"Just let me have the files and I'll take care of it myself"

[danpass]

How do you respond to this particular statement?

[zanyzach37]

I used to work for a wedding photographer who offered that option outright, and even advertised it. He would make the proof albums and have me stamp all of the pictures, because he said people would scan the images or get them reproduced at Target or Kmart. He said he was losing a lot of money.

So... he would offer JPG's from the RAW's that he shot, for $500. And some people took him up on it. I'd just do the adjustments on the RAW's, we'd process the JPG's, and that was it.

I don't know if this was a good business move... but he made money off of it. Only 1 in 6 or so clients would end up choosing this option, but he felt it was a good option for his business, so I guess people out there are doing it.

[rhys]

It's my preference. I just did a wedding and said I'd give them a DVD of the images. I edited them, gave them JPEGS processed from RAW and where there was red-eye, I corrected the red eye and gave them one copy with and one without red eye. They have full-sized images too. I just don't want to get into printing although I do agree that some CRT monitors make the images look really crappy.

[MJPhotos24]

No, you wont handle it yourself......you can't be sure who'd they have print your photos so all of a sudden they take it a bad printer and get crap they come to you complaining or others see your photos printed badly and think its you that did that and not the printer. One reason the only people who get digital images are companies (magazines/trading cards/etc) because they know how to handle the images. Regular folk don't, now if its a company wanting the orginal different story as long as they pay for all its uses.

[Longwatcher]

It depends on who is saying that.
If they are better at photoshop then I am and I KNOW they will do a better job of editing - then no problem.

If I don't know for sure, then these days, unless we have an agreement in plce before hand, "sorry my policy doesn't allow me to do that based on too many bad experiences".

[danpass]

No, you wont handle it yourself......you can't be sure who'd they have print your photos so all of a sudden they take it a bad printer and get crap they come to you complaining or others see your photos printed badly and think its you that did that and not the printer. One reason the only people who get digital images are companies (magazines/trading cards/etc) because they know how to handle the images. Regular folk don't, now if its a company wanting the orginal different story as long as they pay for all its uses.

It depends on who is saying that.
If they are better at photoshop then I am and I KNOW they will do a better job of editing - then no problem.

If I don't know for sure, then these days, unless we have an agreement in plce before hand, "sorry my policy doesn't allow me to do that based on too many bad experiences".


that sounds pretty good LOL

[S.Horton]

Here's what has worked so far, for me.

"Sure. Have a look at the website, send me an e-mail with the filename you want, I'll send you the file."

[they go away - that's just too much work]

It works because the requestor is so arrogant that they believe the file should just come to them. They don't want to work for it.

Only once did the request come -- I provided a 300K JPG.

[pagnamenta]

A wedding photographer I know was tired of dealing with all the prints so now she charges about $500 more and just gives them jpegs. She recommends a good lab and leaves it at that.

[csm328]

My wedding is in September in Miami and my pro is giving me all the RAW files then walking away. Helps when you're marrying a graphic designer :)

[Mayfly]

Here is what we personally do because I flat just do not believe in handing over original files. For instance if we shoot a wedding we charge a set price for just shooting the wedding. Then the images get edited and loaded onto our site where they can place an order for whatever quantity and sizes they want. I will only host the event for 30 to 45 days. If at any point they decide not to purchase prints directly from our site and would prefer a DVD of the images I will provide it for a cost of $450.00

I use custom labs that are integrated into our site where the images get FTPd right to them and then sent right to the client so it really is a smooth process to order prints from us or just buy the DVD.............but I am just not going to hand them over.

The point I guess I am trying to make is have a business model that does not create so much work for you that it would be just easier to burn the DVD and give them original files because it would be more of a hassle to print anything yourself.

[danpass]

The "$XYZ for the full boat JPEG" sounds like a great idea.









My wedding is in September in Miami and my pro is giving me all the RAW files then walking away. Helps when you're marrying a graphic designer :)

Additional charge for the RAW files?





_

[tcphoto1]

"I would be happy to hand them over. But, I'll need to edit your Estimate for your project since you didn't mention this in our previous conversations. By the way, will there be additional Usages that are not licensed in our paperwork?"

[Curtis N]

It's standard procedure for commercial clients who have their own graphic design department or a separate company contracted to do that work.

