I was thinking the same thing as Nikolai. What is the point. Most people would just copying them to their hard-drive as well then and then recopy them back to another disc.
The only option around this is to *ahem* use Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 or 9 (there are bugs in 7 and previous versions) and save to the highest quality PDF. Set the security restrictions to printing only (can't copy the file, can't burn the files, can't edit the file, etc...).
I know a photographer and graphic designer that does this with great success. High-quality PDF in the professional versions uses compression methods that DO NOT degrade the image quality to a human eye. In fact, I've printed off an 11x17 in both ways and saw absolutely no difference with a magnifying glass.
Would I do this for every client? Probably not, but I know some people I would do this for. It's a little unorthodox, but it works.
"They've done studies you know. Sixty-percent of the time, it works every time."
The only option around this is to *ahem* use Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 or 9 (there are bugs in 7 and previous versions) and save to the highest quality PDF. Set the security restrictions to printing only (can't copy the file, can't burn the files, can't edit the file, etc...)..
As with all technology there's bad with the good. I was hoping for a way of preventing or making it difficult to pirate. Sounds pretty good there. Sounds like a nice investment. I know you can't make it impossible.
I did just imagine a scenario with people taking their disc home and putting it into their computer and not being able to download the pics-- then calling up the photographer and ripping them a new one for doing something "so cruel" and whatnot, or soliciting free technology support.
The value of the print has gone down. I really like the smugmug services. Fast turn around, super helpful, quick customer service and follow ups. All ym prints look great and it's easy for me to fill up a cart, auto pay and I'm done. I can't stand going to walmart and ordering stuff. It's a hassle to me... but I spend roughly 17 hours a day on the computer. I know. I'm developing wrist issues. Some of it's for fun, most of it's for work.
As with all technology there's bad with the good. I was hoping for a way of preventing or making it difficult to pirate. Sounds pretty good there. Sounds like a nice investment. I know you can't make it impossible.
I did just imagine a scenario with people taking their disc home and putting it into their computer and not being able to download the pics-- then calling up the photographer and ripping them a new one for doing something "so cruel" and whatnot, or soliciting free technology support.
The value of the print has gone down. I really like the smugmug services. Fast turn around, super helpful, quick customer service and follow ups. All ym prints look great and it's easy for me to fill up a cart, auto pay and I'm done. I can't stand going to walmart and ordering stuff. It's a hassle to me... but I spend roughly 17 hours a day on the computer. I know. I'm developing wrist issues. Some of it's for fun, most of it's for work.
In a perfect world...
Unless somebody using a 64-bit Password Cracker, it is virtually impossible to pirate high-res images from Adobe Acrobat Pro 9. Version 8 had 32-bit encryption and that was tough....
Anyway, I don't know many people with the knowledge or wherewithall to actually learn this, get the software, let it run for several days, etc...
"They've done studies you know. Sixty-percent of the time, it works every time."
The value of the print has gone down. I really like the smugmug services. Fast turn around, super helpful, quick customer service and follow ups. All ym prints look great and it's easy for me to fill up a cart, auto pay and I'm done. I can't stand going to walmart and ordering stuff. It's a hassle to me... but I spend roughly 17 hours a day on the computer. I know. I'm developing wrist issues. Some of it's for fun, most of it's for work.
In a perfect world...
No to mention, print quality at Walmart is on par with an old dot matrix...
"They've done studies you know. Sixty-percent of the time, it works every time."
No to mention, print quality at Walmart is on par with an old dot matrix...
I know. There are about two high quality, trustworthy printers within 30 miles of my city/area. One of them is in town and a camera shop and the other has a giant lab of some description. They make really big art prints.
I know the quality isn't there. I find myself just uploading and ordering from online photo providers just because they use freakishly huge high quality printing labs for around the same cheapy price.
Encrypted, multibit, locked down, you say? Hmm.
I'll have to much on that one a bit. It won't make me all that marketable since all the area photographers do the work/time/pics and a disc with all the images for a roundabout price of 500-1,000. I don't want to do that and I don't particularly like doing a wedding for someone and the photos are up on myspace and photobucket the next day saying "Ok, steal me!"
