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lisa_c10

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Posts posted by lisa_c10

    Losing customers because everyone wants the images

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>I gurantee a certain amount of photos and do let them choose them from the proofs. I mean there have been several pictures I have taken that I loved and the bride never picked them and I do give the brides prints of my favorites when I send them the proof cd on on 5 x 7's that I touch up.<br>

    I think its wrong to pick out the best 30 pictures and say here you go I think these are best and your stuck with them. People all have different tastes and I like to give people a choice but I am not going to pick their pictures for them or re-tocuh (smooth skin, remove acne, etc) 200+ digital images.</p>

    Losing customers because everyone wants the images

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>David,<br />The main reason I asked this question was wondering if everyone else is getting the same question of the digital prints asked to them. I do have enough weddings and portraits sessions booked and I am keeping busy but I have had more than my share of the can I get digital images with my package questions in the last couple months. <br />Let me ask you for say a wedding do you touch up every image for the client? Providing 200+ touched up photos is a lot of work. I usually only retouch the photos that the client actually buy for what they want printed. So on your model you give them a print release that allows them to print as many images as they want? I do provide clients with the options of low resolution photos for facebook and social networking sites and the price is really fair.<br>

    To the person who said not to watermark the photos on the proof disc. I do not anymore I use flip album pro thats both mac and pc compatible and I create a nice digital photo album and I protect the images with the software from being copied.</p>

    Losing customers because everyone wants the images

    in Wedding & Event

    Posted

    <p>We have a quite a few local photographers and tons more of fly by night photographers using very stock equipment. Seems I am losing quite a bit of business to these people who really could care less about their work and just looking for the quick payout and here is your disc with your wedding pictures enjoy type of deal.<br>

    <br />My prices are descent for this area and it seems quite a few brides in my area don't think a photographer is that important to whole wedding ceremony and never budget properly for one. I mean just the other day I get an email of a brde who wanted to do a portrait session right after her wedding because it was cheaper. I turned it down.<br>

    <br />So back to problems, sorry if I got a little side tracked. So in the past couple months I have given out several quotes and met with several brides so my advertising is working and I am getting calls and I realize people will shop photographers and I am not against that. However usually you hear in a face to face meeting with a bride when they ask and lately they always do. "So you just give us the images and we print it ourselves right?" So then I go into my speech about the quality of the lab work of who does my photos and that its better than walmart. Then I tell them I don't give out my digital pictures and thats an extra fee of $60.00 per photo which you get a discount the more you order or the entire set for an extra $1000.00. Usually you hear the tone in the brides voice and at that point you lost them. I explain to them that the reason I do this is how I set up my business model and that I put a value on my photos I take and that I am not just going to give up my work like other fly by night photographers like off of craigslist who advertise weddings with all photos for $150 bucks. I have talked and seen some of these people out there and they don't even have the proper equipment to shoot a wedding. So I know the brides aren't getting phenomenal pictures. The biggest issue is there are so many around and the prices they offer are dirt cheap.<br>

    <br />Then the email quotes after I mention that I don't have a print your own package. I never hear from them again but no other pros in my area do print your own without having to paying extra and they are in a similiar boat as I am.<br>

    <br />I have talked to other friends of mine who live in other states who are photographers and they always tell me my prices are too low and people are getting a lot for what I offer in compared to my area. A friend in CA said I would be doing 2-3 wedding every weekend if I charged that price in California.<br>

    <br />I have considered doing a contract photographer approach and charge a flat fee and the pictures are yours for $350.00 a hour. I have also considered testing a digital portrait package which comes with 25 edited photos for $350.00 with a one hour session to try to drum up business. Those are my current considerations and other than that I would apprecaite other ideas or other ways to say to brides I don't give away my photos. All my packages include prints and they get quite a bit lab quality prints for the money they are spending.<br>

    <br />I do pride myself in my photography and my pictures and I put a value on these things and I was taught by another photographer to never under value your work because if you do other people will see that also. So any adivce out there on any of what I mention but in my mind I feel the deal killers with these weddings and ever some portrait sessions is that I don't include the digital cd and I make sure to mention that the proof cds are low quality and watermarked and the reason for this is I had a bride tell me a few years ago that she couldn't see the pictures properly with my watermarks, and they are really light and it was obvious to me she was going to try to print her own.<br>

    Thanks in advance,<br />Lisa</p>

    Color space and profile questions?

    in The Digital Darkroom: Process, Technique & Printing

    Posted

    <p>I just have some questions about color space between two different programs. I use ACDSEE for my raw processing where I make most of my adjustments and then I use Photoshop CS4 to make final adjustments.<br>

    I do have a calibrated montior profile using a spyder. My question is should I be putting my input profile as my calibrated monitor profile within the ACDSEE and CS4? If my monitor is calibrated with the profile through windows shouldn't I see how things should be without putting the profiles into ACDSEE and CS4? <br>

    I do not notice a difference if I set everything to the monitor profile. However it embeds my ICC profile into the pictures in CS4 when its set that way. For example CS4 used to be set to SRGB IEC61966-2.1 as the workspace and I can notice sublte difference in the pictures especially in the reds which in certain pictures can look really bad.<br>

    Now I do sometime send proofs to my clients via email and I am wondering if I should be embedding my ICC profile into it or just keep it at SRGB which is the standard for most but they will see something different than I do. I also have my proof setup with my labs ICC profile to check my work so I know its going to print the way I see it.<br>

    So my questions are :<br>

    1) Shoudl I set my workspace input profile in both ACDSEE and CS4 to my calibrated monitor profile? Or is having my profiled monitor set in windows accurate enough?<br>

    2) Should I sent my clients proofs via email with my profile embedded or just use the SRGB IEC61966.2.1?<br>

    3) I know for the web proofing gallery most of my clients use IE so its ignores ICC profiles so do I have to edit the pictures twice once for my liking under the profile on how they will print and once for the web to use the SRGB IE6?<br>

    Now I haven't had any complaints and I just want things to be as accurate as possible for all.</p>

    <p>Thanks Lisa</p>

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