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hey guys welcome back to my Channel today I'm going to do a video on TFP and I've already done a video on what is TFP and sort of explained the basics of what it is in another video but this video is going to be more or less on the controversial topic of whether you should be doing it and whether it's working for free essentially for those that don't know TFP is time for prince so when photographers are collaborating with other creatives and no money is exchanged between either party it is purely collaboration that's what it is essentially TFP and you give photos in return for their time TFP has been getting a really really bad name for itself lately especially over the last couple of years and it's very easy to see why because people are being taken advantage of photographers are being taken advantage of by companies by other creatives and yeah it's not good it's not good that that's happening but I honestly feel like it's been getting a bad name for itself for the wrong reasons so personally I think there is a huge difference between TFP and working for free because TFP you are getting something in exchange for your time it is beneficial to each party that is theirs collaborating on a TFP shoot so I think that's different to working for free and this is where things are getting really misconstrued and and people and not wanting to do T of P anymore because as I said before people are being taken advantage of and essentially they are having to work for free and whether it's for exposure that's not really beneficial for the photographer or the fact that you know they're doing it in the hope of maybe getting a job at the end of you know maybe an internship or something and really in a way of them are being taken advantage of because people just don't want to pay the photographer for their work and their time I honestly feel that TV is one of the best things you can do as a photographer and it is honestly one of the greatest things you can do to improve your portfolio to make contacts it's the best way to do it and I will always do TFP or I'll always do test shoots test shoots are essentially as far as I'm aware they're the same thing I mean over the last nearly 10 years or so that I've been doing photography - shoots may have been pretty much explained in the same way that TF peers and there's not much of a difference there I find that a lot of modeling agencies used the terms test shoots it's kind of more more of a professional term in my opinion but anyway like I will always do test shoots or TFP because I need to improve my work like obviously I feel like I'm at the point where I can be a little bit picky on with what TFP I do and I think everyone should be specific with what TFP shoots they do because sometimes they might might come home whether someone approaches you are creative and they want you to shoot something their idea or someone someone else's idea and it might not be something that you want for your portfolio or you don't want to do it so in that case you shouldn't always feel the need to say yes and you can say it in a nice way like and say sorry that's just you know it's not really gonna fit in with what I want for my portfolio but you can say no to those types of shoots and you can be particular with what you want in your portfolio there's nothing wrong with that I just really wanted to do this video because I think a lot of younger photographers out there who are just starting out of getting the wrong impression of TFE and instead of thinking okay well I shouldn't do it at all like I should only be getting paid work and the thing is if you want the paid work in the end like you need to do - you need to collaborate with others and build your portfolio it's really like the only way to do it but you just need to be so wary because these days as I said people are being taken advantage of I found specifically with advertised internships this becomes a problem because it's not just one shoot that you're doing for free and not one shoot you're collaborating on it's you know several and it can go on for months and here's a bit of a story time I have in the last few years I applied for two internships and now as far as I'm aware in Australia you can't actually be offering internships with your company with your company or business unless you are going through like an educational institution now and I pretty sure it's illegal to offer internships unless it's through an educational institution I'm pretty sure don't quote me on that but this is how its it's going now in Australia but anyway I think this was maybe before that rule came into effect and anyway I applied for two internships that were advertised online and on job sites and it was specified that there was no pay and it was an internship you'd be photographing in the studio location and she would be getting a lot of exposure and one of them I think it said the possibility of paid work further on down the track yeah unfortunately it really didn't go that way for me one in particular and went in for the interview and turned it down because what they wanted was for me to travel to Sydney could be up to five days a week I think it was I'm from Wollongong so that's about two hours away and I was willing to do you know a few shoots a week with them and or maybe like less than that it's just depending on what was required but they wanted me to come in for about four days a week and basically going to the studio serve tea to their clients what are their plants and help set up the studio I wasn't actually going to be doing any photography at all so I wasn't putting anything into practice I might have gotten the chance to view another photographer doing some work but for the sake of four days a week and me traveling two hours and this was for three months this internship the majority of it was basically going to be serving their clients and that just wasn't sitting well with me and all I thought I'm not actually getting any work out of this that I can produce that I can produce myself and you know there was the possibility of paid work at the end of three months but whether it was worth or not I just I didn't feel like it was worth it for three months to have to do that I'm really not get to see anything Photography wise you know I feel like I'm at that point already where I've I'd already been doing photography for about seven years and I thought you know if I was doing the photography in the studio which it was pretty much what at seven the ad was you know if he came in and she got the job well you got the internship you'd be doing work in the studio and you'd be photographing and that's not what the actual description of it was at all so my reason for applying for that was to get more more studio experience because I didn't have a lot at the time and I still don't have a lot but I really wanted that studio experience to be able to do a lot of things like shoot