Pictage = feedback wanted

I'm trying to figure out a plan for after the photos are taken (I believe I'll

be doing a couple of weddings but probably mostly portraiture this

spring/summer). When I looked up info about Pictage on photo.net it was

overwhelmingly negative, and probably too expensive for the volume I plan on

having. I also do not have a website. So I was thinking about using Smugmug for

viewing, orders, and a site. OR Simplephoto plus WHCC. Smugmug seems like a good

all around solution for me, but maybe I could get some feedback? Anything I

should know? With either of these am I going to need another company for albums?

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

Elizabeth

RIGHT!

At least from my personal experiences, Pictage caused me a lot frustration on numerous occasions.

 

There are so many to online services to choose from now... digilabs.net, printroom.com, collages.net all look pretty good to me and more economical than Pictage. Some offer coffee table style books, some do not.

 

Since you do not have a website, find one that allows you to customize your galleries with your own logo, etc.

I would love for my competition to think that pictage is horrible - the fewer people who

use it, the more competitive advantage I have. I have been with pictage since 2004 -

before I was ever serious about weddings. There have been nothing but improvements

every single step of the way. I started out with pictage merely being an online shopping

cart solution, and I ended up getting so much more. I got an online community of

photographers, who share trade secrets behind private doors, I got local photographer

meetings where networking and idea sharing happens, I got a turn-key solution for

marketing, sales, packaging, credit card processing, and printing.... and I got it free for a

few months before I ever had to pay a penny. I've learned that no lab is perfect and that

eventually they will all let you down at some point. Pictage has really impressed me over

the last few months with the ways in which they have responded to many of my personal

requests and demands for improvements to the service. That is reason enough for me to

stick with them through their growing pains. I still shop other labs and online shopping

solutions... and none of them come up with as many personal benefits to my business as

Pictage. PS. With Pictage, you don't need another company for albums... and they will

design your albums for FREE... or you can completely customize them on your own with

their online software.

You're right, Pictage is overpriced. One of it's two founding members, Gary Fong, is a master of marketing - the Ron PoPeil of photography. His products however, from Lightsphere to the new nutritional supplements he is promoting are mediocre at best. Smugmug is everything Pictage is for a fraction of the cost. As for the album solutions, just send the CD to GraphisStudio or Scott Taylor (Google these) and they do the album design for free too...if you want it.

 

I'm not anti Pictage, it's just that there are many other vendors offering as good as or better service for far less money. Gary Fong will just have to invent another worthless piece o'plastic to make his millions. Pictage has had its day.

Pictage has been a very good business move for us since we started using them about 3yrs ago. Never looked back!

Thanks for the answers! Smugmug has a free trial, so I'll start with that. I know there are a few people who swear by Pictage, but I've just heard too many bad things:(

Funny how some of these people just try to throw stones without ever trying anything. These are the same people that "hate Canon/Nikon" depending on their equipment. I am very new to being paid for my photography. I joined Pictage last June and have had more inquiries and bookings from people that have found out about me than I would have ever gotten from advertising. Pictage has been nothing but professional from day one. All of my customers have been extremely happy with their Pictage experience. All of my weddings will be on Pictage this year as well.

Is their really a price to put on professionalism? If I wanted what everyone else wanted because of the price I would just use walmart.com for all of my printing as they are even cheaper than Smugmug.

isn't there something were pictage sends a bunch of e-mails to your customers....i thought i read that and i would hate that....i think anyway....???

oh and anthony - how did people find out about you on pictage....can you elaborate...???

Pictage in partnership with weddingchannel.com allows brides to search their area for photographers. Also, if you go to the home page of Pictage.com you can find a photog in your area. Pictage allows me to have an ad there. Brides can find me in the Indiana or Kentucky region.

Yes Pictage does send clients emails about 2 for 1 promotions and when the pictures are available but I have never had one complaint from anyone about spam. They send emails trying to sell my products.

I guess if that is bad than maybe I will make less money.

thanks for answering...;) yeah...i don't know i'm very much about only "me" contacting a bride...but its good to know some people are very happy about them....gary fong....seems to having it going on marketing wise...what can i say...good on him! this is america!

I have started using www.instaproofs.com - they have an unlimited amount of events you can post online - no yearly fee or anything. They take 15% of your sale - no including shipping charges) - I just raised my print prices that much. They do not offer printing. They provide the site to view pictures, they take the order by credit card, then they email you with the order information. It comes in an excel form (very cool) with the file numbers, sizes, address, etc.

Then I ftp my files (or just take them) to my local professional printer and when I get them back ship them to the customer myself. I like this since I still control the printing. I also love my local printer - so I wanted to continue to support them.

