Starting Out

[italianfemmy]

Hey guys.. couple quick questions to help myself and other newbies...

I have found some general info scattered amongst many threads and thought it would be nice to get some good descriptive info here in this one spot for starting out. Thanks!

When you shoot a wedding for the first time and have little PP experience, how long should you estimate to the client that they will have to wait for prints or a CD?

After you have shot the images, uploaded them to the pc, weeded out the bad ones and then kept the good ones and did some PP on them to touch them up, what do most of you do at this point?

For those of you who do provide prints, where do you get them printed? Is it cost efficient? Do you make profit on prints? If so, what percentage?

Do you give a disk with all the images you decided were worthy of keeping?

Do you go over the images with the client to see which ones they want printed for the album or do you choose the 100-200 4x6 pics yourself?

Do you provide the images online with your package? If so, where do you post them?

Thanks!

[coreypolis]

Originally Posted by italianfemmy

Hey guys.. couple quick questions to help myself and other newbies...

I have found some general info scattered amongst many threads and thought it would be nice to get some good descriptive info here in this one spot for starting out. Thanks!

When you shoot a wedding for the first time and have little PP experience, how long should you estimate to the client that they will have to wait for prints or a CD?

no longer than a month. I had mine edited and uploaded by tuesday/wed, and a album pre-design by the following week. the faster they see them and get them, the more emotionally attached they will become, which will lead to mroe referals and more sales.

After you have shot the images, uploaded them to the pc, weeded out the bad ones and then kept the good ones and did some PP on them to touch them up, what do most of you do at this point?

create a slideshow online, burn low res to a cd for proofing, upload for online sales, burn all images to external HD and or DVD for safe keeping elsewhere, start the album pre-design

For those of you who do provide prints, where do you get them printed? Is it cost efficient? Do you make profit on prints? If so, what percentage?

on the printer next to me, and epson 4800. mpix is a great lab and still decently priced. I make money on the large prints. the small ones do, but I always question whether it was worth my time. I'll probably start ordering in 4x6's. You have to markup your prints based on a lot of things like competition, your cost of doing business, etc.

Do you give a disk with all the images you decided were worthy of keeping?

depends on the package, I have giving away high rez, not becuase it costs me sales, but because I don't know what the final product will look like and it has my name attached. a 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 are all different crops, and I tend to fill the frame.

Do you go over the images with the client to see which ones they want printed for the album or do you choose the 100-200 4x6 pics yourself?

I choose, but they are welcome to come to me to view the others, I won't send out and spend my time editng those images I dind aren't worthy. Online proofing is a much cheeper alternative to a box or album of 4x6's, and theres a better chance they will order an album.

Do you provide the images online with your package? If so, where do you post them?

yes, as a place on my website not directly linkable. so it would be www.yoursite.com/couplesname this way it goes to their slideshow first, then when the slideshow is finsihed it goes to www.yoursite.com/couplesname.html where they can order images, viwe the album pre-design or watch the sldieshow again.

Thanks!

[italianfemmy]

Corey, thanks for answering every single question. When you say online proofing, what do you mean by that?

[Phil V]

When you shoot a wedding for the first time and have little PP experience, how long should you estimate to the client that they will have to wait for prints or a CD?
Normally 2-3 weeks. I coiuld do it faster, but I think it's better to set myself easily achievable goals and it's good if they've got something to look forward to. If they can pick up the images on Monday morning they're still excited from the wedding day, later on and they can get excited all over again. Depending on your PP skills allow anything from a couple of hrs to a couple of days processing time.

After you have shot the images, uploaded them to the pc, weeded out the bad ones and then kept the good ones and did some PP on them to touch them up, what do most of you do at this point?
Resize for a slideshow, create the slideshow, I use this as a proofing tool (runs 20-30 mins), sometimes a web gallery too.

For those of you who do provide prints, where do you get them printed? Is it cost efficient? Do you make profit on prints? If so, what percentage?
I use a Pro lab for all my printing. We wouldn't do it if we weren't making a profit. See what your competitors charge and what their quality is like and 'honestly' place yourself fairly in the market.

Do you give a disk with all the images you decided were worthy of keeping?
Generally NO (did once - as a favour).

Do you go over the images with the client to see which ones they want printed for the album or do you choose the 100-200 4x6 pics yourself?
Sometimes sit with the client to choose (depends on them), mostly ask them to choose about half the images and to let us know any they DEFINITELY don't want in the album. This means we can design an album that looks good/tells the story/contains their fave pics. If they chose all the pics this would be difficult. We just designed an album where the B&G had chosen too many images and it looks really cluttered, we're redesigning it with fewer to show them how it could be better. BUT at the end of the day it's their album and we might have to chalk it up to experience - and be firmer about the picture numbers.


Do you provide the images online with your package? If so, where do you post them?
Have done some, on my website, I'm looking into a password protected area for this purpose. It was quite easy at this point, I just created a folder with the proofs in and sent a link to the B&G, a proper system looks more professional though.

[coreypolis]

Originally Posted by italianfemmy

Corey, thanks for answering every single question. When you say online proofing, what do you mean by that?

theres a bunch of places that allow you to upload the images to, and the couple gets to choose what prints they want or what images to add to the album

www.Pickpic.com
www.Pictage.com
www.collages.net
Exposure mangaer
insta proofs
and more all do it.

[italianfemmy]

Oh, okay... that makes sense. Thanks corey.

Thanks Phil!