Digital downloads questions..

Markjay

I'm getting ready to setup digital downloads on my smugmug site
(thank you SOOOO much for this, Smugmug!) In fact, I'm going to change that site to a completely download image ONLY site! I have another site for all other business. This will be a great experiment for me... I'm anxious to see what happens.

Meanwhile...my initial questions which I didn't see in the help section on this new feature (apologies if I missed it somewhere)

1. Does the file they (the prospective customer) download relate directly to the file / image I have uploaded on my site at that time? In other words...
are they downloading the exact size / file that they are viewing?
So for example: if I want to offer wallpaper images in the size 1024 x 768, does my uploaded image have to be that exact size?

2. If I watermark the image that is being viewed, what will my customer receive for a downloaded image?

3. This is not necessarily a smugmug asnwer but: if I allow the customer to download a file, shouldn't I be concerned about how that one file could snowball into : share it with aunt Joan, who shares it with her daughter, who makes printed images from the file / worse possibly... sells the printed images at some art fair (man would that take a set of _alls to do!)??

I have sold images to commercial enterprises. however, these were reputable businesses that are knowledgeable and reputable enough to know not to attempt something on the order of selling prints of the image to ???

Thanks in advance for your replies! And again, apologies if these answers were burried somewhere I'm not aware of on the forum.

Have a great day!
Markjay

AnneMcBean

Hello! I'll answer your questions in-line.

Markjay wrote:

I'm getting ready to setup digital downloads on my smugmug site
(thank you SOOOO much for this, Smugmug!)

You're welcome.

Markjay wrote:

In fact, I'm going to change that site to a completely download image ONLY site! I have another site for all other business. This will be a great experiment for me... I'm anxious to see what happens.

Good luck! Let us know how it goes!

Markjay wrote:

Meanwhile...my initial questions which I didn't see in the help section on this new feature (apologies if I missed it somewhere)

1. Does the file they (the prospective customer) download relate directly to the file / image I have uploaded on my site at that time? In other words...
are they downloading the exact size / file that they are viewing?
So for example: if I want to offer wallpaper images in the size 1024 x 768, does my uploaded image have to be that exact size?

Yes. We offer up to six options: original image (personal or commerical, 4 Megapixel (personal or commerical), and 1 MP (personal or commerical).

This page should help: http://www.smugmug.com/prints/digital-downloads.

If you want to sell a specific size that is NOT 1 MP or 4 MP, the best way to do this is to upload an image that is the specific size you wish to sell... and only price the original image download. Make sense?

Markjay wrote:

2. If I watermark the image that is being viewed, what will my customer receive for a downloaded image?

We take your original image and use it to make the digital downloads. Your original is never watermarked, so no worries!

Markjay wrote:

3. This is not necessarily a smugmug asnwer but: if I allow the customer to download a file, shouldn't I be concerned about how that one file could snowball into : share it with aunt Joan, who shares it with her daughter, who makes printed images from the file / worse possibly... sells the printed images at some art fair (man would that take a set of _alls to do!)??

Excellent question. Perhaps someone else has a better answer, but I think a certain amount of trust is involved. The buyer agress to the personal or commercial license when they purchase the digital download.

Here's a tip from our help page:
Tip: We'll preserve IPTC, EXIF, and other metadata in the JPEGs that are sold. Should your image be posted online or used inappropriately somewhere else, you may be able to track it. This isn't fool-proof but it is still probably worth your time to properly pre-fill those fields prior to upload. It is a big first step in making sure the terms of the license are followed.

I hope that helps! Holler if you still have questions.

-Anne

dogwood

Markjay wrote:

3. This is not necessarily a smugmug asnwer but: if I allow the customer to download a file, shouldn't I be concerned about how that one file could snowball into : share it with aunt Joan, who shares it with her daughter, who makes printed images from the file / worse possibly... sells the printed images at some art fair (man would that take a set of _alls to do!)??

Just to add my two-cents-- this is why I price my digital downloads higher than similar prints. Most people get this-- you essentially lose control over your digital files people buy, so they cost more. There is an element of trust and common sense-- if your customer is sharing with Aunt Joan, it's usually no big deal.

But if your image appears in say a print ad in the local weekly to sell an event... well, that can start getting messy. I find with the digital downloads I sell that most people buy the low-res versions, so prints aren't a concern, and they end up using them on blogs or myspace so it's not really a big deal. Hope that helps. Someone on the business forum/thread/topic could probably address this in more depth.

j-bo

I've taken this approach. I only will set up a digital download by request. I also will only make it 640x480 at 72ppi. I price it at $5.00 and upload only the resized image I take, and I have a seperate gallery just for digital downloads. If someone wants to make a print off that, so be it. I won't give out the higher res pics unless someone really, really wants it and I price it accordingly. That's only happened once.

The above is just keeping the honest people honest, and keeping the non-savvy pc people honest.

Still, think about this. If someone wants to make prints and give them to whomever, they can do so without even paying for the file. It is that easy to "pilfer" any photo off the net.

dogwood

j-bo wrote:

I've taken this approach. I only will set up a digital download by request. I also will only make it 640x480 at 72ppi. I price it at $5.00 and upload only the resized image I take, and I have a seperate gallery just for digital downloads. If someone wants to make a print off that, so be it. I won't give out the higher res pics unless someone really, really wants it and I price it accordingly. That's only happened once.

The above is just keeping the honest people honest, and keeping the non-savvy pc people honest.

Still, think about this. If someone wants to make prints and give them to whomever, they can do so without even paying for the file. It is that easy to "pilfer" any photo off the net.

One more thing to add-- scanners! I sold a guy a 5x7 print recently and he e-mailed me a thanks and included a scanned copy of the 5x7 so I'd know who he was!