and and really build on that and I really wasn't going to be in the studio at all so yeah that didn't sit well with me so I did turn down that internship I did actually end up getting it but I said no because I felt it wasn't worth my time and so the other one I applied for was for a clothing company clothing brand and they're like an online clothing store so I wasn't thinking it was actually ecommerce in the description of the job description it was kind of like you'd be photographing campaigns and photographing lookbooks with models and you know basically getting some really good shots and you can you can be shooting for this brand for a couple of months and I was like okay that sounds great might be good to get a few things like that in my portfolio and I can say that I've shot for this client and and that'd be great I went in on the first day and no one knew what was going on at all I ended up spending about four hours doing e-commerce shots which is just playing shots of clothing you know against a blank wall in like a studio environment which I should have been paid for and if anyone says to you that ecommerce shots are going to give you exposure or whatever and that you should be doing free please don't because they are really simple to do there is a little bit of technical skill in them but like I think once you get that down pat they are quite simple shots and you really need to be paid for that sort of thing because it is your time but I spent about four hours doing it and I was pretty annoyed um and then I came back another day because I thought I was going to get to shoot the campaign this other day so I was like okay we've got the e-commerce out of the way and then I ended up spending another two hours doing e-commerce shots before we went outside and the campaign that I was shooting was literally just the same model that we've been doing the e-commerce shots and we went across the road to a park and that was a campaign and to me campaign is not just kind of winging it without a makeup artist without hair without anything really like there was just no direction and I wasn't even allowed to retouch the photos that the lady in charge told me that I wasn't allowed to retouch the photos for them to put on their website and I was thinking to myself I don't want unretouched photos like that's part of my style that's part of professionalism in photography and fashion photography and it's just going to be shot straight from the camera that are literally like the makeup that was done it was really bad because there was no makeup artist there so they just did it themselves and it was just it was kind of like a huge mess that day and I got really just annoyed and I refused to go back there because there was going to be about three months of just doing e-commerce work that I wasn't going to be paid for so yeah it wasn't worth my time and if anyone else is looking at doing that sort of thing I would really suggest against it be very picky with with internships you know if it obviously if they're through educational institutions they're probably going to be a little bit more worth your time but for those that are just looking online at job sites and stuff please be very careful because a lot of those people are definitely going to take advantage of you and they honestly just can't be bothered to pay for tahg refer for their time or their work and especially for e-commerce stuff like that they you know people should be paid for that I mean that's not it's not really a lot of stuff that you can use in your portfolio anyway ecommerce because the shots are so simple and they're going to be very much the same throughout the course of the day so yeah that was my silly mistake and I really didn't look into it enough but on both occasions I turned them down because it really wasn't going to be worth my time and I felt like I should be paid for what I was doing and it's so easy I think for people to be taken advantage of in these situations so definitely be picky with what you do internship wise and in collaboration wise it really annoys me I think because it's tarnishing the whole TFP term and not only that it's making it harder for photographers to earn money overall because people just expect to work to be done for free in those in their circumstances and it shouldn't be like that people should be paid for their for that work yeah it is is really annoying because a lot of these companies can't afford to pay photographers and then they just don't want to because they'll use the term TFP and if the photographer is getting exposure in return for it then why should they be paid and it's just wrong it is really wrong and I just want everyone to be really careful out there because I've had some pretty bad experiences with it as well it really sucks and it has it's like this at the moment because I think when I first started out it wasn't so bad like it was just see a famous TV and if you wanted to do it you did it and if it was going to be beneficial for you you did it and it should be like that now and I feel like this is the best way to go about it use your instincts and if it's going to be beneficial for you to do it then do it if not don't even bother with it and be be picky be specific with what you want for your portfolio because in the end that's what you're getting out of it you're getting something for your portfolio so I hope this video helped clear up a little bit more while TFP is getting a bad name at the moment for a lot of the younger photographers out there or people just starting out and yeah just be very careful when you're doing TFP but also remember that TV is such a good thing when you're first starting out and and it is throughout your career it enables you to be creative and do basically whatever you like on a photoshoot and that's great that's that's where you can be your most creative because paid work doesn't always offer you those creative opportunities you are very much set to a brief with a lot of creative jobs so TV is great just be careful and for all those that are doing or feel like they're doing free work out there please stop because you know it's not worth your time it's not worth the effort to be working for free and then internet really I guess um it's not beneficial for the rest of photographers out there because as I said people are not being paid out there now a lot of photographers aren't being paid because it's too easy to take advantage of them so yeah just know you're worth like I'm sure there's a lot of photographers out there that have done work for free before and feel the exact same way that I do but um yeah please be careful and keep doing TFP but do it in a way that's beneficial for you all right guys thank you so much for watching and if you'd like to see more videos like this one shooting a bit of light on different topics there definitely let me know but thank you guys very much for watching again and I will see you next time bye you