Original title: The bigger the US, the higher the price
During the school season and the job search season, the ID photo business is always very popular. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of consumer requirements, some relatively expensive ID photo packages have become more and more popular. Some media found that, in Beijing, some fashion photo studios have been booked for taking identification photos within half a month. The starting price for photo IDs is 169 yuan, and the consumption per person is 400-600 yuan.
As the name suggests, photo IDs are photos used to prove identity on various documents. Many people believe that a well-crafted ID photo is the most impressive label on a resume, reflecting a person’s mental attitude and even representing part of their competitiveness. At the moment when the beauty economy is popular, people rush to take “the most beautiful ID photos”, which is understandable. The question is, is it worth spending hundreds or even hundreds of dollars for a photo ID “package”? Is it necessary? Is the effect really that good?
In recent years, with the popularization of digital cameras, printing regular size photos is basically the “cabbage price” of eighty cents. Common ID photos, even if you add the typesetting and printing fees that several times more than the premium, is only a dozen or twenty yuan. The price of the above ID photos is “high”, and the main charging items are to provide services such as costume props, makeup, and photo refinement, among which, photo beautification is the top priority.
The problem is that ID photos are not artistic photographs, the first priority is to prove personal identity. The reason why legal documents such as ID cards and passports have strict requirements for photos without hats and showing the outline of the ears is that this photo is not only an exhibition, but also contains personal information. In terms of job search and acceptance, the requirements for ID photos are also the same. The reviewers will not use beauty or ugliness as the evaluation standard, but over-refinement, which often makes the ID photo too different from the person’s own, causing unnecessary trouble. According to reports, a candidate uploaded a photo after beautifying his face to the photo review link of the national unified legal professional qualification examination, but could not pass the review. In the end, it was repeatedly revised and submitted 24 times before it passes the review. In fact, some job seekers spend high prices on their ID photos, but they cause the recruiters to take the photos and “don’t recognize each other”, and the embarrassment is staged again and again . Pursuing “beauty” rather than “truth” in intensive document review is a matter of abandoning the basics, and is neither necessary nor effective.
To put it another way, after many internet celebrity photo studios became famous, the ID photo business has become full of tricks, and the charging standards have grown long, so it time to standardize them. The price of a photo shoot is a price regulated by the market, and businesses can set their own prices as long as they clearly state the price. However, even according to the popular saying, it takes 7 steps to photograph a certificate: appointment, arrival, modeling, shooting, film selection, film repair, and photographing The cost-related part is also visible to the naked eye. Reasonably, if the photo studio does not increase the cost and service, it should be charged according to the industry standard in the market. In addition, the so-called industry has its own rules, and merchants should not violate the principle of authenticity in the pursuit of beauty, and should not use psychology that loves the beauty of people to “habits” of consumers.
Users themselves should also correct their thinking: no matter how the times develop, the delicacy of identification photos has nothing to do with personal ability.
(with Zongli)
