Comments on: Offering wedding pictures on disc – Strategies explained

By: Rob Coldicott

Rob Coldicott — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 23:14:20 +0000

Great post (as usual) and great blog (I’ve only recently discovered it). I’m just starting out on my ‘wedding’ journey and have been looking for as much help as possible – your blog has been inspirational. I’ve got my first booking for a ‘disk only’ package and have been mulling over a number of things.

One thing I am struggling with is image proportions. I’ve shot a couple of events and some studio shots which I have then sold online. To increase revenue I have deliberately shot so that cropping to 10×8 is easy. However, is this a ‘requirement’ for a wedding if the photographs are going to be presented on disk ?

By: Richard King

Richard King — Sun, 30 May 2010 10:43:16 +0000

Totally agree. You need to be paid for the shoot properly, and without fail, clinets now allways want a DVD of the images. We can argue about copyright untill the cows come home, if you put yourself in the position of having to sell re-prints then you are on the wrong business path. Since moving to charging the correct amount for shooting, and then treating products as a separate entity, bookings and profits have risen. More importantly, we are earning the right ammount for the efforts we make (regardless of wether we are designing an album, or shooting a wedding)

The trend to roll in the album and shoot together, really just blurs what is worth what. Down the line, this reduces the efacacy of the upsale

By: damien

damien — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:14:12 +0000

Hi Ann,

Jpeg Vs Tiff is not the issue. It will be something else. Take a look at comments 17-21 on this post:

http://www.prophotonut.com/2008/08/24/great-tunes-for-viewing-sessions/

Thanks for your kind words and welcome to my Blog.

Damien.

By: Ann Lewis

Ann Lewis — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:27:19 +0000

Hi Damien. Firstly let me say, I am totally inspired by the images you and Julie produce. I have recently purchased the DVD “The Big Day” and “Lighting Winter Weddings” which are stunning and truely amazing.
I am presently trying to offer DVD slideshows, but just can’t get the quality into the slideshow. If I use jpegs the quality isn’t there, if I use tiffs the programs will not load. I have tried several DVD Slideshow software but to no avail. Could you suggest a burn software I could use?

Thank you
Ann

By: Emma Fynn

Emma Fynn — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:55:58 +0000

Ho Hum.. disc versus print is such a conundrum for photographers today, and with the everchanging options in the field today such questions are always arising. ( Jpeg vs Raw, Print your own or send it out) I think it is imperative to move with the times but to keep the integrity in your style and creativity. I am working on the weddding packages now and have up until now not offered Hi-res images for print, but low res slide shows as an additional extra. However the question has arisen a lot as to will I offer this and it is being asked more often, so I need to consider this seriously. I am prosposing that after a cerain amount of time 6-8 months the wedding images on their personal gallery are removed now and as a final possibility to sell I will offer them the hi-res images before they disspapear for ever or as a separate product priced accordingly. However on some of my recent portrait work I have made them more distinctive as ‘my work’ and created them as individual unique pictures, never to be recreated, this adds value to the one off piece of art and the file will be stored under password by me or possibly destroyed. The more commercial/school work is sold as a day rate and supplied on disc now.I agree with Damien that when your packages are covering your costs and you are earning a living from your weddings then the prints on disc could be offered at similar prices to prints, and I personally see that as more viable for weddings as for me they dont produce many big print, canvas products, ( sometimes in the Pre wedding sales) so the images on CD’s is good product for weddings ( I also want my image on the mantle piece rather than Uncle Teds Compact option!!!)but doesn’t suit for my portrait work and this is a area where I want to keep my ‘preciousness’ and keep the value of a single still prceless unique image., and that grows with me and tge development of my style… that reminds me my website has lacked any input this year and needs to be re junvenated with the new work!!!!! No rest for the wicked.. x

By: Pat Bloomfield

Pat Bloomfield — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 15:30:35 +0000

Thank you for your reply Damien, I think that you’re right in that ultimately we will need to provide a digital option.

I’m not sure if this is covered elsewhere but the other thing that comes to mind is, should the CD only contain say images at HDTV or also a set of full resolution images (negatives) fully prepared for printing?

The implication of providing digital images is that they will be for viewed on a PC or TV. Therefore why would we effectively give away our negatives when the couple paying more for an album would not expect them?

