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Walker40
Registered Users Posts: 28 Big grins
how much does everyone charge for a disc with the pictures you took for a client?
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Walker40
Registered Users Posts: 28 Big grins
Walker40
Registered Users Posts: 28 Big grins
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http://www.ohiohikerphotography.com
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There are several discussion on this topic recently which you can read after searching. DGrin searching is not brilliant but it does work.
Having read many of the threads I can tell you there is no standard answer on this forum. "Everyone" is doing things differently depending on their target market and business approach. For example, do your customers want a full resolution pp image or are they looking for a few JPEGs in lower res for web posting? What is your local competition offering and why is your customer choosing for you? Different deals, different pricing.
You probably get better answers when you can be more specific about your typical client. At they end of the day clients will pay what they feel is reasonable and it may even be more than you expect.
(2) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $90.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(3) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $120.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(4) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $140.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(5) Electronic image 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $150.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(6) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $170.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(7) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $190.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(8) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $210.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(9) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $230.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(10) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $250.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(25) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $400.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(40) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $460.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
(50) Electronic images 8x12 at 300 dpi for personal use only $500.00 with free 4x6 of each photo. From same event/day
Nikon D4, Nikon D3, Nikon D3
Nikon 14-24 f2.8, Nikon 24-70 f2.8, Nikon 70-200 f2.8 VR II, Nikon 50 f1.8, Nikon 85 f1.4
Nikon 300 f2.8 VR, Nikon 200-400 f4.0 VR II, Nikon 600 f4.0 II, TC-1.4, TC 1.7, TC 2.0
(1) SB-800, (2) SB-900, (4) Multi Max Pocket Wizards
That's a pretty open ended question! Kind of like asking, how much money do you make in a year!
The answer to your question depends on lots of things-
1) photo usage- are these photos that a client will be using in ads? to promote their business? are the photos being licensed for use or being bought outright? Is the client buying the copyright to the photos or just licensing them for one time usage?
2) are these wedding photos? is the cd included in the cost of the your services as a wedding photog? are you also selling them prints?
3) is it for family portraits? are you charging a separate sitting fee? are you also expecting to sell them enlarged prints?
4) are these photos from local sports that you are selling to parents so they can make their own prints? for web use only?
5) are you charging your client separately for the time and expertise used to take the photos?
So you see, it's kind of impossible to answer your question as stated- that is , if you are looking for an answer relevant to your situation.
Most likley! That's the reason they are going to buy them off you in the first place!!!
So what if the client Prints them? To say they get prints off you is assuming a completely flawed theory that they conveniently will do what you want them to do and buy prints instead of just walking away and buying nothing because you don't offer what the client is wanting to buy.
For those that are in photography for the BUSINESS not the art, the aim of the game is to sell your work and to give the clients what they want so they will buy from you.
A LOT of clients want to be able to print their images and will not pay for small files that are no good for that.
The notion and advise of don't sell your ( full res) files is outdated and illogical these days and would be the death Knell for shooters in a lot of different markets.
Sorry, but it's patently bad advise for someone that doesn't sell their work to advise others not to sell full res files as anyone doing that will without doubt hurt their sales and reputation in a LOT of markets.
First of all it depends on the Client.
If these are for commercial usage and the client wants to put them in a brochure or something, Prints are useless. Everything has to be done on an electronic file these days and the graphic artists will not be happy to get some web res POS file they cant do anything with.
They will come back to the client and tell them the photographer is an amateur who doesn't know what they are doing and you will have one ticked off client because you have supplied them work unfit for the purpose for which it was commissioned. The client will also not accept a watermarked image with your branding on it to to go in a catalog or whatever. For these clients, $30 an image is waay too low.
In the case of private clients, what the hell is the big deal if they do print them?
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of spending a day with a guy who is no doubt the worlds most successful event photographer. He was on his way to another country to photograph an event. He covers events of up to 15K competitors and is knocking work back hand over fist.
He is also moving away from selling prints at all. Instead he burns hi res CD's at the event and passes them out to the competitors at the gig.
He sells them for around $10 ea and he sells them to EVERY competitor.
Do the numbers, 1, 2.5 or 5K sales @ $10ea. For those that do sell their work, do you make that much from a single event?
For those that don't sell their work and are working on mental calculations, Did you come up with an equal or better return from your theoretical event and sales with prints and low res cds?
Practical experience of selling my work tells me if you did, you were dreaming.
My events are no where near that sort of size but the business model still works when I up the prices accordingly and get a 100% saturation rate of sales of full res CDs.
Those that do sell their work would know the work involved in selling prints. Either onsite printing or sending them out later both have their complications and issues that are so much less when selling a cd.
Add to this, cd's are so much more marketable and promotable to the client so therefor in many cases are actually easier to sell.
And just to note the great, unfounded and outdated myth of clients making crappy prints from your files and destroying the photographers reputation or however the Folk lore goes, someone find me first hand examples of this ever actually happening to a photographer.
I have been selling full res CD's for years and have yet to have a single problem. With the groups I work with, someone could have a blow up tomorrow and run me into the ground over getting a bad print from one of my files but it won't hurt me one bit because all the other people that have bought cds from me ( for most, more of them multiple times than single) are 100% satisfied and happy and that isn't going to change because one person complains..... -IF- that ever happens.
Anyway, another rant that went longer than I planned, got to get back to building my CD duplicating tower.
Lakewood, Colorado, USA
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The notion that people buy digital images to save money on printing is absurd. Most likely they want a memento of a happy event and never look at it again. Better sell 100 at 10$ than 1 at 250$.
When I started with digital photography I sent the same images to 6 different labs. There was a big difference in the result and guess what - the most expensive gave the best results. People who care about a print to hang on their wall know this instinctively and guess what - the photographer who stands behind his prints will get their business.
The other guys? The cynics who ship their digital files to the cheapest vendor? Well they will be disappointed, if they notice. Cynics are a small minority. When they get lucky, who cares. A photographer is serving the much bigger market of dreamers. Don't set your pricing to satisfy the cynics - they are a diminishing breed.
I was talking to my son tonight over dinner and our next thing is to try and find a fast way to watermark the photos and reduce them to a face space size to include on the disk as well for event coverages. I think being able to say to clients that there is a copy of the images ready to put straight up on the web in newsletters, social netstalking sites and for emailing to granny, will be a big selling point. Or at least I'll make it one!
I want to push CD's over prints because they could be a lot more marketable through making them seem better value for money, more applicable to a range of uses and being easier to store and longer lasting than prints.
I can see this work moving away from prints and I think the days of shooters just putting pics on the web and not having any delivery method or substantial presence on site will also make things increasingly unprofitable and loose them gigs over those that have a more timely delivery method.
I think for a lot of people and a lot of events, online will remain a well used option but without being able to service the instant demand, sales and events will be lost.
I also see that individual image prices will go down but a lot of markets will go from small qty purchases of higher priced images to much bulk qty purchases at far lower individual prices and this is where CD's will come into their own.