Do you offer a CD of images? Should you?

PeterR717

Not only CD's but any method of getting original or Hi-Res images to your customers - but NOT part of an all-inclusive package.

The way I see it and based on what I've been noticing, there are two distinct schools of thought on this.

One that says: Making a CD available to customers at all reduces profits and is a poor choice.

This is a conflict with the notion that today's computer savvy customer base would balk at not being able to post their photos on Facebook or some other social networking site. But it does make sense.

The other says: The market is steering towards digital so ignore that at your own risk.

This makes perfect sense too and as a customer I'd want the digital files. BUT as a photographer I don't want them taking the photos down to a 1 hour place and printing off lower quality images and being disappointed. I also don't want to lose out on Print Sales because I charge a bit more since I use a pro lab and have overhead to consider.

So I'm torn. The quick answer may be to just include the CD as part of the most inclusive package.

I'm really interested in the conversation on this one. So, what do you think? What do you do?

Glort

What market are you refering to?

I offer Cd's for sports but not for wedding, portrait etc although I cannot remember the last time I sold a print for my glamour work. I include all the images on Disk and use that to my marketing advantage.

I think the endless concern about some lab not making the most perfect print of some shooters image and it destroying their reputation is a load of unfounded and outdated fear mongering.
I have been selling disks for years and NEVER once had anyone come back and complain.

In reality, people will look at the images on their own computers before they have them printed and have a good idea of what they look like. If they come back from the lab looking crap, then I think any intelligent customer worth worrying about will know this and appropriate blame where it is due, IE, the lab not the shooter.

Many years ago when I got onto a great referral source for budget weddings, I offered to give the film back to the clients for them to have printed. Worked much better than the alarmists would give credit for however i did have someone come back and say they were justifiably dissapointed with the sub standard prints they got from a local lab I told them not to go to ( but they went because they were $2 a roll cheaper than anyone else) .

I had a roll reprinted at the lab I used and gave the images back and the clients saw the difference and went back to have their pics reprinted properly.
After that I used to have the first run prints made so those shots set the standard and any prints they had done that were sub standard easily showed where the problem lay.

Along the same lines of thought, these days I do a print or 2 and give that to the client as a Bonus with their CD ( depending on the market) so again they can see the quality in the images and anything sub standard is not for a second attributed to me. This straight away knocks out any problems for my images being blamed for being of sub standard quality and allows me to exploit a lucrative delivery of my product that customer like.

Of course the other thing is, these days, if the shots are good to start with, the chance of the lab making bad prints is small.
Yes. I'm sure it still happens just as shooters get prints they aren't happy with from pro labs, always have, always will but I don't sweat the little stuff or base my whole business on the minor off chances.

I go with the fact the chance of problems are low and the fact i have not to have any yet, so not worth worrying about a potential situation that has not arisen in contrast to the constant good feedback i get from happy clients.

If you are one of these pedantic people that are more concerned with making every single pic -Your- work of art over simply giving the client what they will be happy with and pay money for, then i would suggest that you don't offer CD's.

OTOH, if your in the game to make money while filling the clients needs and want to focus more on the repeated positives than the hearsay and never personally experienced possible negatives, I would say CD's are a great way to go.

Snowgirl

Good points, as usual, Glort. I had two photographs printed at two different labs: Bay Photo through SmugMug and my local Walmart.

At my next event I will have the four photos (two of each) hung side by side so clients can see the difference.

If they want to print at Walmart, peachy - but don't blame me for colour cast, blurring etc. The quality coming out of that lab definitely depends on who is working that particular day and how they adjust the machines; whether or not the ink is fresh and topped up; etc.

I'm still toying with various models but have decided to stick with the pre-booking model for horse shows. At least that way I get SOME money for showing up and the rest is up to the client. For the "reservation fee" the client gets my shooting services and at least one digital image for their personal use on Facebook etc. all other digital or print images are over and above.

My next big event is mid-October. I'll let you know how it goes.

chrisjohnson

The number of people who buy cds with the idea to save a few bucks on printing is vanishingly small. Most do it for archival purposes. For people who want prints you should be able to sell your own quality control.

