Selling high res images...

Y'all will have to forgive me as I am a newly formed business. I just want to offer every option I can for my customers. And as luck would have it, the floodgates have seemed to open and I am getting contacted a good amount for business. Keep in mind I only do this part time. I have just had a few people ask me about getting their images on disc instead of getting prints. I am trying to get my feelers out there in the POTN world to see what you all offer. I apperciate the feedback, and welcome more. I am still debating and talking it over with the mothership.

Another thing to consider when trying to protect your work is that most people only want to make small prints eg 4x6". As such, you could offer them a Low Quality CD option of all the images but they wont be able to print large or for the images to be sold or commercially used.

Also, I know of a photographer who offers the high quality files only after 12 months and for a decent amount of $$. This option works well as no one wants to wait 12 months for prints so they order as usual, but it gives client peace of mind they can access them later.

Darryn

It's not quite here yet, but I believe the day is coming where digital frames will be so prevalent that photographers will be forced to accommodate digital file requests. Maybe not hi-res, but digital nonetheless.

Berlotti Photography wrote in post #5478252
What is your opinion?

I will probably be selling digital files for $25. That's a fair amount, I believe. There was a guy around here selling his digital files for $150. Needless to say, he didn't sell many.

$150 in insanity... Unless you are the shizzle sought after photog, that just seems a little nuts to me. But like I said, I am new to this business so...

Berlotti Photography wrote in post #5481442
$150 in insanity... Unless you are the shizzle sought after photog, that just seems a little nuts to me. But like I said, I am new to this business so...

He does a lot of cityscape stuff. I was talking with one of his clients and they were sorely unimpressed with his work.

If he was cityscaping the lost city of Atlantis, then I could see the $150.

Berlotti Photography wrote in post #5481542
If he was cityscaping the lost city of Atlantis, then I could see the $150.

Or the lost city of Gold.

I'm glad I came across this thread. I have just been faced with this issue this week. I myself am still fairly new to the photography business, however my sessions are ever increasing in frequency. I had a client call from a session back in November. She paid the $30 session fee (which is another price I need to put some attention to) and then never ordered a single print. She called last week and requested a CD of all of the images bc she couldn't decide what she wanted, she just loved them all. I did a bit of research and ended up telling her that I would have to charge $200 for the disc of full res images. I wanted the price to be out of reach bc I don't want customers choosing this option, but I feel that I have to offer it to stay viable in the digital age. Suprisingly she was ok with it. The reason I don't want customers to choose this is for the same reason as a previous poster mentioned, they could take their images to Wal-Mart and get some crappy prints made and flash them around town saying they are my work.

I haven't really been presented with the single image request except for around Christmas when people wanted them for cards. At that point I sold them for $10 for the low res file (which is what everyone ordered). I think I will stick to the $10 for low res (4x6, 100 dpi) and maybe $20/$25 for a full res.

Also, one thing I have started doing is a day or two after a session, I will email the customer with 2 or 3 of my favorite shots, sized WAY down and watermarked. Kind of as a Sneak Peak. That way they can forward them along to family/friends/coworke​rs. It has been a big hit and has gotten me a number of referrals already. Just a thought.

Sorry for being so long! Thanks for bringing up this topic.

Yeah I do that too which is a business generator for sure (watermarked small images) I also do that with every image edited as a gift to the customer. It seems almost everyone has a myspace or something along that line these days. And it can only help me gain more customers when there are pictures posted with my watermark on them. I am thinking I am going with $25 per high res. after thinking it over and getting feedback from all you splendid people I also think I might go with the low res option too (without watermark, i.e 4X6 100dpi) I would have never thought about it unless y'all brought up all these nice tips and opinions! Thanks again and keep the feedback coming.

Like others have stated, I wouldn't want my images being ran off at the local corner drugstore's uncalibrated mini-lab.

Therefore, my response is and has always been

"They're not available for sale, but thank you for asking"