Q? for the Wedding Photographers

[dsze]

I am getting close to finishing up the processing for a wedding and I have a question for you veterens in the business. My contract states that I will provide the B&G with a digital proof album either online or on DVD. However, as I get into this, I really want to provide them with a printed album of 4X6's. I realize this will cost me more, but I think it may be worth while in generating new business AND it will show me exactly what kinds of color reproductions I will get with larger prints that they order. Though I'm confident in my printing service, it would be comforting to know that an 11X14 is going to come back accurate before it is ordered.

My questions for those who provide printed proofs:

1. Where do you find relatively cheap albums?

2. What do you use to mount the prints in the albums

3. Have you found it worth your effort to provide printed proofs?

thanks a bunch!
-daniel

[DeAnn]

Reletively "CHEAP" albums.

You can find a CHEAP album at WallMart, why would you want to put your images in something that says "CHEAP"?

I don't mean this rudely I really don't, but, wedding photographers, myself included tend to charge the couple a few hundred dollars AT LEAST, this at least implies that we can present their wedding memories more professionally than "UNCLE" Bob or Aunt Mary for that matter.

To then put these PROFESSIONAL images in CHEAP album, well, isn't it an insult to what your trying to ultimately produce? The reason a couple HIRES a PRO instead of asking uncle or auntie, they expect a "professional" looking product, not something that can be picked up at Walmart.

Try Albums Inc, I think its www.AlbumsInc.com if not google it, they will send you their catalog free. They have albums in all price ranges for economical to ridiculous and grossly over priced. You can do a google search for "Wedding Albums" and find tons of infromation.

About offering paper proofs.

I have and am currently doing this. 4x6 proofs. This will be the last year I do it. Opting to offer on-line proofing, or cd proofing instead.

There are plenty of scripts, that will deny downloading of the images from the CD to protect your copyrights. Think the SAME scripts that are put on software to prevent piracy. Do a google for Developers scripts.

The only way you will really KNOW for certain if your lab or your file is going to print well at any size is run a test print.

Depending I guess on your camera, what your saving your file as, 300 dpi is the magic number for almost every lab I have ever came across.

Pre-crop, pre color balance, pre-size, pre-everything in house, leaving very little to the labs responsibility, often, labs employ teenagers during the summer or year round, I feel a little wishy washy about leaving a print to a teenagers eye :P ecspecially a wedding print.....

[dsze]

Thanks for the advice... I fully understand the specifics of post-processing and using printing services. I have a very good printing service that I calibrate my monitor against. However, the added security of printed proofs prior to ordering large prints might be nice. I also am able to create & maintain my own webspace for advertising and for providing online as well as DVD authoring for digital proof albums. Since I can do all of this myself, I pay nothing for it. My question was in relation to how it works for you to provide prints as opposed to digital proofs and which you prefer. I am fully capable of doing either.

As for your onnn--gooiinnggg response about cheap "uncle bob" albums...thanks for the lesson in professionalism. :) Yes, my question said, "relatively cheap." I guess I should have been more clear... Surely, you know that a quality album can run several hundred dollars. This would be ridiculous for a proof album, especially for a wedding that I only charged a couple hundred to do. The proof album is NOT meant to be the keep-sake as you know. It is meant to be a proof album from which people can order more/larger prints. If I were providing an album to display the finished product (to keep) I assure you I wouldn't have used the word "cheap." Does that make you feel better?

Thank you for the link though. I'll go check that out right now.

-daniel

[robertwgross]

You better get your lawyer talking with your chief photographer. If your contract states something, like the form of proofs, then you damned well better deliver it, regardless of what gets said verbally. If your contract states something that you never intended to deliver, then that is the fault of the lawyer.

---Bob Gross---

[dsze]

.... oh boy. Here we go. Again, I guess I should have been more clear in my original post. I fully intend to provide the B&G with a digital album either online or DVD (their preference) as my contract states. IN ADDITION, to the digital album I am considering a 4X6 print album.

-daniel

[robertwgross]

I'm sure that it is OK to provide the B&G with a choice in the matter. However, consider the following scenario: The bride wants it one way, and the groom wants it the other way. <I'm not joking here.>

Sometimes, in the sales game, you don't want to provide your customer with too many choices. Often, it tends to slow down the decision process to the point of stalling it completely.

You can still provide the customer a choice, but maybe next time consider forcing the choice to be made at the time of the signing. Or, if you really prefer one choice over another, make a difference in pricing between the two so that it makes it easiest for you.

"I can provide proofs in X format very quickly, or I can provide proofs in Y format for an additional charge of Z dollars. Take your pick now, please."

There is an old axiom of the sales game: Never ask the question if you can't afford the answer.

---Bob Gross---

[dsze]

Thanks. Thats good advice Robert. This being my first official wedding as the main photog. I'm still figuring all of this out. What kind of proofs do you provide? I think you may have told me that once already, but I can't recall.

thanks,
daniel

[robertwgross]

What kind of proofs do you provide? I think you may have told me that once already, but I can't recall.


Yes, maybe so.

---Bob Gross---

[dsze]

...thanks... :roll: "yes, maybe so" --what? Maybe so, you told me, but its not worth repeating? LOL. Whatever...thanks for wasting space here Robert.

-daniel

[robertwgross]

You ask a lot of the same questions.

At the risk of repeating myself (and wasting yet more space), I will mention that I shoot weddings digitally alongside a medium-format film photographer. By one week after the wedding, he could have film proofs and negatives, and he also has a CDR or two from me with 100-200 digital images. He picks what he likes to show to the B&G. Human nature being as it is, he picks more of the film shots than the digital shots to show.

Lately, most of his film is handled by the lab, and scanned and placed on the web for "electronic proof review". Then he can hide any that he wants to hide and allow the others to be seen by the B&G, electronically. He can put my digital shots (if he likes them) onto his own web site and show the B&G those as well.

Exactly what happens is different on each wedding job. It varies according to which photography package they bought and whether film beat digital or vice versa. Every album made is different and is handled mostly by the wife of the other photographer.

---Bob Gross---

[dsze]

Got ya... thanks for taking the time to repeat yourself for slow learners such as myself. :lol:

-daniel

[robertwgross]

I can't always instantly learn everything that I see on the Internet, either. However, when I am following any discussion that I am really interested in, I will often save out pages and pages, either saved to disk as a text file, or else printed out on page after page of paper. At the time, I don't bother to digest it all, but I just make a mental note of what seems to be there. Then, later on, when I have a free moment and I need to study the material in depth, I churn up all of the saved stuff.

For me, the simple act of massing together a lot of information, e.g. wedding photography, does not constitute learning it. But, with a very large mass of information, I can form that into a block of knowledge over time.

---Bob Gross---

[dsze]

...I fully agree. However, I must confess that even though its very high on the list, photography is not my main priority. I am a teacher AND a grad. research student; thus, my massing together of information tends to be more in the way of the later. So, I do appreciate your patience with me.

-daniel

[robertwgross]

Just don't step in front of my camera when I am shooting a wedding!

---Bob Gross---