Photography & the digital age. Goodbye to print markup??

peestandingup

I am strictly a hobbyist photographer. I don't sell my prints nor do I work any odd jobs in photography for money. But I do know my way around a camera & am keen to the business aspect of it. And I know that when I personally hire a photographer to take shots of my family at a small outing or some other similar situation, I personally look for one that will give me the original files that came straight off the camera & not hold them for ransom while selling me prints at huge markups.

Yes yes, I know that this is how a lot of Pros make their money & I can respect that. But my feeling is, I would rather pay a flat fee for the photographer's time of the shoot & have my originals forever rather than have to keep coming back to them each time I want a print of something, like some kind of drug addict. For one, I dont know what the photographer will eventually do with the originals. So what if 10 years down the road I wanted another print of my baby daughter that was shot in the park that day? Oh, the guy's out of business now & a carpenter?? Oh well, goodbye memories I guess.

See where I'm getting at? And besides, prints will probably become extinct at some point. Maybe not anytime soon, but I guarantee there will soon be other affordable ways where people can display photos of their loved ones around their house (like with small LCD displays, etc), and you can bet they'll need the digital copy to make that happen.

So, do you guys think that all these things will force photographers to adopt a more liberal relationship between their customers & the original files? It certainly seems like the old "buy prints only from me" model is becoming sorta old school in the digital age.

P.S. I'm not talking about selling art photography. More like event photography.

Blaker

peestandingup wrote:

And besides, prints will probably become extinct at some point. Maybe not anytime soon, but I guarantee there will soon be other affordable ways where people can display photos of their loved ones around their house (like with small LCD displays, etc), and you can bet they'll need the digital copy to make that happen.

So, do you guys think that all these things will force photographers to adopt a more liberal relationship between their customers & the original files? It certainly seems like the old "buy prints only from me" model is becoming sorta old school in the digital age.

P.S. I'm not talking about selling art photography. More like event photography.

I think a lot of portrait and wedding photogs have already changed their business model and are now charging a lot more upfront in order to give the client a cd of digital .




And, the media we store our digital files on may not be all that stable either:

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/homemade-dvds-going-going-gone/?hp

johng

business of any kind is darwin at its best. Adapt or die. Some pros are already adjusting their model but some resist for good reason. If I control the prints then I control the quality of those prints. As an example, I photograph all the family events. My father has a nasty habit of just using his laser printer at work and printing out photos on 8x10 office paper (i.e. non photo paper). Looks terrible but he doesn't care. Problem is - for my paid work I don't want someone doing the same thing. A friend / relative sees that and immediately my credibility takes a hit.

Additionally you get Joe Hobbyist who launches photoshop and mangles the image before printing. Again the resulting print which can be viewed by family / friends which are potential future clients looks bad. That again reflects badly on my work.

In reality I doubt there's much argument left regarding loss of income due to unauthorized printing. Anyone with a couple years experience will have an idea what they make on a given engagement and just shift the income to a front loaded contract.

I can't speak for others and my photography business is a VERY small part time business in sports photography. But for me it's the quality control I'm nervous about giving up - not revenue.

private

I do sell my photos digitally but only AFTER I ask what size will you print them. (noone has ever asked for anything bigger than 8x10, most is 4x6) I never sell untouched digital files SOOC - I do present the best product I can, now all of that being sd, that will not stop someone from butchering the photo, but I suspect that person is the minority - and a small price to pay to make someone happy. And maybe they will tell two frinds and so on...:D

Cygnus Studios

peestandingup wrote:

So, do you guys think that all these things will force photographers to adopt a more liberal relationship between their customers & the original files? It certainly seems like the old "buy prints only from me" model is becoming sorta old school in the digital age.

100% of my commercial work is done this way now. The clients use the images for their website, billboards, magazine ads, ect. I control the image with usage rights.

The little bit of portrait work that I do is priced with a limited number of edited images as part of the package. Additional images are placed on my website for extended friends and family.

Sports and events are also priced with a limited number of edited images.

While there are still plenty of opportunities for large prints and even the person who likes prints, the vast majority of people today like the media available. Images for the web are growing. Frames that allow digital images, and now bigger and better digital keychains will change the market in a lot of ways. I don't see the print market ending anytime soon, but more photographers will have to change their business model to reflect this.

God bless the photographers who make art and make a living selling prints, but I have found that it is easier for me to earn my pay before I ever press the shutter.

mercphoto

peestandingup wrote:

I am strictly a hobbyist photographer. I don't sell my prints nor do I work any odd jobs in photography for money. But I do know my way around a camera & am keen to the business aspect of it. And I know that when I personally hire a photographer to take shots of my family at a small outing or some other similar situation, I personally look for one that will give me the original files that came straight off the camera & not hold them for ransom while selling me prints at huge markups.

Its my personal opinion that photography is moving towards a cost-based pricing system and away from a value-based pricing system. People want to pay for the costs of capturing and delivering the images. What they don't want to pay for is the added value of each additional print. Or, when it comes to companies, they want to pay for the cost-of-capture but not pay for the value that image gives them in a regional ad, and pay more for the extra value the image gives them in a state-wide ad, and more still for the extra value the image gives in a national ad.

But I can certainly understand why people are leary to sell digital files when they have no control over how the final print will look. If it looks bad they will blame the photographer and not the person who made the print. And that can hurt your word-of-mouth advertising.

Dave Clee

This is a great topic for discussion. I know when I first got into the wedding game a few years back, my business model was getting paid for my time to shoot the wedding and deliver final images to the client. This would include a cd of the finals that were ready for print. I thought this would make it easy for me..Shoot, edit, CD and on to the next one. I also thought the clients would appreciate having the control over the prints and not be forced to use me exclusively...

Well after 2 years that hasnt really worked very well. Multiple times I have gotten the phone call from a frustrated bride complaining about print quality.

So what I now offer is to handle all of the prints as well, but at a very fair price. This seems to have worked better for the last 2 weddings. I am happy b/c my final work is on good prints and the client is happy b/c the photos look good and are very affordable.

Cheers

Dave

ChatKat

Depends on the client and more
I think that any event photographer has to look at their own client to make that determination. Sure you can give digital negatives. But if the client wants a really finished image, they're paying for more than just that.

Most of my sales are now 16x20 and larger, framed or canvas gallery wraps or albums/books for portraits. I include a small digital file for social networking with a minimum sale. But realistically, if they take a silk purse to wally world to print, they get a wally world quality. But those of us who are pros don't use that kind of paper, have labs that support high end work, with great finishes to the images and the knowledge to make a piece worthy of hanging above the living room fireplace.

When I do an event, for those in attendance who want images, I use my smugmug site but still finish images to my specs. The Bride and Groom can have a CD for my happy price. Guests can go to my site and buy images. The client is paying for that too because they want my expertise. I don't shoot with a Kodak Brownie - my gear is top notch. I'd rather not make money and sell and show only quality stuff.

Otherwise, for me, I have another career that supports my camera addiction.