Do you give digital images to clients?

[mike_godwin1]

<p>I do mostly portrait work such as senior, professional, and family. I also do a lot of Biker (motorcycle) events.<br>

For the in-studio portrait work I have a set price I charge. A package of prints is included in the price.<br>

All portrait and Biker photos are put online for purchase and printing by a pro lab. Low resolution images are also available online for purchase and downloading.<br>

Lately, I've had more and more clients ask me for copies of all of the high resolution images on CD. I've been very hesitant to do this.<br>

Do you offer this? If so, how much more do you charge for this? Do you water mark the images? Do you worry about clients taking the images to their local grocery store for a 1 hour print?<br>

Inquiring minds want to know.</p>

<p>Thanks<br>

Mike</p>

 

[don_cooper]

<p>I provide a CD/DVD with a slide show and the full resolution images. That's the way I price the job, don't care what they do with the images after they get them. Obviously, if you do this you must price accordingly.</p>

[daniel_jones7]

<p>Are you trying to make money from the prints and reprints(along with the extra work) or are you trying to make money from the actual shoot/session? If your business model relies on reprint business, and your print charges cover your cost and time than don't give full res images. When I was doing Body Building shows I had two pricing structures. I intentionally priced my reprints high, to encourage buying the full res CD. I had different size packages for that..5 images/10images/etc..most people know if they get a decent sized image file they can print for as low as .10, besides if you upload an image to mpix, shutterfly, etc, they tell you how big you can print it up to.<br>

I posted all the pics on my website at medium resolution and watermarked all of them</p>

[mike_godwin1]

<p>Thanks guys. I never really gave it much thought before but after doing a bit of reading, downloading a demo copy of ProShow, and realizing I have everything in the studio to do the DVDs, I think I'm going to offer it as a service. I'll still give them my standard print package with the shoot and offer them a DVD with a slide show and the full size images they can print anywhere for a little extra (well.. more then a little).<br>

Pay me now or pay me later.</p>

<p>Thanks again<br>

Mike</p>

[karen_lippowiths]

<p>Daniel Jones has it right. It depends on your business model.</p>

<p>As part of my business model, I want to make more on the "back end" of the shoot in the sale of prints and products. While I do offer digital proofs, they're at a price more than 5x the price of the same size print (and I offer them in 5x7 and 8x10 at 300ppi). I do sell many of them and I'm fine with that AT THAT PRICE. </p>

<p>Consider the overall time it will take to do a session, regardless of the deliverables you produce. I spend approximately 10-15 hours per client, no matter what I sell (I only do portraiture and I only do in-person sales, so you can consider the time you spend based on what you're shooting and how you're selling). I not only need to make my time back, I need to PROFIT. If I were to shoot and hand over a disk, I'd better take into consideration the time I've spent to do everything (phone calls, driving, shooting, proofing, etc.) plus the extra to administer my business, pay taxes, and have something left over for me. That's not happening for less than around $1500.</p>

<p>I sell digital images a la carte (beginning at $375 per image for a 5x7) and the whole session on disk at a price that's a "discounted rate" if you factor in the number of images on the disk, but still prohibitively high for most. I don't hard proof any images until they've been purchased, so I don't want to hand over a disk for, say $500, if I have to proof every shot (requiring a couple hours of work). Too much time and potential profit lost. But that's just me. <br>

There's nothing wrong with selling on disk, just be sure you're taking ALL of your costs into consideration. Good luck! </p>

<p>- Karen Lippowiths</p>

[jeff_truitt]

<p>I price my services per image retouched and printed. I also give a digital copy of that image for use on business cards, facebook etc. 100% of my clients require a digital copy. I never give all the images taken, only those I have already sold. I really don't expect to sell the same print over and over again. Maybe other looks from the same shoot but not the exact same print. It does not hurt my print sales because I make it clear that local labs may not give the correct color reproduction. They still will order some extra's if they did not get enough at first.</p>

[mike_godwin1]

<p>Thanks again for the advice. I was hopping to make a few more dollars off the print sales but noticed more people say they give the digital images to the clients. I may just keep doing what I do now but start offering a CD to clients with a slide show and medium res images for another price.</p>

<p>The way I do it now is:</p>

<p><strong>Studio Shoots</strong> - The client pays one price for the shoot. With that price they get 12-15 4x6 proofs to take home. They like having something they can hold in their hand plus they look better then seeing them online. From those proofs they pick 1-11x14 2-8x10 4-5x7 16-wallets. That way I kinda force them to get a few prints. Since I started doing this, I've sold a few more prints on the back end.</p>

<p><strong>Biker Shoots</strong> - Images are put online for print purchase. These I sell enough of to pay for the website. (I need to start running around with a better class of bikers.. naa) I don't really advertise myself much at the biker events since most are shot "street" style from a distance. People usually find them and me by word of mouth.</p>

<p>I also make low-res images available for purchase and download in both cases.<br>

Thanks again for the help..<br>

Mike</p>