Why do I feel so violated?

<p><em>This make no sense and is internally inconsistent. If others are judging a photographer on this sole criteria, then there are cannot be any other "issues" that matter even if they exist. </em><br>

<em>.<br /> </em><br>

<em>If print reporduction quality is not important to other'speople's views of a photographer's abilities, please feel free to explain why rather than merely presenting an arbitrary insult.</em><br>

<em>.<br /> </em><br>

Sure it makes sense. I'm pretty sure I can look at anyone's print from Walmart or wherever and be able to comment on whether or not the photographer has done a good job as far as lighting, posing, locations, style, etc. Saying "Oh, if they print it at Walmart and show it to people, I'll never get another job" underestimates the intelligence of the public and overestimates the skills of the shooter.</p>

<p>I like Bubba Fett's answer. The reason you feel violated is that you are locked into a business model that says that whenever anyone wants more prints they have to come to you. You may have the legal right to demand that but it doesn't work, and is counter-intuitive to many people for the reasons Mr Fett indicates. There is no practical way of keeping tabs and protecting your rights so the reality is that the business model doesn't work in today's world. You need to adopt a pricing policy which gets you more of what you need from a project at the outset; because pretty much everyone will have a scanner, or know someone who has a scanner, or can get stuff scanned at a store. </p>

<p>An example- for my daughter's wedding we asked in a brief for a limited quantity of prints but DVD of full res images so we could play with the files and print what we wanted in whatever size on whatever medium, in a store on on an inkjet and so on. Anybody who indicated that they didn't want to work like that was immediately discounted. You can bet on that route growing as people get comfortable with the idea of making prints themselves. Reality is that had the photographer's prints been bettwe than ours then we'd have bought more from her. But that wasn't the case, so whilst the photographer didn't make any downstream income at least they had been briefed to expect that. But most people won't even think about writing a brief - they'll just assume as Bubba Fett says. </p>

<p>So bring your product and contract into line with what people want and how they are likely to behave, and make sure whatever you give out is great quality - there are always going to be some people who will want the best. </p>

<p>Well, at least she told you. <strong>Welcome to the 21st century</strong>. The technological boom affects us all. YOu can buy scanners at the grocery store now. The problem of scanning photos instead of buying them will happen more & more. Just a word of advice, consider going to 100% online ordering, that is what hurt my business than anything else</p>

<p><em>I'm pretty sure I can look at anyone's print from Walmart or wherever and be able to comment on whether or not the photographer has done a good job</em></p>

<p>You said, "<em>f all that people judge you on is print quality, then you've got some other issues."</em> Not only were your writing about OTHER people judging a print, as opposed to yourself, your comment was based on the other people judging on print quality alone, not this new and additional criteria of <em>"lighting, posing, locations, style, etc</em>.". If the premise of the comment makes sense (which it NOW does) its because you changed it.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

 

<p>>> An example- for my daughter's wedding we asked in a brief for a limited quantity of prints but DVD of full res images so we could play with the files and print what we wanted in whatever size on whatever medium, in a store on on an inkjet and so on. Anybody who indicated that they didn't want to work like that was immediately discounted. <<</p>

<p>Yep, that's what I think too. I don't think I'd ever pay for a photographer if he/she says I won't get the digital copies on a CD.</p>

<p>I think Gary's advice is VERY good. Incredibly good. In addition to Aimee's and others too, I think Gary had a great idea.<br>

:)</p>

<p>You're not alone. <br>

I gratuitously photographed a neighbor's prom party, gave them an edited CD and slide show, and received a thank you note with one of the images of her daughter and her date enclosed. A copy was sent to all who came to the house.<br>

Richard<br>

P.S. The mother is an attorney!</p>

<blockquote>

<p>So bring your product and contract into line with what people want and how they are likely to behave, and make sure whatever you give out is great quality - there are always going to be some people who will want the best.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Good answer. This all falls into the realm of what is known as <em>Marketing</em> .</p>

<p>From Pride-Ferrell's "<em>Marketing</em> , <em>Concepts and Strategies</em> ":<br /> <strong><br /> Marketing concept</strong> : A philosophy that an organization should try to provide products that satisfy customers' needs through a coordinated set of activities that also allows the organization to achieve its goals.</p>