For consumer clients who think the images come out of the camera ready to print, we need to educate them. I have a page on my website that explains the value of image editing. (http://performancephoto.us/ImageEdit.htm) In terms of print quality, I'm temped to take the same file to a half-dozen drug stores and "big box" photo labs and put the resulting prints in a portfolio for comparison to a print from a professional lab. People don't appreciate a quality photograph until it can be seen in comparison to what consumer labs produce.

[strmrdr]

Was it me asking that? (it wasn't)
If I have a pro shot my wedding that is the way it will be, I know how to handle the PP and printing to get the best from the images.
Id prefer raw but will settle for WB corrected level 12 full size jpg on a dvd.
I will not pay to have done what I can do just as well and it will allow me to make and print the images the way I like them.

I can see however not doing it for someone who has no skills and just wants to print them as delivered.
You can deliver web ready images with no problem but not knowing where they are going to be printed its very hard to deliver print ready images.
But talking to people I know no cd or dvd sometimes means no sale.
Some locally are doing something like after $500 in print sales and six months you get the dvd of jpg images with release as part of the package.

[liza]

I'd just tell them NO and walk away. God only knows what they would do to the files and how my work would be represented.

[sfaust]

For any retail work I do, I have a portfolio which shows before and after images. I use that to show the value I add to an image, and then state that my policy doesn't really allow for selling the images. But then I do offer to let them have the digital files for a fixed price. That price is basically my average normal profit from prints from similar shoots, plus 25%. That way at least I'm not loosing money on the deal.

For commercial clients, I have no problem with giving them digital files. They pay based on usage, so whether they have the file for a one time use, or for unlimited lifestime use, its the same image file. So its really a moot point. But my fee always includes basic color correction and prep so they aren't saving anything either way. These are usually full resolution TIFF files that they are given, although some request max res JPEGs.

I don't give the RAW files to anyone, since its just 'unprocessed film' in my opinion. I never gave away undeveloped film when I was shooting film, so why start now. I'm rarely asked, but when they do ask, I also have images that show before and after images, retouching, composites, etc, compared to the camera original. Its real easy for them to see the difference, rather than try to explain it to them. I also follow up telling them my policy is not to provide RAW for quality control reasons.

If they still press me, I tell then that if they aren't hiring me for my skills and vision, which is never reflected in the RAW file, that they would save more money just shooting it themselves or finding a photography student willing to give them the raw files.

[Wilt]

This thread is somewhat amusing...
...replace the words 'CD' and 'DVD' or 'RAW' and 'JPG' or 'digital files' with the word 'negatives';
...replace the word 'postprocessing' with 'custom printing';
...replace the word 'Photoshop' with 'print or negative retouching'

...and you have the same positions and policies as professional photographers all faced 10 years ago!

[Wilt]

But talking to people I know no cd or dvd sometimes means no sale.
Some locally are doing something like after $500 in print sales and six months you get the dvd of jpg images with release as part of the package.

My 'drugstore photoprocessing' outlet offers to develop and print your photos, and also provide CD images. I did that ONCE, and then discovered that the images were relatively low res...about 640 x 480 or something like that! But I fell for the 'digital images on CD' story. You, too, could offer 'digital images on DVD' and not disclose they would be getting 640x480 shots. And if they complain about low res images when printed, the response later from your would be, "Oh, I figured you wanted the shots on DVD so that you could show them on your television at home, using your DVD player." How many more high res photos would you like to order from me?..."

[sfaust]

If you don't want to release the digital files, don't and tell them so. Let them go elsewhere, rather than turn to deceit to win the sale. It will only come back and bite you in the rear anyway, or have a disgruntled customer out there telling everyone else how you handled them. Pissed off customers talk far more than happy ones. Its best to minimize the unhappy ones as much as possible. This isn't a way to do it.

[cdifoto]

I haven't been asked, but I'd probably just quote my 20x30 print price x however many images there are to get my "rate" to hand over the files. Logic being I have the potential (however slim that may be) of printing and selling any of my 8MP images as a 20x30" poster/print. 20x30 is the largest I offer.

$100x300 images = $30,000. So for $30,000 they can have all the full resolution JPEG images. I'll even post process them first. :)

[MaDProFF]

Lets face it mr. joe Average, would never know if you had pp or not, and a good photographer would take good enough photos that will look damm fine to a Mr. Joe Average with out any pp, so maybe handing over a CD of jpgs that has just been converted from raw, for $500-00 not to bad for a few hours work, it is so easy now to get copies, etc. and someways it is not worth getting all upset for.