3 Games worth of photos

[_aravena]

Mother-in-law's friend wants me to sell here 3 games worth of photos. Originally it was so she can buy some prints but I guess she wants so many she figured just buying all the files would be cheaper. Now I know she thinks she's going to get some kinda of steal but right now it's $2 for a 4x6 and from $300 photos that's $600. Sound reasonable? I spent like 7-8 hours at 3 games and A LOT of time editing them. I need the money but in no way am I short handing myself especially if she decides to share the photos with other parents of the team's players.

I've only sold CD for weddings but that price was easily figured out as a basic package. Never considered this till she asked so anyone do something like this? How much?

Thanks!
-Nate C.

[amfoto1]

Hi Nate,

If I understand your questions correctly, customer wants to buy all the photos taken by you over three "games", and has asked that they be in digital form on a CD or something... Correct?

Your questions are if your price is enough and if you're going to get ripped off, I think.

Mother-in-law's friend wants me to sell here 3 games worth of photos. Originally it was so she can buy some prints but I guess she wants so many she figured just buying all the files would be cheaper. Now I know she thinks she's going to get some kinda of steal but right now it's $2 for a 4x6 and from $300 photos that's $600. Sound reasonable? I spent like 7-8 hours at 3 games and A LOT of time editing them. I need the money but in no way am I short handing myself especially if she decides to share the photos with other parents of the team's players.

I've only sold CD for weddings but that price was easily figured out as a basic package. Never considered this till she asked so anyone do something like this? How much?

Thanks!
-Nate C.

First of all, $2 for a 4x6 is dirt cheap. I charge $7, and I don't think I'm expensive.

It appears you are considering charging the same per image for the digital files, as you do for a 4x6 print. I guess you have to have some starting point for pricing, but are they limited to max 4x6 print from your image file? Of course not. I charge $18 per digital file, limited to personal use.

People think "digital photography is free or cheap" and aren't discouraged from that opinion by an awful lot of photographers who treat it that way themselves. This is the backlash from that.

Second, you've correctly identified a key problem selling CDs loaded with your images.... For all practical purposes you lose control over them.

Now, you can embed your copyright and licensing info into each and every image file's EXIF, mark the CD with copyright info, add a txt file to the disc that explains copyright and licenses her for personal use and printing, provide a printed image license, then register your trademark....

But... Out in the real world most people ignore all that and just go ahead and share images freely with others, whether they have the right to do so or not. They even use them in commercial ways and resell them to media, as if they were their own.

Your best prevention is a watermark on the images. If they are destined for personal printing, you can make it more like a signature, smaller and less obtrusive. If the images are going to be posted online, then it needs to be bigger.

Not that a watermark prevents them from using the images in many ways, sharing the files with friends, printing off their own inkjet at home, etc. But, at least it helps prevent them having the files printed at most commercial printers, unless they can show a license from you giving them permission to do so. And, the watermark advertises your work, when the images are passed around online.

Have you asked the customer's plans for the photos? You have good reason to do so.... You need to set the color space, size them and do other tweaks depending upon how they'll be used.

Ask questions and then let us know what you find out. Often a telephone conversation can quickly clear things up.

[Patrick]

Print prices have a lot to do with location. My prints are "cheap". I also live in the poorest state and a very poor county. If I lived in a metropolitan area I'd be charging a lot more. I remember someone on here asked what their photos were worth and someones answer was; "The most you can sell it for".

I don't do digital files currently. If I did though, I'd charge quite a bit since the customer can print as many photos as the want and that has a dollar value which is much greater than a single print.

[_aravena]

Hi Nate,

If I understand your questions correctly, customer wants to buy all the photos taken by you over three "games", and has asked that they be in digital form on a CD or something... Correct?

Your questions are if your price is enough and if you're going to get ripped off, I think.



First of all, $2 for a 4x6 is dirt cheap. I charge $7, and I don't think I'm expensive.

It appears you are considering charging the same per image for the digital files, as you do for a 4x6 print. I guess you have to have some starting point for pricing, but are they limited to max 4x6 print from your image file? Of course not. I charge $18 per digital file, limited to personal use.

People think "digital photography is free or cheap" and aren't discouraged from that opinion by an awful lot of photographers who treat it that way themselves. This is the backlash from that.

Second, you've correctly identified a key problem selling CDs loaded with your images.... For all practical purposes you lose control over them.

Now, you can embed your copyright and licensing info into each and every image file's EXIF, mark the CD with copyright info, add a txt file to the disc that explains copyright and licenses her for personal use and printing, provide a printed image license, then register your trademark....

But... Out in the real world most people ignore all that and just go ahead and share images freely with others, whether they have the right to do so or not. They even use them in commercial ways and resell them to media, as if they were their own.

Your best prevention is a watermark on the images. If they are destined for personal printing, you can make it more like a signature, smaller and less obtrusive. If the images are going to be posted online, then it needs to be bigger.

Not that a watermark prevents them from using the images in many ways, sharing the files with friends, printing off their own inkjet at home, etc. But, at least it helps prevent them having the files printed at most commercial printers, unless they can show a license from you giving them permission to do so. And, the watermark advertises your work, when the images are passed around online.

Have you asked the customer's plans for the photos? You have good reason to do so.... You need to set the color space, size them and do other tweaks depending upon how they'll be used.

Ask questions and then let us know what you find out. Often a telephone conversation can quickly clear things up.

Wow, awesome! Thanks for that detailed response. I've offered to talk on the phone but we're both rather busy and schedules don't line up. I will ask what she plans on doing with them. I charge deifferently for different events. I don't live in the richest area and when you consider most families have 2-3 kids and make $50,000 a year or something, and pay for the leagues and what not, yeah...

It's the south, they love their football, electronics, etc and forget that they have to spend money on other things. Anywho...so yeah, thanks for that. I figured I should charge more but somehow I don't think she knows exactly how much it would cost her to by them like that. So, we'll see but thank you very much!

-Nate c.

[DDCSD]

Are you going to be giving her just images of her child or the whole team?

[_aravena]

She wants everything...and I presume it's so she can share them with the team. I was going to separate the photos of her and her family and clump those together to sell her. I'll talk to her tomorrow hopefully.

[DDCSD]

A lot of sports shooters sell CD's of games for $200-250 for the whole team. You have to decide if you really think you'll get that much in print sales or if it would be more profitable to just give her the CD with unlimited reprint rights.

I'd probably sell her the 3 games worth for $500 and call it a good day. Even allowing for other parents to make prints from the CD. But that is just my opinion, I could be (and probably am) wrong.

[_aravena]

That's what I was thinking and if anything next year more will be interested.