Shoot and burn is not our business model. Usually clients that want digital images buy files either as ala carte or as a group combos external from our typical packages.
Got an email from my past client who bought high-res files. She complained that she printed some of the photos at a pro-lab "that also sells TVs and large quantities of diapers". Some of the photos seem to have a weird pattern on it.
I check the image file and it was fine. No problem. Even printed it out in 4x6 and 5x7 to confirm.
Long story short, it turned out that she was printing in small wallet size and the pro-lab "that also sells TVs and diapers" printer had a crappy compression algorithm thus causing the pattern on the image. Fixed it up by sending her a small image file.
I'm not saying this is the clients fault at all. Stuff like this plus other risks of having someone to have full control of your image files gives pause to consider the level of expectations when offering high-res files.
I would recommend that anyone selling high-res files to perhaps resize the images to print up to 11x14.
Ghost, I tell my clients if they're going to print, to print from me through Zenfolio. I didn't raise my prices and it's whatever price Zenfolio set it to for their lab. But if they go with others, I take no responsibilities because not sure what kind of crappy printers are being used elsewhere.
make sure you put it into your contract that you are not liable for print results when they go to a lab on their own, I always explain that if they order from me I have control over the results but I also give them access to a lab that will give them awesome results at low prices, many times I include a few prints of the best images with their disc so they have a clue what good prints should look like.
If you give them 4x6 at 300dpi, they'll print any size they want, even 20x30, and it will look totally fine to them. But you, and any discerning eye, will know it could be better. So just give them full-res (within reason, if you shoot 21mp I'd downsize so a whole wedding will fit on one DVD).
I recommend my clients to go through MPIX for any prints. If they tell me their prints from the walmart suck, I'll just tell them they should use MPIX like I recommended.
This should be pretty common sense. No need to add something in contract for stupid people, it just adds unnecessary fluff.
If the problem arises, you educate the client, pretty easy. And in this case, the 'lab' should refund the crappy prints that came as a result of their poor practices.
Just one viewpoint from the client side of things.
Our photographer (someone on here) delivered full resolution files with strong (appropriate) sharpening for matte paper.
The interface my wife viewed the files on had TERRIBLE downscaling. That combined with sharpening not intended for direct viewing made it an unplesant experience for her. Now that she is viewing screen sharpened files in a proper enviroment, she has a much better impression of the files.
It is a hard balance though, I do not know how it should be approached. It seems like a loose loose situation when you provide a dvd/cd of files.
I personally include high-resolution 300dpi files and low-resolution facebook-friendly files on DVD.
The client seeing images not ideal for screen viewing is one thing, but them sharing it with friends, taking forever to upload, and then facebook murdering the files with their awful algorithms that destroy color and make the image a pixelly mess... yeah I can't have that.
TTLKurtis wrote:
I personally include high-resolution 300dpi files and low-resolution facebook-friendly files on DVD.
The client seeing images not ideal for screen viewing is one thing, but them sharing it with friends, taking forever to upload, and then facebook murdering the files with their awful algorithms that destroy color and make the image a pixelly mess... yeah I can't have that.
I do the same. And I coach clients to expect 2 DVD's.
TTLKurtis wrote:
I personally include high-resolution 300dpi files and low-resolution facebook-friendly files on DVD.
The client seeing images not ideal for screen viewing is one thing, but them sharing it with friends, taking forever to upload, and then facebook murdering the files with their awful algorithms that destroy color and make the image a pixelly mess... yeah I can't have that.
SloPhoto's rather... unfortunate... experience has had me rethinking how I deliver the files (I was his photographer).
I currently usually give two versions of the files: a full resolution version that is pre-sharpened somewhere in between typical matte and glossy paper, and a 900 px web sharpened version.
I've been thinking about adding a 4x6 version as well, just because it seems like most folks love printing a lot of those. Quite honestly, I would love for my clients to be printing 4x6s and 5x7s because I'd rather not be burdened with printing them myself since the profit is so low.
I've also been considering limiting my largest delivered digital size to 8x10 or 8.5x11 and requiring clients to print bigger sizes through me. For me, it's not about the extra profit (I would rather charge more for my services and make my prints more affordable), but rather it's the issue of my work being printed out by Mr. Crapo at Walmart and displayed on the wall for all to admire the terribleness.
In that scenario, I would be willing to make exceptions for clients who I feel I can trust to do their own printing. For example, SloPhoto is MORE than capable of optimizing a photo for print (likely more so than me) so I have no problem sending him an unsharpened TIFF. Since I'm not likely to make any print sales with him (totally fine in my current business model), I might as well help him get the best print he can.
I'm also considering supplying some "tips for printing" paperwork that would help less knowledgable clients in printing photos in the range of 4x6-8x0. It would give tips like using Costco over Walmart, making sure any store "print optimizing" and color correction are turned off, etc....
Wow! Thanks for the contributions! Looks like many also share similar dilemmas with regards to selling high-res images. It is a fine balancing act.
I have prior to Christmas season created this FAQ dossier that contains various info on how to treat and use high-res image files. I have since then include this into all supplied image files that I sell. Unfortunately the above client was "pre-FAQ dossier".
FYI, I do include a number of web-optimized images 720px @72dpi in our packages. Because as you know we live in a digital era now.
mikethevilla wrote:
I've been considering redoing what I deliver.
SloPhoto's rather... unfortunate... experience
Its ok, you can say it, I married a mini-bridezilla (I am a PITA too, haha)
I should have known better than to let her use that interface to view the files. Doh
Ghost wrote:
Wow! Thanks for the contributions! Looks like many also share similar dilemmas with regards to selling high-res images. It is a fine balancing act.
I have prior to Christmas season created this FAQ dossier that contains various info on how to treat and use high-res image files. I have since then include this into all supplied image files that I sell. Unfortunately the above client was "pre-FAQ dossier".
FYI, I do include a number of web-optimized images 720px @72dpi in our packages. Because as you know we live in a digital era now.
I think 10% of my posts are on this topic, but I will say it again... In the digital realm, the dpi setting is completely ignored. Hell, it is ignored most of the time in the print world now too.
mikethevilla wrote:
I'm also considering supplying some "tips for printing" paperwork that would help less knowledgable clients in printing photos in the range of 4x6-8x0. It would give tips like using Costco over Walmart, making sure any store "print optimizing" and color correction are turned off, etc....
i had a child session for my wife's cousin 3 year old twins, when i saw the pictures printed 3 months later at her house i notice that a lot of them were super dark, she was fine with the outcome but i wasn't. so she said she printed em at costco, so me and my buddy did some test there and sure they were all coming dark too, turns out that when you order, at the very end really small there is an option you can check that says "leave my images alone no corrections" or something like that, once we uncheck that the images printed just like what i was seen on screen.
