'It got obnoxious really fast': 20+ Influencers who wanted professional photographers to work for 'exposure'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
May 18, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

Some influencers are under the impression that they have way more 'influence' over their audience than they actually do. Maybe it feels like they have a lot of sway over the opinions of others — after all, some vloggers or lifestyle influencers post stories and photos constantly, and get tons of comments praising them. But commenting on a person's photo is one thing. Buying a product they recommend is a whole other story. Being a small-time influencer just doesn't always have the ROI that businesses are looking for. Until you have millions and millions of followers, stay humble. 

Photography has never been more prevalent, and professional photographers are finding out that their career is being a bit devalued by influencers. Imagine being paid in exposure, in this day and age? Exposure doesn't pay the rent or put food on the table. 

Even funnier are the influencers who want to be paid to do a photo shoot with a photographer. That's a hilarious joke — if you're worth being paid to do a photo shoot, you can afford to pay your photographer. 

Next up, check out these funny pictures with weird perspectives. 

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  • 01
    Font - r/AskReddit Posted by u/peaches1687 S Photographers of Reddit: What is the most outrageous photo shoot request you have received from an Instagram "influencer"?
    via u/peaches1687
  • 02
    Font - chrisgilesphoto S Wedding Photographer here, they said they were influencers with a great following that they'd promote me to but when I asked for their handle online, silence. I get this is a lot as I'm fairly well known so an easy target when people look. Exposure? People die from exposure.
    via u/chrisgilesphoto
  • 03
    Font - Richsii Been a wedding photographer for 12 years. I ROUTINELY get asked to do entire weddings for free. Not even always from Instagram influencers. One time this guy (whom I didn't even like that much) asked me to do a wedding for free for his friend. Someone I didn't even know existed at all until this interaction. I just imagine walking into a restaurant and asking for the absolute best meal they have for zero dollars and then telling them it will be good for their business to do so.
    via u/Richsii
  • 04
    Font - LegendofZoldo S I had a client ask me to photoshop his head onto another guy's body because he liked the shirt the other guy was wearing more than his own. I actually did it because it was hilarious and he paid me for it.
    via u/LegendofZoldo
  • 05
    Font - Itz_Hamfish Had someone ask for me to do a videography shoot of their new house being built. They said $200, but they wanted me to go each weekend for 2 years and shoot it to build up a time lapse and stuff. I definitively said no
    via u/Itz_Hamfish
  • 06
    Font - Beckerbelieveit I was selling an old camera on eBay, maybe $50, and someone asked me to send it to him for free so he could review it on his YouTube channel. I'm not the manufacturer of this secondhand camera, just an art student trying to make some money, so i don't know how he thought reviewing my old camera was of any benefit to me.
    via u/Beckerbelieveit
  • 07
    Font - And then it turned out he only had 10 subscribers so I really don't know what he thought he was doing (you have ten subscribers but start your email off with "hi I'm name better known as channel name" ???) Somehow have avoided this with my actual photography work but I still laugh about eBay guy.
    via u/Beckerbelieveit
  • 08
    Font - j_d1996 Had someone ask me to do more than a week of videography for them and create a promo video for $200... not a day... for the whole week.
    via u/j_d1996
  • 09
    Font - nOvapine Not a photographer but I sell rocks (crystals, obelisks, palm stones etc) to fund a small animal sanctuary. I've been asked by a few people to borrow my inventory of rocks to do photo shoots for. None of them offered to pay and wanted me to lug a thousand pounds of rocks to their location and set them all up all out of the kindness of my heart. I would have taken $50 or $100 for an entire days shoot tbh but really?
    via u/nOvapine
  • 10
    Font - PeterPanBean Influencer asked me to shoot and before I even had the chance to give her my prices she decided to give me hers, over $300 for ME to shoot with HER for 30 minutes, one of her main selling points was she could "teach me how to leverage and grow my social media". Girl was 15... Edit to clarify: She was asking me to pay her $300+ when in reality at a minimum she should be paying me. I don't even charge that much haha
    via u/PeterPanBean
  • 11
    Font - o Fake_Franco As a photo assistant in Chicago, I had a friend tell me there was a popular NY photographer looking for an assistant on Instagram for a shoot in Chicago. I inquired with the gentleman, and he said he only had a day rate of $150. On top of that, he said the day would be a 14 hour day, and he asked me to pick up his equipment rental which included a 12 foot sweep, and store it at my place to be ready for the shoot the next day. H no. 150$ for 17 hours worth of work? Idc which