Short of laser guns and adobe acrobat 9 I don't see much hope in keeping the pirates on the high seas.
The only option around this is to *ahem* use Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 or 9 (there are bugs in 7 and previous versions) and save to the highest quality PDF. Set the security restrictions to printing only (can't copy the file, can't burn the files, can't edit the file, etc...).
And then of course comes, hilariously, Win2PDF printer driver, which would in a matter of seconds convert your super-protected-encryped-print-read-only PDF to a wide-open-hack-me-anytime non-protected PDF
It's a millenium old sword-vs-shield (weapon-vs-armor? what's correct English idiom?) problem.
It's a millenium old sword-vs-shield (weapon-vs-armor? what's correct English idiom?) problem.
yes, see, you're getting it now....dropping the rope is very freeing!
There are LOTS of $10K plus wedding photographers who give away negatives.
The 4x6es and 5x7s don't matter if they're printed on a dotmatrix, viewed on your grandma's crappy 15" monitor, or printed at WHCC.
Now...the 20x30s......my clients always seek my input on those and wouldn't dare to order those elsewhere. Those are the prints/mountings that *really* matter, and I would like to sell more, but you know what? Including CDs isn't affecting those sales as far as I can tell. Clients are either the type who want to use their photos as wall/art decor, or the type who think that's vain/tacky whatever and are fine with just their album.
yes, see, you're getting it now....dropping the rope is very freeing!
.
FOr every good technological advance their a hack twin on the other side. I'm getting that tattooed on me "In a Perfect World..." I say it an awful lot...
I know the 4x6s will look fine. It's the people going to walmart, target, etc for those big prints that makes me cringe. It's the people who do home print that really, really make me cringe. You know they do it. They go to Kmart and pick up some glossy paper not made by their printer's company and fire that baby up for some dotty prints tell-you-what. Then they complain of the "quality of the photo." I've never been on the photographer's end of that but I've heard blame for crappy home printing from the camera sucked to the "printer cord isn't translating the 'jpigs' properly." People say effed up stuff when they are mad about modern technology that they don't understand. I could go on. I just have to say "How many mega-Pickles is this camera?"
I've never had that experience with 64-bit ecryption before. I rarely use the 128-bit function. I don't see how it is possible for Win2PDF to convert a protected acrobat file without the loss of quality and a ton of hassle. I'll try it tomorrow though.
"They've done studies you know. Sixty-percent of the time, it works every time."
I've never had that experience with 64-bit ecryption before. I rarely use the 128-bit function. I don't see how it is possible for Win2PDF to convert a protected acrobat file without the loss of quality and a ton of hassle. I'll try it tomorrow though.
Yes go, go little hacker boy!
I can't help being pessimistic that there's no fool-proof method of protecting ourselves and fiendishly guarding our negatives.
The results either way shall be helpful, though.
I've never had that experience with 64-bit ecryption before. I rarely use the 128-bit function. I don't see how it is possible for Win2PDF to convert a protected acrobat file without the loss of quality and a ton of hassle. I'll try it tomorrow though.
It's very easy, actually. If you allow printing, then you can obviously print at a very high resolution. Win2PDF printer drivers catches the - totally unprotected - hi-res output stream (PCL/PostScript) and simply puts it back into plain PDF.
FOr every good technological advance their a hack twin on the other side. I'm getting that tattooed on me "In a Perfect World..." I say it an awful lot...
I know the 4x6s will look fine. It's the people going to walmart, target, etc for those big prints that makes me cringe. It's the people who do home print that really, really make me cringe. You know they do it. They go to Kmart and pick up some glossy paper not made by their printer's company and fire that baby up for some dotty prints tell-you-what. Then they complain of the "quality of the photo." I've never been on the photographer's end of that but I've heard blame for crappy home printing from the camera sucked to the "printer cord isn't translating the 'jpigs' properly." People say effed up stuff when they are mad about modern technology that they don't understand. I could go on. I just have to say "How many mega-Pickles is this camera?"
Tug of war. They pull. You pull back. They pull harder, you pull harder. But if you get yours upfront you can avoid even playing that game.
