How do I get the shots to my Client?

I'm a Sophomore in HS currently. This means that most of the Girls in my class will be having their Sweet 16's this year. Which is great for me, because I get to shoot them all! My first one is coming up soon, and I told her I would do it for free. She spoke with her Parents, and they said they would "Take care of me". I'm not sure how much this would be. I do have a question though.

1. How should I go about getting the shots to her? I do have a website that has a Gallery feature which is where I will put them, but from there I'm really not sure.


Thanks!
Nick

Are you wondering about where to get the prints made or how to make your website have a cart?

hypertech wrote in post #7112245
Are you wondering about where to get the prints made or how to make your website have a cart?

I guess. I mean...... They would see what shots they want on my site, let me know, and i would print them, right?

For portrait shoots most photographers project the images, and people order on the spot. This prevents people taking the small images online and printing them. You could do it with a gallery type online ordering system. Or proof sheets. Or proof prints.

"Take care of you" isn't a good plan. Tell them your price, if you've no experience do it for free. If they like the photos set what you think is a reasonable charge for prints, but set it in advance. Have a policy for digital files. Given your assumed inexperience getting experience is more important than money. Don't be greedy.

It depends. You can do it two ways. One is where you turn over the files for a fee and they do their own printing.

The other is to use a proofing system (most are online now) to have them select the files, you get them printed and sell them the prints. There are a variety of online solutions like photo cart, zenfolio, exposure manager, smug mug, etc.

You said you already have a gallery so there may be a plug in for depending on what you have. I've spent most of the last two days working on a gallery2 and checkout proofing system for our website. Its not quite what I want yet but I'm a programmer by trade (though I've never done much web work) and want to figure it out myself rather than paying someone.

Either way, make sure you check your state's sales tax laws to find out if you will have to collect and report sales tax and the procedures for doing so.

Thanks guys!

I think I'll put em up on my site, they will pick the ones they like, and than email me with the titles of the shots. I will than have them printed, and sell them to them at about 7x the cost of the print.

I base my charges more on the time required, as well as the profit I want to make. That means the markup for small prints is quite high, and the markup on large prints is smaller.

I use imagequix to post my photos. You pay a fee for "upload credits" but the entire experience can be customized, from your price sheet to the message at checkout. The clients go through the images (but can't download them or right click to save them) and can order the prints all in one seamless experience. I then take the order and print and ship the images. My imagequix proof viewer looks just like my website. I have no complaints.