Hi Res vs. Low Res in the Wedding Packages

My wife and I are trying to figure out exactly how we want to price our packages and I was wondering what the difference is between Hi Res & Low Res files.

Do you offer them in your packages? If so, how do you size the low-res so that they can't print those? And What size do you give Hi-res without giving them a 15mb jpg, or do you? Thanks in advance.

Drrobinson wrote in post #16442397
how do you size the low-res so that they can't print those?

You can't. They'll print a low-res file into a big wall-size photo (probably at Wal-Mart) and then blame you that it looks bad.

640px, 800px, or whatever value you choose on the long edge.

There are sizes that even Walmart won't print without certain resolution... I've had people tell me about it after I emailed them low res files

I always give my clients high resolution images (10MP size) on a DVD. I don't have a low resolution option. IMHO, I see no point and it comes of fas nickel and diming your client.

nicksan wrote in post #16442679
I always give my clients high resolution images (10MP size) on a DVD. I don't have a low resolution option. IMHO, I see no point and it comes of fas nickel and diming your client.

I give both, to save the client the hassle of resizing it for sharing, emailing, and social media use.

I guess most social media and image hosting sites will resize it automatically, but if the client is emailing a copy to Gran-gran, they probably want to send a 250kb small file instead of a 4MB full-res file.

I give both as well. I sometimes give my clients a usb memory stick, which does not cost much. You can include that in your package.

I don't offer hi-res. I provide low-res copies of the photos they've purchased at no additional cost.

strykher1025 wrote in post #16442778
I give both as well. I sometimes give my clients a usb memory stick, which does not cost much. You can include that in your package.

+1.

http://photoflashdrive​.com/ is great for this.

I supply high resolution (4200 x 2800 pixels) and low resolution (2048 x 1365 pixels) with every package on DVD and USB.

The low resolution ones are sized at the maximum size facebook accepts.

For High Res I leave the file as they come but jpeg. Gives them the option to print as big as they feel. But low res I do 900w with 72dpi so they can really only use for internet purposes. If you are worried about them printing the low res files you can always add metadata to the files with do not print on them. That way photo labs can't print them.

nicksan wrote in post #16442679
I always give my clients high resolution images (10MP size) on a DVD. I don't have a low resolution option. IMHO, I see no point and it comes of fas nickel and diming your client.

Depends on your business model. If you make good money from print sales then giving out high-res images is damaging to your business.

People will print low res images then either complain about them or badmouth you. Low res images as a standalone package item are a thing of the past IMHO, high res or nothing. Plus few people want low res images.

I include low res images sized for facebook with a watermark along with high res packages.

Incidentally something's up with your website. Looking at your wedding portfolio takes a long time to load (after the time it takes to navigate there). Are you putting high resolution images online? They should be reduced in size for the web.

Also the second wedding shot, the green background one, totally blown out but probably recoverable if you shot RAW and have good software. It's not quite in focus either, or something's going on with it. The portfolio seemed to use a LOT of bandwidth, and for many people it will be slow, they'll abandon your website. Plenty of other photographers out there want to make it easy to see their work.

Suggest you create a critique thread about your website. I don't want to go into it when you haven't asked.

I give Print (full res) and Web sized (1500px long side with a reduced quality to reduce file size).

It's a one click export in LR. I can't believe people don't do this.

Thanks for all of the advice guys, this was really helpful!

ZachOly wrote in post #16446657
I give Print (full res) and Web sized (1500px long side with a reduced quality to reduce file size).

It's a one click export in LR. I can't believe people don't do this.

Explain?

I usually have to export twice; once for full-sized and once for web-sized.