I'm sorry but I can't build my bizness on fear. Why am I in this business? I love to take photos for people who love my work. I do what I can to give them options for premium products...products that *I* think are on par with the level of photography they're getting. If they don't agree, so be it. I do what I can to prevent theft, etc but I have whined and cried foul so much over people's ethics that it is just not worth it anymore.
The same people who will print out a 11x14 on their home printer from a CD and then blame you are the SAME people who, if digital negs aren't available, will buy a 4x6, scan it on their $50 scanner, and print THAT out.
The same people who will print out a 11x14 on their home printer from a CD and then blame you are the SAME people who, if digital negs aren't available, will buy a 4x6, scan it on their $50 scanner, and print THAT out.
:cry and then they call the store they bought it from and complain about the quality of the printer even though the store stocked it and didn't MAKE it... and then the customer complains about being duped into buying it... wait wait.
>.<
Tripped a wire there.
I agree with you. It seems the people who haggle price super cheap will do anything to get cheap prints, including sacrificing picture and quality.<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/ne_nau.gif" border="0" alt="" >
I'll share my fav tech quote:
"Hello, is this your computer? What seems to be the problem?"
"It isn't working, I push the power button and nothing happens."
"Ok, I'm sure you tried all the buttons, let's get out the power cord and see what the problem is, how does that sound?"
"Oh, I don't have a power cord my computer is wireless."
You are a trip. So glad you joined us to spice our world up with your awesome personality. :tuesday
this is so simple its ridiculous. I used to include a signed letter, but clients would pitch it not thinking they needed it, then call me freaking out when they're at the counter and I don't have time to deal. So when I gather folders of images to put on the disc, I also create a plain text file (Using Notepad in Microsoft operating systems) called "COPYRIGHT READ ME". I simply drag this file on to the disc before burning.
Contains something like this:
All images copyright 2008 by Lynne Hulbert Photography, address phone number etc. A Personal Use release has been granted to John & Mary Smith for personal reprints. The images may not be copied, altered, distributed or sold in any fashion. This notice explicitly prohibits the commercial use or transfer of images. For any questions contact me at xxx-xxxx.
Hope this helps!
That's exactly what I do too. On the image cd I put Picasa and pdf files that have some info. Now only I can get the brides to use the resources I provide
That's exactly what I do too. On the image cd I put Picasa and pdf files that have some info. Now only I can get the brides to use the resources I provide
I have an update for everyone: The bride finally returned my phone call today. She said she was too busy to get back with me, but we arranged a meeting for her to pay for and receive her CDs with 4x6 images on them as was agreed in the contract.
I also told her that I would only have the galleries available through Sept. 1, which is plenty of time for people to purchase whatever they want, including several 8X10s that she wants to order. I just told her that I needed the space online and that those six galleries was taking up a lot of space. She agreed and said she would tell all of her relatives that the galleries would be taken down.
So, I'm going to just keep working with her, and not worry about any other family members. I signed the contract with her, and her parents are giving her the money to get the photos she wants. Pleasing her and the groom is really all that matters.
I do it also, all you do is put a plain text (notepad)(*.txt) file on the CD when you burn it. I usually use two files !Copyright.txt and !License.txt. By putting the exclamation point at the start of the file name you do two things, tell people this is an important file and make it first when sorted alphabetically. My copyright file is generic, the license file is specific and spells out what can be done with the images.
I have an update for everyone: The bride finally returned my phone call today. She said she was too busy to get back with me, but we arranged a meeting for her to pay for and receive her CDs with 4x6 images on them as was agreed in the contract.
I also told her that I would only have the galleries available through Sept. 1, which is plenty of time for people to purchase whatever they want, including several 8X10s that she wants to order. I just told her that I needed the space online and that those six galleries was taking up a lot of space. She agreed and said she would tell all of her relatives that the galleries would be taken down.
So, I'm going to just keep working with her, and not worry about any other family members. I signed the contract with her, and her parents are giving her the money to get the photos she wants. Pleasing her and the groom is really all that matters.
I would always work with the B&G only, it's their wedding. Not the parents.
