you be willing to sell us some or all of the digital proofs?

[Cajungaltx]

This is the email I got this morning from the dad of a recent senior... shortened of course to the 'key' issue.

It was followed shortly by an email from mom (just to me) that said that they were working on selecting the images that they wanted... but that they needed "to work on dad, he tends to want to spend a lot less than the 2 of us"

My plan, thus far, has been to offer LOW res images for the PRINTS that a client purchases - for a $100 fee. These will print to a 4x6... and 'maybe' to a 5x7 if they get lucky.

So - this is my response - could you give me some feed back on it? I don't REALLY want to sell the digital proof - but I will - if they want to pay for it.

Dear Dad,
I'm glad that you enjoyed the photos. Your daughter was a pleasure to work with, and is absolutely gorgeous. Your wife and daughter have such engaging personalities that I really enjoyed spending time with both of them.

For images that you purchase prints for, I offer a CD with mid-rez files for $100. These are sized to print 4x6's, and are primarily used for distributing photos to family members, where a larger image is not needed.

To purchase the high resolution digital file of an image, the fee is $150, per image. Quality is a huge priority for me, and controlling how my images are presented is key to my business development. Because the end product is so important, I have aligned myself with the highest caliber professional lab available in this industry, to provide printed images that are noticeably different than what you might get if you printed them at home, or even at a local 'big box' store. By limiting where the images are printed from, I avoid issues with poorly printed images being showcased as my work.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thanks,
Donna

[HotHolly]

If you really dont want to sell the files, ask for more money for them. btw - I think $150 is cheap.

(Let me clarify why I said that. I hate selling negs - the reason why is below. It is a major PITA for me and eats up lots of time over and over again. We dont sell negatives - it says so on my site, however, there is a price for them on al la carte order forms. The price is 2.2x higher than my average gross sale. So that way, if they REALLY want to buy them - there they are. And the price doesnt shoot my sales in the foot either. Some people really cannot wrap their mind around why you dont want them to print their own stuff - even if you charged them cost for the prints, they still wouldnt get why you want to crop, prevent color correction, and print. For those who really want to argue, there is the price and that is what they are worth b/c I wont sell them for less than that. Want them or not?)

Other thing, men almost always spend LESS money than women. Emotional purchases are better with women buying. Guys look, pick one, and are done.

We dont sell negatives. I admit, I did it a couple of times and I wanted to shoot myself by the time we were done. When they take the files, they take all the problems that come with having them (eg, printing, cropping, color correction issues (freaking auto color correct!), storage, and any issues that may arise once the disc becomes obsolete, etc). That alone, was enough to make me never want to do it again.

We can make sure their prints look perfect...they can't.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by HotHolly

If you really dont want to sell the files, ask for more money for them. btw - I think $150 is cheap.

Other thing, men almost always spend LESS money than women. Emotional purchases are better with women buying. Guys look, pick one, and are done.

We dont sell negatives. I admit, I did it a couple of times and I wanted to shoot myself by the time we were done. When they take the files, they take all the problems that come with having them (eg, printing, cropping, color correction issues (freaking auto color correct!), storage, and any issues that may arise once the disc becomes obsolete, etc). That alone, was enough to make me never want to do it again.

We can make sure their prints look perfect...they can't.

Exactly - that's my thing - I've seen home printer images and I'm like, oh boy, that looks like crap!!

I don't want someone going: Oh, yeah, Donna Beard took that photo...

There goes THAT possible business... you know?

[HotHolly]

People will print crap. I put it in a post a while back - one of my clients photocopied her print onto a napkin and uploaded it to myspace. VERY pretty.

That is partly it for me. Even if they take it to WalGreens, I still have issues with color correction and cropping. It takes up too much time. And in the end - they wanted photos, not files, so why not have them printed right?

[toverman]

The average person can't tell the difference between good and great. Unfortunately, some can't even see when something looks really, really bad. That means people will take a medium-resolution file and blow it up to a size larger than 4x6.

I agree 100 percent with your e-mail to the Dad, but really they aren't going to care what's best for you.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by toverman

The average person can't tell the difference between good and great. Unfortunately, some can't even see when something looks really, really bad. That means people will take a medium-resolution file and blow it up to a size larger than 4x6.

I agree 100 percent with your e-mail to the Dad, but really they aren't going to care what's best for you.

I think you nailed the issue for me - they aren't going to care what's best for my business... and it's MY job to limit that type of risk.

[CaptainTom]

I wish I could say this to the client !!!

" I appreciate that you like my work so much that you want to own the digital negative"

"How about if I just sell you my camera and you take your own pictures from now on ?"

[ka5txl]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

I wish I could say this to the client !!!

" I appreciate that you like my work so much that you want to own the digital negative"

"How about if I just sell you my camera and you take your own pictures from now on ?"

[toverman]

Let us know how it works out, Donna.

We do care about your business (and our own).

[texkam]

I've seen home printer images and I'm like, oh boy, that looks like crap!!
I don't want someone going: Oh, yeah, Donna Beard took that photo...

Limiting resolution doesn't solve that problem. People will enlarge and print from a thumbnail and frame it.

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by toverman

I agree 100 percent with your e-mail to the Dad, but really they aren't going to care what's best for you.

I think that is why you need to present it as they took all this time, they paid all this money for the session, they bought the perfect clothing, they bought new make up, they had their nails and hair and make up done, they paid location fees, etc - basically they already dropped more than the amount in question - so why would they skimp on this part? Its the reason you bought all the other stuff.

You CAN present it like that. I do. And the men usually say, uh, youre right, I was being cheap. Then the women laugh and buy whatever they want.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Tell them that you only offer TIFF files as digital proofs, 99% of the time that will stop them since they have no idea what a TIFF file is.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by CaptainTom

I wish I could say this to the client !!!

" I appreciate that you like my work so much that you want to own the digital negative"

"How about if I just sell you my camera and you take your own pictures from now on ?"

OMG - yes!

[CaptainTom]

Originally Posted by HotHolly

I think that is why you need to present it as they took all this time, they paid all this money for the session, they bought the perfect clothing, they bought new make up, they had their nails and hair and make up done, they paid location fees, etc - basically they already dropped more than the amount in question - so why would they skimp on this part? Its the reason you bought all the other stuff.

You CAN present it like that. I do. And the men usually say, uh, youre right, I was being cheap. Then the women laugh and buy whatever they want.

I like this train of thought.

"You spent all that money on the perfect dress, the perfect location, the perfect hair, the nails and make up so I could take the perfect photograph,
and now you want to skimp on the printing ? "

[epoh]

I don't sell digital negatives either. I provide a low-res (1000x1000 pixels, 72dpi), watermarked jpeg of all the final selections (usually about 2 dozen photos) from a session. I explain I include these so they can have images for wallpaper or to email to relatives. I make sure they understand these images are too small to print and they will not look to hot if they try (the watermark generally discourages that anyway, I think.)

I say if you don't want to sell the negatives, don't. I don't list anywhere on my website that I offer jpgs as part of the package, I let the customer know that when I present the proofs to them and present is as a bonus basically.