Good quality trumpet at a low price?

Why is it frowned upon to offer a lesser quality service for a cheaper price?

• I've seen quite a few photographers strongly discourage against people who aren't greatly skilled, shooting wedding and such for a cheaper price ($300). But where does that leave the brides/grooms who simply can't afford more. What are they suppose to do? Ok I completely stand by you need to be 100% honest about your quality (and this is about the ethics/quality part, not really the legalities) and you need to be truthful about what you can deliver. But.... aren't the cheap $300 helping out people who can't afford more? People on here strongly discourage people from shooting cheap or even free weddings. But where does that leave the brides/grooms who physically can't afford an experienced well rounded photographer? By that logic, if it's ethically wrong for someone to shoot a cheap or free wedding and should never be done, you're saying it's better for those who can't afford $3000 for a wedding photographer to be stuck with no photos. Every industry has some lesser quality service/product for a cheaper price. Look at this example in other industries: I'm sure McDonald's is an abomination to real cuisine and those chefs who trained hard to be great cooks. Is the 5 star restaurant that serves $50 lean steaks better quality and better for you then a $1 cheeseburger? Of course, but that doesn't make McDonald's wrong or unethical for offering a much lesser Quality product at a much more affordable price. If we only had top Quality food and no other sources like McDonald's,the people who couldn't afford to eat the fine steaks would be stuck and may never be able to afford to go out to eat. Again, McDonald's is not doing anything wrong, just offering people who couldn't afford the better quality an option to still get to eat out. Or what about car dealerships (again if we're going by people being honest) Which is better? The car dealership who offers brand new cars with full warranties, or the other dealership who sells 15 year old cars with no warranty for a much much lesser price? Of course the full dealership with brand new cars is better, but again, by having the used car dealerships, although not as good quality, is still offering an option to someone who cannot afford more. Why shouldn't photography offer the same? Especially in this economy. In this economy I'm sure a good number of brides can't afford a $1500 photographer. So why can't photography have a cheaper option for lesser quality like every other industry does? I'm not trying to start a debate or sound ignorant, I'm genually curious what you would advise to a bride/groom who couldn't afford a well rounded photographer if their were no cheaper options available??

• Answer:

  My personal opinion is this: Many tend to think the $50 photographer delivers nothing but crap photos and has no clue what they're doing behind camera. These photographers are often so desperate to call themselves pros they charge low thinking it will draw in more clients. We have a lot of those where I live. However, there are some photographers who charge that cheap and deliver quality images. They're not desperate, they're not trying to give their work away. That's just what they've established for themselves and in some cases it works. The common thought of most people is that cheap = mediocre. In many cases this is very true. The saying, "You get what you pay for" rings true quite often, especially in photography. Again, there are some inexpensive photographers who deliver quality results and I've seen some argue this is rare. Where I live is an interesting mix of expensive but mediocre photographers, expensive and worth it photographers, cheap and mediocre photographers, and cheap but good photographers. Personally my husband and I couldn't afford a photographer but being photographers and having a network three of our friends (one pro, two arguably semi-pros) stepped up to do our wedding for free. We ended up with great photos from all three. We really didn't need three for such a small wedding but it was still a big help to have them. People in general and/or pro photographers can sneer all they want but in the end everyone has to do what's best for them and be smart enough to do their research. Those who don't are usually the ones who get bitten in the a**.