I have an update for everyone: The bride finally returned my phone call today. She said she was too busy to get back with me, but we arranged a meeting for her to pay for and receive her CDs with 4x6 images on them as was agreed in the contract.
I also told her that I would only have the galleries available through Sept. 1, which is plenty of time for people to purchase whatever they want, including several 8X10s that she wants to order. I just told her that I needed the space online and that those six galleries was taking up a lot of space. She agreed and said she would tell all of her relatives that the galleries would be taken down.
Wow! 5 pages and you're still not listening.
First, you can't define image size on a CD. Even though you say they're 4x6s, they'll print 8x10s, 11x14s, and say they're great, because they're free.
Once you give that CD to the bride, and she makes copies, don't expect any print sales from any one.
As others have told you, get all of your money upfront from the B&G.
First, you can't define image size on a CD. Even though you say they're 4x6s, they'll print 8x10s, 11x14s, and say they're great, because they're free.
Once you give that CD to the bride, and she makes copies, don't expect ANYprint sales from ANYone.
As others have told you, get ALL of your money UPFRONT from the B&G.
No need to YELL!
I have learned a great deal and will do things differently next time, but there is no more UPFRONT on this deal. In the contract the bride signed, she asked for and will pay for a CD with 4x6s on them. When she pays me, she will get them.
I have learned a great deal and will do things differently next time, but there is no more UPFRONT on this deal. In the contract the bride signed, she asked for and will pay for a CD with 4x6s on them. When she pays me, she will get them.
One option for you at this point would be to make the resolution of those images pretty darn low, preventing her from printing a wall hog or something with them. (400 x 600 ought to be just plenty and low enough)
yes, that is exactly what I planned to do. that is my only recourse right now. expecting any more print sales from this is out of the question. I got great photos for my portfolio and the bride signed a model release form for later use.
First, you can't define image size on a CD. Even though you say they're 4x6s, they'll print 8x10s, 11x14s, and say they're great, because they're free.
Well, I respectfully disagree.
You can output your images at exactly 4"x6" at, say, 100 dpi.
They would still make decent 4x6, so-so 8x10, but anything bigger would be pretty lousy. And if they are happy with such crappy results, well, they would probably print them out of SM's medium size jpegs anyway, so there is really no way of stopping those except doing all the printwork yourself and not releasing any non-watermarked images.
For me it was a for a friend. The photographer I plan to work with negotiates his rates, I think. Always includes a cd and miracuaously still gets prints. I think it's just because he's so casual about it... or he's using subliminal messages!! That must be it!
I have a few contracts and agreements from several people now and will crunch it all down so I get a fair medium that makes me [and my wallet] happy.
Sound advice is always a happy for me. I was really happy to get the 500 though... it paid for my sick week and various expenses-- like the business cards I handed out. Which begs another question how do you get it out there to the wedding guests your website, contact info on a massive scale?? DO you request to be in the wedding program or announced at the reception, what's your strategy?
I totally hijacked this thread. Sorry.:cry
What do you charge Nik?
For all of my weddings I include up to 100 cards (sometimes bookmarks) w/ their engageent picture, my website and contact info. Then I have them placed at each table. This way if anyone wants to order prints, they can. I'm relatively new and have only tried this at one wedding. I had a few online orders, but not many. I have a few more posting now, though. We'll see.
I also live in a middle-income area. Most people around here can't afford to pay a minimum of $1500 for a wedding. My weddings start at $600 for 6 hours of coverage and they get $100 of prints (really about $25 my cost). And travel for this one is only 30 miles each way. I'm thinking about upping my minimum wedding package & seeing what happens. I have a handful of happy B&G now that are referring me.
For all of my weddings I include up to 100 cards (sometimes bookmarks) w/ their engageent picture, my website and contact info.
I do the same thing. I let the couple pick their favorite engagment picture. I get die cut wallets and use clear labels from Superior Label with gold printing and place that on the back. Usually these are placed at the tables for guest favors or sometimes at the guest register. I had one couple who passed them out as they worked their way around the reception hall. Eveyone loves a picture of the newly wed couple.