Prices are all set by you - including shipping. You can have many different pricing schemes set up if you want to charge different prices depending on the event. You can also password protect the photos if desired. I found it easy to use after I got used to it. This way I am not out any money initially and only owe them if I make money. They will pay me through paypal or by check twice a month.

Try Photoreflect.com. Their Darkroom software is easy to use, and they only take a percentage based on you sales. If you don't sell anything, you don't pay anything. When you are selling, they send you a check every two weeks--have never had any problems with them. I have used it for quite a while and it serves my purposes well.

I've looked at people's pictures on pictage before, and got weekly emails about how I needed to order pictures or albums or whatever because the gallery would be expiring. I got really tired of it, and I didn't even know the couple that got married!!

While I've not used Pictage, I can't complain about the Lightsphere/"tupperware" light modifier Gary sells. :-)

 

I have tried Pictology and so far I like it. They don't charge anything to try it. If you need more than 2 events a month, they do charge a fee. And they take a cut of any photos sold. But I think it's worth a try. I made up business cards with instructions on how to view the photos on Pictology and distributed them at the reception. I didn't get any sales but I've only used them once so far. I guess we'll have to wait for the final results after I've posted a few more events. One job isn't a good test of how well they work.

Pictage just published their new community site for photographers - we've had this all along

as members, but now it's available to the public as well...

 

http://www.pro.pictage.com/community/media.html

Yeah I was pretty disappointed with pictage, found http://OneclickWedding.com and I love it. The galleries are beautiful and easy to use. They upload and handle all the work needed to get the photos online.

I was suckered into joining Pictage recently after months of badgering from their sales

team and offers of reduced prices and a free book. Now I am so frustrated it's not funny!

They are all marketing (themselves) and very little support and definitely NOT USER

FRIENDLY at all. Pictage REALLY SUCKS. It took over 5 hours to upload via ftp only 400

image, ok maybe not their problem, then it took eight attempts to finalize the upload, but

after all that I got an error warning on THEIR site that I could could not submit my "event"

because ONE file was a .TIFF and not a .JPEG and that I had to start the process all over

again. PICTAGE is not worth the price or the hassle. I live in Southern California where they

are based so I actually got to meet Pictage Rep Debra Gerson at a "PUG" (pictage user

group, where big name wedding photogs who I'm certain get paid a kickback from Pictage

spout about how good it is) - what an unhelpful bitch - they do not care about their

customers! NO TO PICTAGE!

I just joined Pictage and excited to start utilizing their services. I've his some road bumps getting images uploaded. One thing that seems a bit strange... When you upload images a customer service rep needs to post them before you can view the images. Because this doesn't happen automatically there can be a bit of lag time before you can get started marketing your images or designing your albums. Additionally, if you need to "replace" an image it also requires customer service to have a hand in it. After you "replace" your image you need to send an email form stating that you would like them to exchange the image. I'm in a bit of a time crunch on a current order and I'm waiting (now until tomorrow) for my image to update so I can place my order. I don't want to talk trash about Pictage, because I think they have a lot to offer, and everyone I've spoken with has been helpful. I think it's just a system that I'll eventually get used to.

I've got a mixed review for pictage. Although I usually like the prints, I can't stand that

they crop everything unless you order it uncropped (and really whose consumers know

how to do that?) I've been less than thrilled with their charging me immediately for orders

I place, and taking almost a month to credit my account for orders placed by consumers.

Amazingly, they are the slowest at adding money to my account and filling orders at the

end of the month just before they send out checks, or charge your credit card.

 

I'm also pissed now that I realize they have been charging me a surcharge for each image I

order as a rush, plus a flat rush fee, plus shipping and handling - it added almost $75 to

my last order, and I was NEVER ever told about the rush surcharge. Their site is nice and

pretty, but that doesn't make up for all the misery. Not worth it, trust me. The "community"

doesn't even exist in Kansas City, and when I offered to host the events here, they said no

thanks. I moved here from Southern Cali, and I can assure you that those pros all work for

pictage in one way or another, and aren't having the issues the rest of us lowly working

photogs are.

 

Note to everyone, they are no longer associated with wedding channel.com (the knot

bought them out) so that resource is now gone, and that is how we were getting the

referrals, not from the pictage site but from weddingchannel.com - so I am willing to bet

those referrals are gonna stop coming in all together now.

 

I'm shopping for new solutions, and will make a decision after WPPI in Vegas, where I can

see everything and test stuff out.

 

Eyeselect has a good option to host your own online proofing and shopping, and you can

order from a lab that ships free to save some serious green.

Five hours to upload 400 some odd images to Pictage? I wish. It will take five full DAYS this week to upload 467 images. I have confirmed, through a little tooth pulling, that the server is "backed up". No kidding.