Selling Images. Brides wanting DVD of Orginals. What Do You Do?

thanks - all of these responses have my evaluating and thinking over structures, and breaking down what i do etc... i appreciate every one of them. ;)

What about all the space required on my hard disk drive, which is taken up, and the responsibility of the originals? Yesterday the mother of a child I photographed at a baptism, asked for the originals, both images and cassette from the video, I replayed positively at an instant.(saying I could charge 10 euros only for the tape) finding this discussion proves my hesitation that followed. The normal fee for a baptism in Greece starts from 250-300 ? where 100 goes to the cameraman. The prices can reach an amount of say 800 ?.

When the mother asked for the tape my first response was that the originals are pneumatic rights of the photographer, her response was that an other photographer in the area had freely given them the tape from their wedding. (Could be a lie) You have convinced me to charge extra, but still there is the chance of a unsatisfied customer that will be talking bad of me in a small area.

I just started reading this thread (it came up in a search for something else).

 

I wonder if things have changed in the 10 years since it was last posted.

 

I don't know about weddings, but I do know that more and more professional portrait studios put the CD or DVD into their packages.

 

From the film days, I knew of wedding photographers that, at the end of the day, gave the bride a bag full of undeveloped film.

 

Presumably charging appropriately.

 

Maybe this is the unbundling that is coming in many places now.

I knew of wedding photographers that, at the end of the day, gave the bride a bag full of undeveloped film.

I used to do some weddings at a country church for young people who didn't have a lot. Cost of two rolls of 35mm film, two mailers and $25 for the photog. Seemed to work for the customers -- no complaints -- a little better than half a century ago.

This is a tricky one. I never used to give out my files because I wanted to ensure the highest quality at every stage of my process.

What finally made me decide to be a hard case on this topic was a bride who was a bit older and was marrying for the third time. It was the most sour looking group of people I have ever encountered. It was film era and the deposit check bounced. Foolishly I took a second check for the full amount, which also bounced. Then the bride called and demanded a full refund and wanted all the prints and all the negatives and threatened to call the sheriff if I didn't comply. My response was the legally required 10-day notice about the bad checks and then my own trip to the sheriffs office. I finally got paid but it was a huge pain, not worth the trouble. I finally decided to never give negatives and now files of any kind to anyone ever. So far no problem.

 

Rick H.