Dana
** Feel free to edit my photos if you see room for improvement.** Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if
no birds sang there except those that sang best. ~Henry Van Dyke
I do the same thing. I let the couple pick their favorite engagment picture. I get die cut wallets and use clear labels from Superior Label with gold printing and place that on the back. Usually these are placed at the tables for guest favors or sometimes at the guest register. I had one couple who passed them out as they worked their way around the reception hall. Eveyone loves a picture of the newly wed couple.
that is a great idea from both of the previous two posters! thank you for sharing.
Oh I don't expect them to, I guess I was making the indirect point that regardless of whether they spent $500 or $3000 on a wedding, folks will go with what's cheapest. Even though they spent all this money on my work, for the most part they aren't interested in spending an extra $20 for a professional print vs. a 29 cent Walmart one.
But why would you mark up the prints on SM when you've already given them the originals? If they have what they need to print, they are either going to go to the cheapest place (walmart or flickr) or their favorite place and print at cost. For those files which you've already given the clients the original, you'd may as well let them print at cost on SM, or not even bother putting them on SM in the first place. Either way, just do what the contract requires. The important thing to remember is that your prints will look a lot better when SM does them instead of walmart.
I know. There are about two high quality, trustworthy printers within 30 miles of my city/area. One of them is in town and a camera shop and the other has a giant lab of some description. They make really big art prints.
I know the quality isn't there. I find myself just uploading and ordering from online photo providers just because they use freakishly huge high quality printing labs for around the same cheapy price.
Encrypted, multibit, locked down, you say? Hmm.
I'll have to much on that one a bit. It won't make me all that marketable since all the area photographers do the work/time/pics and a disc with all the images for a roundabout price of 500-1,000. I don't want to do that and I don't particularly like doing a wedding for someone and the photos are up on myspace and photobucket the next day saying "Ok, steal me!"
Short of laser guns and adobe acrobat 9 I don't see much hope in keeping the pirates on the high seas.
The only thing you can do is price digital files with the assumption that you are only going to sell one copy and that they are going to be shared worldwide. In some instances, such as art and large group photos, you may not want to sell digital files at all. For some photo of someone's kid or pet, that no one else is going to buy, there is no reason not to sell the digital file because they are the only one who's going to buy it anyway.
Comments
The only option around this is to *ahem* use Adobe Acrobat Professional 8 or 9 (there are bugs in 7 and previous versions) and save to the highest quality PDF. Set the security restrictions to printing only (can't copy the file, can't burn the files, can't edit the file, etc...).
I know a photographer and graphic designer that does this with great success. High-quality PDF in the professional versions uses compression methods that DO NOT degrade the image quality to a human eye. In fact, I've printed off an 11x17 in both ways and saw absolutely no difference with a magnifying glass.
Would I do this for every client? Probably not, but I know some people I would do this for. It's a little unorthodox, but it works.
My Website
My Photo Blog
Twitter Feed
As with all technology there's bad with the good. I was hoping for a way of preventing or making it difficult to pirate. Sounds pretty good there. Sounds like a nice investment. I know you can't make it impossible.
I did just imagine a scenario with people taking their disc home and putting it into their computer and not being able to download the pics-- then calling up the photographer and ripping them a new one for doing something "so cruel" and whatnot, or soliciting free technology support.
The value of the print has gone down. I really like the smugmug services. Fast turn around, super helpful, quick customer service and follow ups. All ym prints look great and it's easy for me to fill up a cart, auto pay and I'm done. I can't stand going to walmart and ordering stuff. It's a hassle to me... but I spend roughly 17 hours a day on the computer.
In a perfect world...
*
http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=214042
Unless somebody using a 64-bit Password Cracker, it is virtually impossible to pirate high-res images from Adobe Acrobat Pro 9. Version 8 had 32-bit encryption and that was tough....
Anyway, I don't know many people with the knowledge or wherewithall to actually learn this, get the software, let it run for several days, etc...
My Website
My Photo Blog
Twitter Feed
No to mention, print quality at Walmart is on par with an old dot matrix...
My Website
My Photo Blog
Twitter Feed
I know the quality isn't there. I find myself just uploading and ordering from online photo providers just because they use freakishly huge high quality printing labs for around the same cheapy price.