TIA

By: Julian

Julian — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:18:36 +0000

Thanks Damien, I read the article with interest.
These ideas are of particular interest to me as I think I really need to sort out my costs and workflow as I struggle to find the time, with a day job and would love to know if my current packages are realiastic. I seem to spend about 2 weeks (of spare time) editing about 300-400 finised images for the online portfolio’s which may or may not sell. I do sell some fairly low budget photobooks, and a few CD pacakages, but its difficult to set prces at a level that matches my abilities and experience and that will daraw in enough work.

Regards
Jules

PS: Many thanks for producing those Wedding DVD’s, I’m sure I shall gain lots of insight from them.

By: Lovegrove Consulting blog » When should you not sell photographs on disc?

Lovegrove Consulting blog » When should you not sell photographs on disc? — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:23:32 +0000

[...] response to the thoughts and discussions raised by my previous post on selling pictures on disc I thought I’d have a go at setting some limits and explore the tipping point for the sell / [...]

By: damien

damien — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:09:40 +0000

Hi Rosie,

I replied to your post earlier but I managed to delete it when clearing out spam:(
The points you raise are very poignant indeed. In fact they inspire me to add a new post to qualify when selling pictures on disc is not advised.
I choose to educate my clients on how to respect their investment in photography. I give them links to reputable suppliers of prints, albums and greeting card products like Sim 2000 and Photobox, and I give them the opportunity to buy product prepared by us at a discounted rate.

Kindest regards,

Damien.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:11:49 +0000

Hi Damian

I wondered how you feel about clients creating their own products from digital images and then showing them off with your photography?

I do give the images away on DVD but I’ve seen some of the resulting things that have been done with them and often they look pretty bad, which obviously reflects poorly on me. Any advice on this – should I be including a list of suppliers for where they can create their own thank you cards etc? I’m just concerned that if I do that, then they will have even less reason to order cards etc through me.

Thanks!

Rosie

By: damien

damien — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:55:21 +0000

Hi Jodie,

Set a price on your images and stick to it. Include enough in your package to make your money up front and then charge for the extras. Each photographers case is different. If you regularly sell big canvases or frames as add ons then it might be detrimental to offer pictures on disc. If you don’t sell big products then pictures on disc may well be a valuable extra income for no more work.

I hope this helps and I apologise for being seemingly vague. Just remember never give your clients a picture that they have not bought.

Damien.

By: damien

damien — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:50:25 +0000

Hi Pat,

If you are providing your wedding clients with an album product it can take about 2 weeks to do each wedding from start to finish with all the gluing and sticking, album design and printing etc. If you are doing pictures on disk it will take less than half the time hence having twice the number of weddings

Pictures on disc is liberating our industry. Photographers can become photographers again rather than cottage industry gluers and stickers. Some photographers do less than 1 day in 10 of taking pictures.

It’s far better that our clients get well edited files than photograph the prints in their album with their own cameras.

These are just other opinions – here for devils advocate reasons. The debate will continue like the film v digital one until all pro pictures are eventually delivered electronically.

Damien

By: damien

damien — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:41:04 +0000

Sorry about the delay in replying. I’ve been shooting

Hi Anna, Great advice from Kevin! I think you should ask your customers what they want. Then consider your options. Customers are not always right though as Henry Ford knew – “If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said faster horses”

Yes, pictures on disc can work for portraiture, but is it right for you? It is for us.

Damien.

By: Jodie Chapman

Jodie Chapman — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:24:05 +0000

Hi Damien,

Great article as always. Thanks for sharing such great advice.

Just a question – if my album package includes the first 50 images in an album and the client also wants images on disc, how should I price this? I charge additional images in the album @ £15 per image – should it be £15 per image on disc too?

Thanks so much,
Jodie

By: Pat Bloomfield

Pat Bloomfield — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:51:38 +0000

Hi Damien,

Great article following on from the previous one on setting your price for social photographers:

http://www.prophotonut.com/2008/11/03/setting-your-price-a-guide-for-social-photographers/

What I don’t understand is why the calculations have gone from an assumption of 20 weddings up to 40?

Also, there are many that will argue that selling CD/DVDs is killing our industry and that the images could reflect poorly on us as photographers as we have not control over the client’s viewing medium.

What is your view on this?

TIA