How do YOU usualy give your clients their photos?

I spent a good chunk of the day processing photos, weeding out the bad ones and doing corrections on photos from my first wedding gig. I was only hired to get photos of the guests at the couple's wedding and to photograph their wedding recital.

In all, I should be able to give them about 150-220 photos from their recital and wedding (is that too low of a number?). I was planning of giving them a CD full of Jpegs they can pop in their computer, but I realize that's sort of crude & only shows minimal effort on my part. They blew most of the photography budget on a great wedding photographer, and compared to him I'm only charging chump change for behind-the-scenes work.

That said, I wanted to see how some of you guys give your clients their photos. Do you put them on disks? Do you make nice labels for the disks? Do you watermark your photos or make special designs for your clients (with or without their input)? Do you make a slideshow for them? I do have a website, but it's still under construction and the wordpress theme gets funky from time to time.

We really didn't discuss anything before hand as arrangements were made last minute, I want to play it safe without going over the top. I want to call them and ask, but they just got married on Friday and I don't want to bombard them with trivial stuff.

I give around 50 retouched images. This will go up as my price does. Then I give them around 500 un retouched JPGs.

Usually 2 discs. 1 with a flash private gallery, all the images, retouched and other.
The other is a slideshow dvd.

Printed labels, which I will look at changing or getting better quality and simple DVD case from Warehouse Video. It did use to just be a dvd case, but as my price goes up so does the presentation.

I think I'd like to get to the stage where I am just giving 100 to 150 retouched images with the above and thats it...

I'm not a pro wedding photographer but I've done a few weddings this summer for "chump change" to get some sort of wedding portfolio going.

On all of my weddings I've asked beforehand how they want the pictures. I make it clear that if they just want a DVD containing the basics, then the price will stay "low". Here's what's on my DVD that I give to the clients (DVD is plain, no art on it):

1. All pictures in full resolution (my retouched images are in here too). Usually ~500 pictures.
2. All pictures in 1024px long edge resolution.
3. I do a "website blog page" that shows the entire wedding day with select photos, that's on here too (they just doubleclick the index.html file). Makes it easy for the client to show off pictures to friends without boring them to tears going through all of them.
4. Same as the blog, but I do one where it's just full-size images (no split images etc). These contain my watermark in the bottom right.

I put both of the web-versions up on my private site as well so that they can link to them from facebook etc.

Anything beyond that and I will say I will have to charge them more.

It seems to me that those that can't afford a pro photographer are happy with all pictures on a DVD (and a few copies of it in case there's a bad one in there) as they will most likely not do a wedding album any time soon anyway - or do it on one of the "cheap" sites.

I fully edit everything they get; typically 700 - 800 images. jpgs in disc and I use HP's Lightscribe labeling system. Not as pretty as printed labels, but it still makes for a nice presentation.

I used to use lightscribe, but it doesnt make a presentation like the DVDs I used now. I go though millers and get their printed DVDs and custom dvd case. Although it is somewhat expensive (I cant list prices seeing as they are not public) but it is a great result and my clients love them. If the client paid for it, I do 2 DVDs, one with the slideshow, the other disk with the images.

I have to say, giving the client all the images on DVDs is a very common approach these days. However, the client should expect to pay more for this service, not less. A lot of shooters will charge X amount for shooting the wedding, which doesn't include a DVD, and will then charge 3X for prints. This is one way to do it. Those photographers make quite a bit of their money on the back end.
The shoot'n'burn approach takes away most of the income photographers would receive from selling prints, which means they should charge a lot more up front.
I use the shoot'n'burn approach, but I also provide each client with an online gallery where they can view their entire wedding as a slideshow, order prints and other products, etc. In addition, I sell professionally designed albums. I've found that the clients themselves might use their DVDs for some prints but they still order albums directly from me, and most of their family and wedding guests will order prints from my online site (rather than have to hassle with getting the B&G to make them a copy of their DVD, mail it to them, etc).

For a wedding I usually supply 400-500 3000x2000px Q10 sRgb jpegs on a printed DVD in a leather case. Most of my customers get nice albums, but they also get the high res CD.

Red Tie Photography wrote in post #13053568
I used to use lightscribe, but it doesnt make a presentation like the DVDs I used now. I go though millers and get their printed DVDs and custom dvd case. Although it is somewhat expensive (I cant list prices seeing as they are not public) but it is a great result and my clients love them. If the client paid for it, I do 2 DVDs, one with the slideshow, the other disk with the images.

It is a beautiful product and I'd like to do it. Cost as well as another process step has kept me away . . . at least so far.

Client gets about 500-800 edited images on a disc. Jpeg 3300px on the long side with a duplicate folder of the same files at 900px for web use.

I used to use Jolie wraps for their CD cases because they matched the boxes that I use for album presentation...but I have since switched to Kraft and Jute. They are a lot more economical. Specifically I use these with my logo printed on the sleeve and the disc.

http://kraftandjute.co​m …rrugated-CDDVD-Sleeve.htm

Peacefield wrote in post #13056051
It is a beautiful product and I'd like to do it. Cost as well as another process step has kept me away . . . at least so far.

True, both of those are somewhat troublesome, but I have found that after waiting a while to get their images, they are more than pleased to see such a polished finished product for the CDs.

I am not suggesting lightscribe is a bad product, or that you should do it this way, but this just fits my style more.

Lightscribe's pretty ugly compared to a nice printed disk, IMHO.

tim wrote in post #13057040
Lightscribe's pretty ugly compared to a nice printed disk, IMHO.

It unquestionably is uglier, yet the couples always seem surprisngly impressed and excited by it. I don't think it has a lot of public awareness so there's still some cool factor for them even though it's not nearly as nice as a professionally printed label and case.

I give them each a printed DVD with all edited images... nice case for it as well...
and then I tell them to hide those DVDs - safe deposit box if available, or parents' place, etc... as I also give them each a USB drive, usually 2X the size of what it actually needs... I explain to them that the USB drive is a lot handier for carrying around and showing to friends on their PCs, work PCs, etc... I also tell them to use the extra space on the USB drive for anything their friends/family/guests may have given them so that they can keep everything in 1 place

I have never done the usb drive but it is a great idea. DVD's are not reliable...

scorpio_e wrote in post #13064729
I have never done the usb drive but it is a great idea. DVD's are not reliable...

they each have their Pros and Cons....

can't delete/rename files off the DVD, but you can on the USB drive
The USB drive will most likely survive scratches that a DVD won't
Some USB drives can be attached to your keys... .not recommended for any Disc!
Not all viewable devices can do DVD and/or USB drives...