Ok I have a delimna and I trust you all more than anyone else.

My studio philosophy is low volume, high end sales. I work out of my home but it is well decorated and taken care of and looks like a studio.

My main types of photography is wedding and seniors.

My problem right now is trying to figure out some wedding stuff.

I know alot of people who use pictage for their wedding client galleries. They love it because pictage does everything for them. They charge the client, print the images, advertise, etc.

My problem is that as a boutique studio I have trouble letting go of this control. Right now I use a service that charges the client then that order comes to me and I retouch, print, package and mail. The problems with that is that:

1. They only allow one shipping charge so it is often not enough.
2. If I give the client a discount it discounts the shipping too.
3. Non-clients (family of friends of the bride and groom who did not make the choice to hire me) do not understand my style, quality, or pricing. (What $79 for a 5x7????) They also don't understand that they aren't buying a piece of paper. They are uneducated.

Part of me thinks that giving up control, lowering print prices for online wedding order only, and not doing the extra retouching may be a good idea.

The other part of me hates the idea of my images not being perfectly presented.

I also don't want the bride and groom ordering these unretouched images at all.

So my questions is. What to do?

I am tossing around the idea of doing the pictage/collages thing and telling the clients that this is will be a lower cost, unretouched images for their friends and family to order from. But then offering a second price list of signature images that would come from me.

I know I sound confusing. That's because I am confused!

Candice

I think the biggest question is how many weddings you shoot each year. It sounds like you've got a really cool Boutique thing going, and if you're shooting not that many weddings/year Pictage might not be right to you. Especially if you want to airbrush/retouch each image before printing...

I don't think it's the best idea to split your services, having your clients order through you and their guests through Pictage, since I kind of think that distracts from your boutique brand.

One idea would be to use Pictage for basically everything and then have "signature prints" or something like that which are a series of prints that are retouched like crazy and available only through you...just a thought!

Sounds like you would be better off with a self-hosted solution like PickPic or Photocart. To me, pictage is what everybody and their brother, and uncle bob offer, so to be different I'm self hosting. Currently with Proofbuddy, but that will be upgraded as soon as my print sales start taking off.

I have been with Pictage for the last 2 years and shoot primarily weddings and family portraits. A few ways you could make Pictage work for you is:

1. You can use Pictage for both brides/grooms & their guests... Tell your brides to put all of her favorite images that she will want prints of in a folder and you can retouch them and then re-upload before she orders. And for the guests, they can still just order right off the site.

2. There is an option in your perferences to have all orders shipped to you first. That way you can package it the way you want to (although, I like the pictage packaging in the tissue paper, and black box)

It has really freed up SO much of my time since I went with Pictage. I was beginning to hate getting orders because I would have to run all over town getting things printed and shipped. I love getting the "consumer transaction" notice and knowing I have to do NOTHING to get that check in the mail!

Not sure if that helps at all, but thought I would give you my .02

Candice, I think your primary concern here is related to identity. Given your studio description and options, my suggestion is to go even more custom and refined. I think you should separate yourself that much further from what others are doing, and charge accordingly.

If you can work it in, I agree with Matt that you should acquire a gallery/shopping cart solution that is fully customizable. Once set up and seamlessly functioning with the rest of your workflow, you maybe all the more satisfied.

I left Pictage because they not only did nothing significantly beneficial for me, but perhaps more because I also wanted full control while offering signature products and services. You will lose much of that if you go with them.

I agree with all of the others. It sounds like you have a really great thing going and you might mess up the cool idea you have. I am a Pictage member and have been for nearly a year now. I have just recently stopped cursing at them and throwing things etc...I use almost NONE of their products (with the exception of the willow books). The $99 a month would go a long way toward someone to help you with the orders and keep the personal touch. Just my two cents worth.