No More CDs

sara505

I am trying to get to the point of not offering a CD with my photography services. I worry about (and have seen) the inferior prints that people invariably end up with from local grocery store photo labs. IOW, I want full control.

I was hoping to refer my brides to Blurb, as a way of circumvneting my having to give them the CD with which to make their albums, but I have discovered that Blurb is only accessible by people with a SmugMug account. This means, unless I want to give them access to my account - which I do not - I have to build the book myself, and I do not want to get involved with making books.

Any suggestions out there?

Thanks in advance.

urbanaries

sara505 wrote:

I am trying to get to the point of not offering a CD with my photography services. I worry about (and have seen) the inferior prints that people invariably end up with from local grocery store photo labs. IOW, I want full control.

I was hoping to refer my brides to Blurb, as a way of circumvneting my having to give them the CD with which to make their albums, but I have discovered that Blurb is only accessible by people with a SmugMug account. This means, unless I want to give them access to my account - which I do not - I have to build the book myself, and I do not want to get involved with making books.

Any suggestions out there?

Thanks in advance.

Hmmm....If you don't want to get involved with making books, I don't see how you're going to get around the digital negs issue. The only idea I have is using an expensive (~100/mo) service like Pictage, where guests can select images for a coffee table book. But for those books there is no layout, just one photo per page. For "real" albums, someone has to design them, although Pictage does offer a free design service. In my experience with them, the process of uploading and cataloguing/sharing photos is almost as much trouble as designing the album itself.

I guess I would turn the question around for you...What are you showing your brides when you sell them a wedding package? What options are in demand for your customers? Are they interested in the Blurb product for their wedding album?

SavedByZero

sara505 wrote:

I am trying to get to the point of not offering a CD with my photography services. I worry about (and have seen) the inferior prints that people invariably end up with from local grocery store photo labs. IOW, I want full control.

You can have full control but you also may have less clients as result of that desire. I've sold my negs to couples and what they did and where they got their prints made wasn't my concern at that point or now. I've suggested pro printing labs to have their prints made at but if they when there or to Eckards/Walgreens/CVS or Wal Mart I had no control of.

You best defence against this is a great selling offence. Show the couples prints made at local 1 hr shops and then show them the higher quality prints and luster surface they can get from you. And if they still choose to take the CD to make their own prints, sell it too them and point them in the direction of a pro quality lab on teh net or in the area to goto.

Oh yeah full or total control is an illusion.

sara505

urbanaries wrote:

Hmmm....If you don't want to get involved with making books, I don't see how you're going to get around the digital negs issue. The only idea I have is using an expensive (~100/mo) service like Pictage, where guests can select images for a coffee table book. But for those books there is no layout, just one photo per page. For "real" albums, someone has to design them, although Pictage does offer a free design service. In my experience with them, the process of uploading and cataloguing/sharing photos is almost as much trouble as designing the album itself.

I guess I would turn the question around for you...What are you showing your brides when you sell them a wedding package? What options are in demand for your customers? Are they interested in the Blurb product for their wedding album?

I offer my brides a web site, a spiral-bound proof book, and a CD. I mostly deal with people who want to make their own album. I was playing with the idea of keeping everything simple and in-house, while at the same time allaying my concerns about the finished product. But the trend seems to be to include the CD, which makes snese on many levels, and which I will continue to do. Especially since it is not yet possible for customers to access Blurb.

mercphoto

sara505 wrote:

I offer my brides a web site, a spiral-bound proof book, and a CD. I mostly deal with people who want to make their own album. I was playing with the idea of keeping everything simple and in-house, while at the same time allaying my concerns about the finished product. But the trend seems to be to include the CD, which makes snese on many levels, and which I will continue to do. Especially since it is not yet possible for customers to access Blurb.

The trend to CD does not necessarily mean you need to be part of it. When Amy and I went shopping for wedding photographers we saw many who did not offer a CD, or only did so in their larger packages or for a tidy sum of money (both of which I can understand - let's face it, the digital images are VERY valuable to the client and should be priced accordingly).

Getting around the issue of poor prints should be simple. Don't give them a proof album, give them 4x6's printed professionally and correctly from the very same files you gave them on CD. This should not be expensive to have done (and if it is too expensive then I would suggest your package price is too low). And it gives the client a reference image -- if what they got back from Walgreens doesn't look like the 4x6 you supplied them they KNOW the problem is not your files.

I can understand you not wanting to do the wedding albums yourself. That's a graphics design skill that you may not have, might not want to learn, or simply don't have the time to do. But the only recourse I see then is to give them the CD.

zweiblumen

mercphoto wrote:

I can understand you not wanting to do the wedding albums yourself. That's a graphics design skill that you may not have, might not want to learn, or simply don't have the time to do. But the only recourse I see then is to give them the CD.

Or find someone who does this already and start a business relationship with them. Find some Graphics Designer that is looking for some more work and you can add that into your package offerings. They get beautiful photos and a professionally designed wedding album all for the low low price of ...

My non-professional 2 cents.

mercphoto

zweiblumen wrote:

Or find someone who does this already and start a business relationship with them. Find some Graphics Designer that is looking for some more work and you can add that into your package offerings. They get beautiful photos and a professionally designed wedding album all for the low low price of ...

My non-professional 2 cents.

Come to think of it, not a bad idea. Both Asuka Book (www.asukabook.com) and Forbeyon (www.forbeyon.com) offer book design services. Forbeyon is considerably more expensive but their finished product is fabulous. They don't come cheap, but the results are very good.

dogwood

mercphoto wrote:

But the only recourse I see then is to give them the CD.

Well-- don't 'give' it to them, of course. Charge 'em for it!

This is just a bit off-topic, but I offer a select # of images from each shoot and allow clients to download the print res files from my website as part of the shoot fee. But I kept running into clients (mostly older clients) who insisted on a CD too.

Obviously they can make their own CD from the downloaded files. So now I charge $20 for a CD and guess what? My clients are suddenly willing to download and make their own CD. Funny how my time wasn't worth anything until they had to pay for it...

Like I said, a little off-topic. I generally recommend some decent photo labs in my area too-- and warn them against the corner drug store if they want high quality prints. Some people really don't mind crappy prints, but at least they've been warned!

Dee

There are software design programs such as AlbumDS that help with design by including page layouts, templates, frames, etc. I have no idea how much it costs but it would take a lot of the "design" work out of the projects.

I like designing albums and page layouts :-)

tonichelle

I think most brides want the CD/negatives not only for the first set of prints/album but also 25 years down teh road for their big anniversary they can have reprints made without having to hunt you down.

My mom would love to have new prints made of her wedding photos, but she cant as the photog up and left the area eons ago and she can't find out any info on where he is, if he's even still living.

I think if I were a Bride I'd also want a hardcopy just in case something should happen to my photos, or to make sure I'm not in the same boat my mom is.

just my two cents...