Customers Printing MY Work

[Glen King]

Ok, newbie question about pricing of CDs.

Acknowledging that anyone that gets a CD is going to be making prints of my work and that copyright laws are on my side.

1. What is a reasonable price for a CD. Mine are averaging about 80 images.
2. Is there a slideshow program that will make it very difficult to print or duplicate images from to help prevent unauthorized copying?
3. Is there a program to ‘LOCK’ a CD so that a customer cannot print or duplicate a photo without a password that he must pay for? I know that software companies do this all the time.

By practical experience, I have already taken some steps.
a. No one gets electronic copies of my ‘special’ edited photos. They are print only and not included on the CD.
b. I am placing a watermark in an unobtrusive but hard to remove placement on images.
c. I am inserting my copyright statement in another location on the image that is not so obvious.
d. EXIF info is only available on my computer/archival CD.

Any other suggestions?
Thanks,
Glen

[LoungeLizard]

Well, not sure what you're selling. Sounds as though you're not selling printable files.

[nikondude24]

How does $50 sound?

[Glen King]

Originally Posted by LoungeLizard

Well, not sure what you're selling. Sounds as though you're not selling printable files.

For an idea of what I'm selling, take a look at my portfolio on this site.

I am leaning toward selling CDs that can't be printed from right now. I end up putting considerable effort, time and training into the pieces I produce. I'm pretty much an advanced amateur at this point. I've already invested lots of $ in terms of equipment and time to get to this level. I'd like to reach a truly professional level of photography. I'd like to use photography as a retirement business in about a decade.

Glen

[LoungeLizard]

Well, my answer based on the work you're selling (weddings/portraits) is to price it accordingly. You can do a slideshow (not a "proofing" show) with software such as Pro Show Producer that is viewable on a TV and you can't print the images.

Now, if you're selling a "ready to print" CD, then just price it accordingly. Only you know what "accordingly" is for you. In my case, I offer the files from a wedding for $750. I've seen it range from $250 to $10,000.

[Glen King]

Excellent info, Thanks Jesus!

[Arnor]

Hi Glen,

You say EXIF is only available on your computer. That strips copyright information out of the image file, which IMO should be included. Of course that doesn't do anything for printing, but maybe it would be a good idea to include the EXIF. Or am I missing something?

Best regards,

[Aric C. Hoek]

Our DVDs are sold at 1400 each. Each package we sell is sold with one.

[Glen King]

Originally Posted by Arnor

Hi Glen,

You say EXIF is only available on your computer. That strips copyright information out of the image file, which IMO should be included. Of course that doesn't do anything for printing, but maybe it would be a good idea to include the EXIF. Or am I missing something?

Best regards,

Thanks! You are absolutely right, I would treat a lack of EXIF info as proof that an image was lifted from my work. Most people know how to copy the picture, but not the EXIF.

gk