Hi All! Do most of you include a high res CD of images in your packages? If you do, do you still make money on prints? If you don't offer the CD, what do you tell clients that have this request.

I don't like to hold the "negs" hostage...I understand why they would want to have them for archival reasons...

So, how do ya'll handle it in your businesses?

Curious, MJ
Santa Barbara, CA

QUOTE (amary_jane @ Feb 28 2005, 01:52 PM)

Do most of you include a high res CD of images in your packages?

... a CD doesn't hold much these days!

Just teasing - but it's true....

We will offer all the files for $500 (on DVD) ...and we find we still make money on print orders coming from friends and family...and actually just the other day we got a $500 order on Pictage from a groom who we already sent all the files too??? ...I think Pictage is just easier for them - so they buy the "negs" because that's what all the websites and magazines tell them to do but then they don't know what to do with it so they order the pictures from us! I love it!

i push all my clients to buy the 'negs' just cause it's more money upfront...In my business, for where I am at the moment I don't expect my clients to buy $500 worth of prints so if I can get them to pay an extra $500 for a DVD that's worth it for me.

I include a CD/DVD of the original selected files with my package but they're only "available upon request one year after the wedding." Most clients never come back and ask for it.

And yes... I actually just got a customer who wrote me and said "I think it's been over a year so we'd like the CD, and we also have an order..." and it was nearly a $500 order ;-) I simply fulfilled the order and dropped the CD in with it, quite nice.

--Dan Dawson

Hmm, yes I meant 7 CD's of images...tehee

For some reason I am having trouble buring DVD's...I'll figure out sooner or later....BABYSTEPS...

Thanks for all the insight guys...

Cheerio! mj

Great question, MJ! I currently have a $1000 buyout option, but after 5 years, I give them to my clients at no additional charge.

I give clients the option to buy the negatives for $500. But, I tell them that they need to make sure a professional lab prints the pics. Otherwise if they go to Costco, the pics will look like crap.

They usually will have them printed through me anyway. Now that I am with Pictage, I imagine it will be even easier.

Kurt

This is such a touchy subject, but . . .

One (of the many) negative aspects to giving your clients the high-resolution files is that now they (or some mini-lab rat) are in charge of printing the images. When they display a bad-looking representation of one of your images and someone asks them who took the photo, do you really want them to say your name if the image looks crappy?? Of course not, but they will anyways -- and you may have just lost your next client.

Oh, so true... !! But, it seems like that might be impossible to prevent. However, if the files are good quality and correctly color managed...from most printers, I think they will turn out looking o.k. But, from what I'm hearing it seems that even if you give them the CD, a majority still end up going through you because of the convenience factor. Sometimes I love how absolutely lazy this culture is..!!

I've actually had some awesome prints done at Costco. You just have to make sure the file is perfect...because they don't do any color managing...Sometimes you just can't beat a $3 8x10...

Thanks for all the input!

Carry on...

Ciao! mj

MJ,

That is totally true. I think there is actually a list online somewhere that contains the profiles of every single Costco and Sam's Club Fuji Frontier printers.

About $3 8x10s . . . your pro lab shouldn't be charging you too much more than that anyways and you will be guaranteed great results with them!

Cheers,

Brian

I second and third the warehouse photo labs. I have a part-time job in one because I need health insurance and haven't got my business off the ground yet.

I've been in the photo retail/lab business since 97, and worked in places where a 35mm roll cost sixteen dollars a roll instead of the warehouse's low five, and usually the warehouse prints look better.

It's not a question of the Company as an entity, it's a question of the person running your prints. I've had extensive color theory from my art college and have been working several years in the area, if I were to run your prints, I'd do a better job.

If I were on lunch and the optical person were covering my area, they wound'nt know junk about anything.

The Warehouse I am at now has a faster and better printer than the Frontier- it's the Noritzu 3111. It spits out prints in five minutes from the time I see it on the screen until it rolls out of the gate.

The printer profiles can be found at :
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Frontier/

I think customers just want the 'option' to buy them. I have found that to be most important. I offer them to my top package only. I keep raising and raising the DVD price every 6 months or so.
~Alisha

I only offer high resoultion on files on CD, I have not used DVD for this yet. I offer all high resolution files accoding to finish, color images for $500, b&w for $600 & sepia for $600

I had a guy at a lab tell me it was not good to store images on DVD because it compresses the images more then they would be on CD is this true, has anyone else heard of such a thing & experienced any issues?

I've never heard this, but I'd be real interested to know a bit more!!

Anyone else have any info on this?

That's a bunch of crap. You can see on the burn software how many megs it is taking up, and it is the same on both the DVD's and the CD's. DVD's take 4,000 megs and CD's take 700.

I have not heard this either. If the files were compressed, it is doubtful that it is in the same manner as image compression (think lossless for JPEGs). It is more likely a system file compression like .zip or .sit as it would have to happen when the files were copied or when the disk was burned. Either way, it would be great to know if there is an image quality loss! (Incidentally, you meant "carp" right? As in the fish, or the city by the sea...)

As far as digital files, we also sell them, but do so based on the number of hours we photographed. We used to charge a flat rate but realized that in having people were spending the same amount of money for 200 photos and 1200+, we were devaluing the higher quantity photographs. We also build the files into a few packages, but do so according to our $/hour guideline.

We haven't had any pushback using the above method, nor have we seen a drop off in print sales. The people that are going to sidestep us and make prints themselves, would try to find a way to do it anyway, even without the "real" files. I've seen people scan prints from a proof book, or print a totally pixellated screenshot from their online proofs. Silly people.