreover, the ppt slides are for kids fm 3 mths - 3 yr old.

Most likely, this stock is for children curriculum.
 

Thanks for sharing, I'm sure they might had came here before and get kick out, so that's how members didn't notice.

for your case here, even they willing to take your photos without the title inserted, pay you the sum that you agree, they can simply hire another cheap labor to insert the title for them, the worst part is if you take any sum of money from them, you will lose the ownership of the photos. God know how much can they make from the photos..

so perhaps just smile at them and walk away gracefully with your photos.....

anyway, you can make more money from micro stock, that is US$0.25 (commission) per download, one image can make couple of hundreds over a few years time, if the subject is popular needed.
 

found the ads

Part Time Photographer required to take 1,000 pcs about singapore life @$200.

Date line is 250 pcs @$50 with 7 days

Part time students welcome. We need the pics to be saved in high resolution files. The pics need to be taken by youself and not copy from somewhere. Pics related to Singapore Life only.

Topics must be proposed and each slide with pic must comes with english and chinese titles. Requires to know english and chinese
Need to submit in powerpoint format

Payment cash on delivery

* Education products for kids 3 month to 3 yrs old
 

wow.....200 bucks for all this work.......:sweat:
 

so that is 20¢ to take a photo and put it to a powerpoint file with title in english and chinese
pictures must be from several locations and different topics, wow
 

This is :thumbsd:

sheesh.... :nono:
 

at that kind of rate, ill tell them why not i take 1 pic, put english and chinese title, put in ppt and duplicate the slide 199 times?

how did they even figure that someone can produce 250 good shots of singapore life in 7 days
 

This is a RIP OFF !!! :nono: :thumbsd:

i seen worse. ppl doing photo touchups at 0.80 cents per pic:sweat:

one online shop owner asked if i could better that price. sorry but i cannot:sweat:
 

i seen worse. ppl doing photo touchups at 0.80 cents per pic:sweat:

one online shop owner asked if i could better that price. sorry but i cannot:sweat:
I know of some parts of the world is offering photo touch up service to professional photographers (online) at this rate, that is a very good price at the living standard of a third world country, consider their average income is few hundred US dollars per year.

but here we are talking about local company paying local photographer at the rate of shooting 250 photos with key wordings for $50.00.
 

Hey people,

Thanks for the replies! I actually googled for some information about my client :bsmilie:. Turns out that he has set up a budget flashcard business, and these photos will be used for the flashcards.

Anyway, this is a valuable lesson learned =)
 

I know of some parts of the world is offering photo touch up service to professional photographers (online) at this rate, that is a very good price at the living standard of a third world country, consider their average income is few hundred US dollars per year.

but here we are talking about local company paying local photographer at the rate of shooting 250 photos with key wordings for $50.00.

nono i mean i received that kind of requests for that kind of rates doing a singapore one. all the ppl who applied are all sg ppl. so i'm shocked:sweat:

i suspect some ppl are just aiming at not so wary students who are just looking to pass time during hols :sweat:

even if its 0.80 cents, i can do 1 pic in 5 mins. tats abt 12 bucks an hour rates leh. 200 plus photos to edit
 

nono i mean i received that kind of requests for that kind of rates doing a singapore one. all the ppl who applied are all sg ppl. so i'm shocked:sweat:

i suspect some ppl are just aiming at not so wary students who are just looking to pass time during hols :sweat:

even if its 0.80 cents, i can do 1 pic in 5 mins. tats abt 12 bucks an hour rates leh. 200 plus photos to edit

Depends on what type of touch ups they want u to do...Touch ups can range from a few seconds to a few hours lol

But the company is abit strange, first time I heard of ppl asking for so many photos, even if they want to print on flashcards, also dunnid so many what. If they want scam ppl liddat, we should scam them back, take 5 second video at 60 fps and pull out the individual frames and select the first 250 give them. After all they never really say "unique" photos, did they? (I wouldn't do this to wreck my reputation though)
 

Hmm..actually what should a normal quote be? Sometimes I find that price quotes are very subjective, not to forget how there are ppl who are willing to slash prices to get the job.
 

Hmm..actually what should a normal quote be? Sometimes I find that price quotes are very subjective, not to forget how there are ppl who are willing to slash prices to get the job.

prices are how much u value ur work. dun over price, somethign that is on par with ur quality will be good, dun underprice cause it ruins market.

i seen ppl range from free (cause i get experience and so called portfolio...) to those who shoot professionally cars etc at 200k for 1 whole range of cars.:sweat:
 

prices are how much u value ur work. dun over price, somethign that is on par with ur quality will be good, dun underprice cause it ruins market.

i seen ppl range from free (cause i get experience and so called portfolio...) to those who shoot professionally cars etc at 200k for 1 whole range of cars.:sweat:

200k :bigeyes: I suppose I still have a long long way to go :bsmilie:

Depends on what type of touch ups they want u to do...Touch ups can range from a few seconds to a few hours lol

But the company is abit strange, first time I heard of ppl asking for so many photos, even if they want to print on flashcards, also dunnid so many what. If they want scam ppl liddat, we should scam them back, take 5 second video at 60 fps and pull out the individual frames and select the first 250 give them. After all they never really say "unique" photos, did they? (I wouldn't do this to wreck my reputation though)

LOL. Good one!
He did mention that each photos have to be originally taken by me, and they have to be taken according to the topics. He also requested that the photos be in high resolution.

I checked his flashcard website, and he had posted about the 1,000 flashcards under coming soon section, so I don't think it's a scam; he might be just desperate to get someone to complete it.

Honestly, coming out with the topics alone can be a pain in itself already.
 

He did mention that each photos have to be originally taken by me, and they have to be taken according to the topics. He also requested that the photos be in high resolution.
250 frames out of a 720p (HD) video (actually if want higher res can take 1080p video with a 550D) seem to satisfy his needs...Just take a 5 second video at 720p @60 fps or a 10 second video at 1080p @ 30 fps regarding the topic, take out the individual frames, and you're done!
I checked his flashcard website, and he had posted about the 1,000 flashcards under coming soon section, so I don't think it's a scam; he might be just desperate to get someone to complete it.

Honestly, coming out with the topics alone can be a pain in itself already.
I don't mean the flashcards thing is a scam, I mean that the rate he is willing to pay is equivalent to a scam. 20 cents per pic will never happen. On the other hand, if he is content with a 32X32 pixels icon for 20 cents per icon, maybe that's reasonable (hey different people define high res differently right?)