Encrypted, multibit, locked down, you say? Hmm.
I'll have to much on that one a bit. It won't make me all that marketable since all the area photographers do the work/time/pics and a disc with all the images for a roundabout price of 500-1,000. I don't want to do that and I don't particularly like doing a wedding for someone and the photos are up on myspace and photobucket the next day saying "Ok, steal me!"
Short of laser guns and adobe acrobat 9 I don't see much hope in keeping the pirates on the high seas.
*
http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=214042
It's a millenium old sword-vs-shield (weapon-vs-armor? what's correct English idiom?) problem.
yes, see, you're getting it now....dropping the rope is very freeing!
There are LOTS of $10K plus wedding photographers who give away negatives.
The 4x6es and 5x7s don't matter if they're printed on a dotmatrix, viewed on your grandma's crappy 15" monitor, or printed at WHCC.
Now...the 20x30s......my clients always seek my input on those and wouldn't dare to order those elsewhere. Those are the prints/mountings that *really* matter, and I would like to sell more, but you know what? Including CDs isn't affecting those sales as far as I can tell. Clients are either the type who want to use their photos as wall/art decor, or the type who think that's vain/tacky whatever and are fine with just their album.
50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 35mm 1.4L, 135mm f2L
ST-E2 Transmitter + (3) 580 EXII + radio poppers
I know the 4x6s will look fine. It's the people going to walmart, target, etc for those big prints that makes me cringe. It's the people who do home print that really, really make me cringe. You know they do it. They go to Kmart and pick up some glossy paper not made by their printer's company and fire that baby up for some dotty prints tell-you-what. Then they complain of the "quality of the photo." I've never been on the photographer's end of that but I've heard blame for crappy home printing from the camera sucked to the "printer cord isn't translating the 'jpigs' properly." People say effed up stuff when they are mad about modern technology that they don't understand. I could go on. I just have to say "How many mega-Pickles is this camera?"
*
http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=214042
I've never had that experience with 64-bit ecryption before. I rarely use the 128-bit function. I don't see how it is possible for Win2PDF to convert a protected acrobat file without the loss of quality and a ton of hassle. I'll try it tomorrow though.
My Website
My Photo Blog
Twitter Feed
I can't help being pessimistic that there's no fool-proof method of protecting ourselves and fiendishly guarding our negatives.
The results either way shall be helpful, though.
*
http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=214042
It's very easy, actually. If you allow printing, then you can obviously print at a very high resolution. Win2PDF printer drivers catches the - totally unprotected - hi-res output stream (PCL/PostScript) and simply puts it back into plain PDF.
Tug of war. They pull. You pull back. They pull harder, you pull harder. But if you get yours upfront you can avoid even playing that game.
I'm sorry but I can't build my bizness on fear. Why am I in this business? I love to take photos for people who love my work. I do what I can to give them options for premium products...products that *I* think are on par with the level of photography they're getting. If they don't agree, so be it. I do what I can to prevent theft, etc but I have whined and cried foul so much over people's ethics that it is just not worth it anymore.
The same people who will print out a 11x14 on their home printer from a CD and then blame you are the SAME people who, if digital negs aren't available, will buy a 4x6, scan it on their $50 scanner, and print THAT out.
I'm a doctor, not a pool (wo)man.
50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, 24-70 2.8L, 35mm 1.4L, 135mm f2L
ST-E2 Transmitter + (3) 580 EXII + radio poppers
My Website
My Photo Blog
Twitter Feed
*
http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=214042
>.<
Tripped a wire there.
I agree with you. It seems the people who haggle price super cheap will do anything to get cheap prints, including sacrificing picture and quality.<img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/ne_nau.gif" border="0" alt="" >
I'll share my fav tech quote:
"Hello, is this your computer? What seems to be the problem?"
"It isn't working, I push the power button and nothing happens."
"Ok, I'm sure you tried all the buttons, let's get out the power cord and see what the problem is, how does that sound?"
"Oh, I don't have a power cord my computer is wireless."
Et fini.
*
http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=214042
That's exactly what I do too. On the image cd I put Picasa and pdf files that have some info. Now only I can get the brides to use the resources I provide
I won't sell out even if the whole world think's I'm crazy.