We also vastly overestimate the number of clients who are able to take a digital master, crop, compress, and then upload to facebook or output to their screen of choice. When this a big market we are better advised to make and sell a special cd optimized for web posting, iphone, eg. It could also be there is a market for slideshows to fit HD TVs.

Anyway, CD is yesterday. Today you can get USB sticks with your own logo that plug and play with PCs and TVs, and you still will not be giving away the digital original when that is so important to you.

If there is a trend here, it is towards publishing for display screens versus paper.

Glort

I haven't seen that sort of Difference here.

I was away a few weeks ago and realised I had some left some prints at home i had made to give to a friend. I had the images on my laptop so dropped them onto a USB and drove around till i found a shopping centre and went into the K-Mart equivalent store and had them printed.
I couldn't fault them.

I have had the same experience before when i have had prints made at these places, the have all been good. I used to set up minilabs for Kodak when they first became all the rage way back in '87/88 but I thought they were far more self calibrating now. the labs I have seen here certainly seen to have improved in consistency from one to the other but you are of course entirely correct, it all depends on who is working on the day... although these days. that -should- matter a lot less.

I have been doing onsite printing for almost 18 months now and i'm very happy with the results i'm getting. I have compared my prints to ones I have had made at my trusted lab a few times now and I'm convinced the prints I am producing with only normal setup is at very least on par and in a good amount of circumstances, better.
I would really not have thought this was possible a short time ago.

The other week i got onto a source of bulk roll paper at a give away price and initial tests with this have been amazing. I was hoping this paper would be usable without too much compromise on quality but it's far better than what I have been using before! That was unexpected!!

As a result, I'm going to buy a heap of this paper ( as in many thousands of prints worth) and look at getting a bigger printer as well.

Depending on what you are making from prints Vs CD's and what your personal preference's are, maybe you could include a "Prefered" labs list with your CD's so people know where to get good quality prints done.

I did this with the wedding work I was doing which would be far more localized than what either of us do now but back then in the days of film, you couldn't upload your images to a place 1000km away by lunchtime and have them on back on your doorstep by 10 am the next morning.

If you do better out of prints than CD's, then stick with what makes you the most money. If you want to offer disks, then a preferred labs list may help prevent problems.

PeterR717

Thanks for all the input. Glort, especially!

I'm really not too worried about the customer having "my" art. These are their images. (I don't want them to buy 1 4x6 and duplicate it 100 times but I haven't met too many people that would, so that doesn't scare me.)

In fact, it's not even the lab quality, I've gotten a few bad prints from a local lab in the past but they were able to correct the problem for me. I'm sure if I got a complaint I'd be able to educate the customer a bit. The preferred lab list and a couple of samples from each is something that I've been planning to do actually so it's good to see others have that same strategy.

So, let me ask you this. When you do offer both prints and a CD (or a USB drive which is infinitely easier and more impressive) - how do you price the CD? Does the existence of the CD decrease the profit from that customer?

mercphoto

Since I've got back into event photography after nearly 3 years absence I've noticed something. It used to be the 4x6 was the big seller. I seldom sold a CD or a digital file. I'd get some 8x12's too and the rare 20x30 print. Now I'm selling only individual digital files or CD's. The only time I've sold a paper print was for a collage (which I used to only sell as a print and not as a file) or when I've sold a print-on-metal (which most customers cannot buy for themself, or don't now where to go). The thing I like about the CD is it means I'm getting a set amount from that customer.

I've recently started bundling the CD with a 16x20 print-on-metal and that is starting to take off. I can offer the bundle at a price savings to the customer and still put more overall $$$ into my pocket at the same time.

My experience, if I didn't offer the CD I'd be selling next to nothing. I don't think people have much need for prints anymore. Certainly not like they used to!

Glort

PeterR717 wrote: »

So, let me ask you this. When you do offer both prints and a CD (or a USB drive which is infinitely easier and more impressive) - how do you price the CD? Does the existence of the CD decrease the profit from that customer?

We do about 50% Cd/ print.

My Disk pricing is $50 for up to 5 images, $60 for 6-9 and $75 for 10 and above.

I tend to find the profit and spend is higher with disks than prints and they are easier to sell and upsell.