<p>Amy,<br /> <br /> I am sorry that you felt so violated to begin with. But it looks as if you have turned this into something positive. Best of luck to you, I hope that your business continues to do well.</p>

<p>"I gratuitously photographed a neighbor's prom party, gave them an edited CD and slide show, and received a thank you note with one of the images of her daughter and her date enclosed. A copy was sent to all who came to the house.<br /> Richard"<br>

.<br>

What's your point? You freely shot the event, and freely gave them a cd of the images with (apparently) no other comment. I'd assume you gave me a gift to do what I like as well.</p>

<p>"You're not alone. <br />I gratuitously photographed a neighbor's prom party, gave them an edited CD and slide show, and received a thank you note with one of the images of her daughter and her date enclosed. A copy was sent to all who came to the house.<br />Richard<br />P.S. The mother is an attorney!"</p>

<p>It sounds like that's what you intended as you gave a photo CD for an event you shot for free. They were clearly happy with your work so you should feel good about your gift.</p>

<p>For orders, I put my copyright on the back of each photo that I provide. For "giveaways" I include my copyright on the bottom right corner on the front of each photo.</p>

<p>So, if someone says they tried to have a photo scanned at Kinko's and Kinko's refused, you can deal with it on a case by case basis. </p>

<p>Obviously, the above does not stop individuals with personal scanners from scanning your photo.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Look on this in a growth manner I suspect that the reason she told you was perhaps that she perceived that if you were to do it it would cost allot more:<br>

Going with the unpopular coments:<br>

It sounds like you really put allot into things and produce a fantastic result. This I hope you are charging for. Ultimately the face on the picture owns the copyright to the reproduction of the image. However I feel that it sounds like you have charged for a one off result. I would feel agrevied if someone tooka picture of me and then expected me to pay everytime I used the image, ie an avatar on a social website<br>

Is it possible that you charged a fair price for a picture but that is where your input ends, with the (beautiful)final result?<br>

Like a painter, you get money for the Original, but not for the fakes, photograph's of the original... Does Leonardo Da Vinci get royalties from every single book that has published copies of his concepts? No, same thing with Monalisa, does the artists family receive royalties for every tea towel sold with her smile on it? and the qualities never the same...</p>

<p>Sorry, but you need to accept that people are people. Go back to her and ask her if she would like you to do the same thing but with your professional quality? </p>

<p>Cheers G</p>

<p>All, <br>

First of all I started this post with "Why do I feel so violated" not because I really felt violated but because I wanted to get people's attention and get all these great answers! You guys always come through! Phew and it worked. It's one of the top threads of the day! I love that level of discussion<br>

Mostly, I was slightly irritated but being a solutions person I wanted to figure out a way that I can have a little more control over this issue (as I know people break copyright laws all the time, just like I go a little too fast in my XC90 from time to time). I appreciate everyone's comments- they are all very insightful, even Justin's who seems to have a chip on his shoulder. :)<br>

I have decided to slightly raise my package prices (yes, I sell prints, not disks and really enjoy it) and include 50 announcements as a part of every package and see how that works. I assume most seniors will need at least 50 announcements but some will need more which will generate more revenue as they will be able to purchase additional announcements a la carte. What do you guys think?<br>

Now I am going to start on a new thread. Disks versus prints.</p>

<p>Photography should be fun. This thread is a reminder to me why why I enjoy landscapes and wildlife photography.</p>

<p>Copyright & Work For Hire vs. General Public</p>

<p>Amy,</p>

<p>Permit me to share my perspective: As a recording engineer, I have witnessed the same evolution in technology and debate over copyright take place in the music industry years before it hit the photography community.</p>

<p>Some points of clarification:</p>

<p>Original author retains copyright in work unless contract is a work for hire, and ownership is transferred.</p>

<p>Owner of copyright is entitled to compensation from all revenue sources - downloads, teatowels, coffee mugs, ringtones, etc.</p>