    via u/Fake_Franco
  • 12
    Font - Amuro_Ray_Gunner Had an "influencer" try to set up a shoot with me. When I mentioned my price she was shocked because she was under the assumption that I was going to pay her for some reason.
    via u/Amuro_Ray_Gunner
  • 13
    Font - Arrowtica S I work at a hotel and its un-fin- believable how many of these dips S want to stay for free in exchange for a post. Our marketing research shows they have almost 0 roi.
    via u/Arrowtica
  • 14
    Font - Andromeda321 A few years back I was in Acadia National Park and we did the Beehive Trail hike. For those unfamiliar it's basically as close to rock climbing as you can get non harnessed as you are going straight up a cliff on iron rungs and stuff, so super fun and you are rewarded with an amazing view at the top. Most people take a quick snap there at the lip, as most do at the peak of their hike, and then move on to the more rocky area (but less a nice view) to rest.
    via u/Andromeda321
  • 15
    Font - Anyway while we were there resting two Instagram girls got to the top, and promptly took over the best view of the lip to take various yoga poses. (Because that was totally a natural thing to do after scrambling up a cliff?) For at least ten minutes- families were coming up asking if they could take a picture, but they literally said "we were here first" and "we'll be here awhile" when asked if they were almost done. We ended up leaving before they were done but it still boils my blood th
    via u/Andromeda321
  • 16
    Font - rhgarton Someone asked me to shoot her entire wedding, a full day, an engagement photoshoot underwater (I do underwater photography also) and some 'honeymoon' shots somewhere... All for 'exposure'... I straight up said no, politely and she kicked off in a patronising way asking me if she knew who she was and what it would do for my career... She had about 10k less followers than I did and I don't even do weddings as I had pointed out so it wasn't even in my best interest even if she had m
    via u/rhgarton
  • 17
    Font - CodyDeasy She asked for $200/hr with a three hour minimum, without any real prior modeling experience, and had conditions that the photos could not be posted anywhere and that she was going to have them sold exclusively on her Patreon.
    via u/CodyDeasy
  • 18
    Cheezburger Image 9764434688
    via u/Ken_Thomas
  • 19
    Font - So the afternoon of Christmas day I went walking down the beach in my Christmas shirt, and was instantly surrounded by all these girls in bikinis wanting to take a selfie with Santa Claus. I was game. Seemed like it was all in good fun, and if a bunch of giggling girls want to sit on my lap and take a picture, who am I to complain?
    via u/Ken_Thomas
  • 20
    Font - But it got obnoxious really quickly. Each one of them wanted 20 shots from different angles, in different poses, with different backgrounds and different light angles. I couldn't figure out what was going on until one of them mentioned how popular this was going to be on Instagram, that she "found out what Santa does to rest after Christmas Eve."
    via u/Ken_Thomas
  • 21
    Font - After that it was just kind of irritating, so I refused to do any more photos unless a child asked, which just pied the Instagram crowd off, which naturally made it even more irritating. I ended up avoiding the beach and pool area for the rest of the week.
    via u/Ken_Thomas
  • 22
    Font - quilles Not a photographer, but one of my acquaintances is a semi popular influencer. She spends way too much time to see authentic and down to earth. One time at a small party I did something funny that made a bunch of people laugh. Whatever it was wasn't caught on camera and she forced me to recreate the moment so that she could film it for her instagram stories. You're not having fun unless you can prove it to your thousands of followers apparently.
    via u/quilles
  • 23
    Font - generictimemachine I'm a train conductor, heading out to hop on a train that was parked to take it to its destination. The locomotives were under this 200 yard long overpass tunnel, all private property. There's two early 20s girls under there taking pics, I ask them to leave and they took an attitude and were upset I was ruining their photo shoot. The engineer and I are all ready to roll, I'm tall, young, and fit so the engineer asks if I wanna go try to get a phone number. I reply "nahh
    via u/generictimemachine
  • 24
    Font - screaming. Whistles are loud, amplified by a compact overpass tunnel it's painfully loud. Also, cool railroad pictures aren't worth getting hurt or putting trainmen in a semi responsible position of your demise.
    via u/generictimemachine
  • 25
    Font - Fatloaf Not a photographer, buuuuuut.... My friend and I were flying to Vegas, and we were sitting in a bar in the airport having some beers. We watched a girl do a video shoot with her mom for 20 minutes. The odd thing was, she did the same "walk away from the camera pulling her bag, then turn around and pose/make a silly face/growl at the camera" every time. It only took maybe 30 seconds for her to do her thing, then to go review it, and start again. She did it dozens of times, it was g
    via u/Fatloaf

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