What does that last sentence mean?
*
http://member.onemodelplace.com/member.cfm?P_ID=214042
I also told her that I would only have the galleries available through Sept. 1, which is plenty of time for people to purchase whatever they want, including several 8X10s that she wants to order. I just told her that I needed the space online and that those six galleries was taking up a lot of space. She agreed and said she would tell all of her relatives that the galleries would be taken down.
So, I'm going to just keep working with her, and not worry about any other family members. I signed the contract with her, and her parents are giving her the money to get the photos she wants. Pleasing her and the groom is really all that matters.
www.pictureyourworld.net
http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/
http://www.onedayonepicture.com
awesome, thanks!
Have a good weekend (rest of it)
I would always work with the B&G only, it's their wedding. Not the parents.
Wow! 5 pages and you're still not listening.
First, you can't define image size on a CD. Even though you say they're 4x6s, they'll print 8x10s, 11x14s, and say they're great, because they're free.
Once you give that CD to the bride, and she makes copies, don't expect any print sales from any one.
As others have told you, get all of your money upfront from the B&G.
http://www.knippixels.com
No need to YELL!
I have learned a great deal and will do things differently next time, but there is no more UPFRONT on this deal. In the contract the bride signed, she asked for and will pay for a CD with 4x6s on them. When she pays me, she will get them.
www.pictureyourworld.net
http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/
http://www.onedayonepicture.com
One option for you at this point would be to make the resolution of those images pretty darn low, preventing her from printing a wall hog or something with them. (400 x 600 ought to be just plenty and low enough)
www.pictureyourworld.net
http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/
http://www.onedayonepicture.com
You can output your images at exactly 4"x6" at, say, 100 dpi.
They would still make decent 4x6, so-so 8x10, but anything bigger would be pretty lousy. And if they are happy with such crappy results, well, they would probably print them out of SM's medium size jpegs anyway, so there is really no way of stopping those except doing all the printwork yourself and not releasing any non-watermarked images.
For all of my weddings I include up to 100 cards (sometimes bookmarks) w/ their engageent picture, my website and contact info. Then I have them placed at each table. This way if anyone wants to order prints, they can. I'm relatively new and have only tried this at one wedding. I had a few online orders, but not many. I have a few more posting now, though. We'll see.
I also live in a middle-income area. Most people around here can't afford to pay a minimum of $1500 for a wedding. My weddings start at $600 for 6 hours of coverage and they get $100 of prints (really about $25 my cost). And travel for this one is only 30 miles each way. I'm thinking about upping my minimum wedding package & seeing what happens. I have a handful of happy B&G now that are referring me.
LeeLynn Photography
. . . Making today's memories last a lifetime
http://myspace.com/heatherhoskinsphotography
I do the same thing. I let the couple pick their favorite engagment picture. I get die cut wallets and use clear labels from Superior Label with gold printing and place that on the back. Usually these are placed at the tables for guest favors or sometimes at the guest register. I had one couple who passed them out as they worked their way around the reception hall. Eveyone loves a picture of the newly wed couple.
** Feel free to edit my photos if you see room for improvement.**
Use what talents you possess: the woods would be very silent if
no birds sang there except those that sang best.
~Henry Van Dyke
that is a great idea from both of the previous two posters! thank you for sharing.
www.pictureyourworld.net
http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/
http://www.onedayonepicture.com
But why would you mark up the prints on SM when you've already given them the originals? If they have what they need to print, they are either going to go to the cheapest place (walmart or flickr) or their favorite place and print at cost. For those files which you've already given the clients the original, you'd may as well let them print at cost on SM, or not even bother putting them on SM in the first place. Either way, just do what the contract requires. The important thing to remember is that your prints will look a lot better when SM does them instead of walmart.
The only thing you can do is price digital files with the assumption that you are only going to sell one copy and that they are going to be shared worldwide. In some instances, such as art and large group photos, you may not want to sell digital files at all. For some photo of someone's kid or pet, that no one else is going to buy, there is no reason not to sell the digital file because they are the only one who's going to buy it anyway.