<p>This is standard practice at professional level between business entities and contracted content providers; be they photographers, authors, composers, etc.</p>

<p>Owner of a CD or DVD is permitted to copy onto computer for personal use - but not disseminate over internet. The RIAA doesn't care if you copy your CD onto your iPod - they care if you upload the CD to Limewire so 1000 college dorms have free access.<br>

Anyone's opinion of large entertainment / music corporations notwithstanding, that is the law as currently written.</p>

<p>As to the issue at hand: The general public knows & cares nothing about the finer points of copyright: Most would balk at being told they are not allowed to reproduce or muck with digital files of images they have bought.<br>

Trying to tell them they didn't actually buy the image, just the photography services attached to it, will be lost on them, as will the finer points of ownership of a single image's reproduction license vs. copyright.<br>

They own it, they bought it - is the likely thinking.<br>

And btw, few lawyers are familiar with the nuances of copyright and publishing, unless they specialize in the field.</p>

<p>So proactively re-working your business model is a smart move: offer the additional service - possibly throw it in for free, as a promotional item (adjusting your prices to cover print costs) and possibly a tiered option for, say, flattened or layered Photoshop files.</p>

<p>Perhaps co-ordinate with the schools to offer a simple pre grad season training class on effective image tweaking to all the proud parents? In a word-of-mouth business, this is what will set you above the competition, and garner you tons of good will.</p>

<p>As an aside, although it's a tricky area, I have concerns with providing amateurs original files to play with; if the results look awful, the photographer is blamed, not the wannabe photo editors.<br>

Likewise, having worked in music production for nearly 3 decades, I have witnessed firsthand how labels, artists, managers, etc. can royally screw up a recording because they didn't know what they're doing - and the studio was always blamed. Digital technology has simply made this more common and easier to do. I deal with it every week:<br>

"No, your drummer playing with T-Racks on his laptop will not give as good a result as my 30 years of experience and $100k of handbuilt equipment - sorry for being a buzzkill, dude."</p>

<p>Nothing will change this - so being flexible, proactive, and having a sense of humor goes a long way.</p>

<p>Best of luck; and get used to feeling violated; it's the artisan's curse: just be thankful patrons can't throw artists in jail if they don't like the results, like in the good old days...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>+1 Kerry</p>

<p>People are going to scan your images either way. Its pretty standard and the "nporm" especially when you goive them a disk of their images. Its also just for a grad announcement (not an ad campaign!). Just factor this in and charge a bit more for your work if you have to. I prefer to make my money on the front end and not waste my time with reprint orders and such anyhow. its an anoying waste of time and Id rather be shooting than running to a phto lab.</p>

<p>Look up copyright fair use and see if that clears up your feelings. The woman clearly 'broke' copyright law, but it is just on the edge of fair use, so that you would be wasting time pursuing a settlement, after all the woman only saved some money, she sure isn't profiting. How much money would you have reasonably made from those graduation announcements? Since you are working with alot of graduates, are you offering down the line services such as the announcements, reprints, and so on? The best way to avoid this is to spell things out clearly in the beginning, in writing for one, but verbalize what you are able to do for your clients and why it is better for you to do it, rather than themselves. Express what it means to you to retain quality control over your images. Once you've done eveything you feel you could have, it's really out of sight out of mind, and just keep working on the next project...</p>

<p>An option that hasn't been brought up yet is to talk about these things up front. I always tell my customers to let me know if they need a file for a special purpose--whether it be an announcment, thank you card, blanket, pillow, mug, collage poster for reception, etc. I am more than happy to provide them with a properly sized file for the purpose or make arrangements to have the file sent to the printer/vendor. I've done enough of those things in the past that I know how to prepare a file for various heat transfer and printing methods. I can't say that I've ever had anyone abuse my generosity in this respect. In fact, I believe most of them see it as a favor and are very grateful that I'm NOT charging them an arm and a leg for a special project.</p>

<p>Amy go with less less announcements: say 10<br>

That way you have given them a taster, and will cover their core family needs, then when they need more they can either hash it themselves or give you a call because they need more. <br>

But they will have a difference in quality and be confused who to give the lower quality ones to...</p>