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Archive 2016 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no...

NYCPhotog
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

It's becoming more common for people to want, and basically demand, digital images and printing them themselves rather than buying prints. Do you guys/gals offer it? How much do you typically charge for say a family or single portrait session?

Apr 18, 2016 at 06:55 AM

hatch1921
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I think you are going to have a wide variety of answers on this topic.

This is a tough subject to address. It really IMO, depends on your business model and the level of control you are willing to give up to the client.

1. What does it cost you to capture the images (all business expenses) and can you charge enough to turn over a set of images and make a profit? What sales are you losing by selling the digital prints? $100? $1000?

2. Are you comfortable allowing someone to print your work? Home printers? Printing at Walgreens? Costco? Quality control?

3. Unprocessed? Retouched? An entire disc of images or just your top...retouched work?

If the demand for digital copies is high, maybe offer web quality, low resolution images your clients can pass around on social media. Build this in to your sales/packages/sessions. Or, figure out what your overhead is for a typical session, your sales margin, and factor this in to selling an all digital package.

Again... this is a hard subject to address. You'll find photographers who will not sell digital prints as they believe the loss of potential print sales isn't worth providing digital images to the client. Not to mention the control factor over their work. Other photographers will sell a disc full of images at rates that will cover their business expenses and turn a profit. Then you another section of photographers who are losing money by providing images on disc for next to nothing...essentially giving their work away.

At the end of the day.... it comes down to the $$$ right? It's all about business and what your market can bare and what the market demands.

So... take a hard look at your business...your business plan... your business goals and maybe find a balance where you offer what the client is looking for...at the same time.... staying true to your work/business.

I've babbled enough... not sure if any of this helps.. it's such a subjective topic.

Hatch

Apr 18, 2016 at 08:13 AM

friscoron
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

What Hatch said is right on the money. A lot of photogs will offer digitals, and there are consumers that only want digital files. They're not really my clients, as my digital files go for $75 each, and that's actually fairly low in the IPS world.

I do offer offer digital files as an incentive once they've hit a price point.

If you're just starting out, it's pretty common to offer the digiital files for a low price just so you can drum up some biz and build your portfolio. But if you're going to make a living at this, then you need to steer your clients to print and album sales. They're out there, plenty of them. They're just a more discerning client.

Apr 18, 2016 at 09:01 AM

Lisa_Holloway
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

My digital collection containing 20 files is $3500 on top of a $500 session fee. Ask 100 photographers though and you will get 100 different answers.

Apr 18, 2016 at 09:38 AM

hatch1921
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

Lisa_Holloway wrote:
Ask 100 photographers though and you will get 100 different answers.

I should have just said this...lol... spot on.

Hatch

Apr 18, 2016 at 09:43 AM

gschlact
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

Lisa,
Does your price include digital of only printed and thus PPed shots? If not, how much time do you estimate you spend on PPing each additional digital to get your great 'look'?

Lisa_Holloway wrote:
My digital collection containing 20 files is $3500 on top of a $500 session fee. Ask 100 photographers though and you will get 100 different answers.

Apr 18, 2016 at 10:20 AM

NYCPhotog
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

Everybody thinks they can print now. I knew I was going to get a wide range of answers. For me, I think the answer is right in the middle.

Apr 18, 2016 at 11:45 AM

Achilles2010
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I personally don't think that customer should get a full resolution PPed files. It is a big struggle for any photographer in the fight to stay profitable and keep the doors opened for business. One of the well known photographers that I admire as a businessman on top of being a great photographer, has an option of offering digital files, only when customer spends $$$$ and they get an option to purchase digital file of the printed Art Work in Raw format before PP for additional $$$$. Sort of "Be my guest to achieve what I do, without investing tens of thousands of dollars into the gear and software, or just respect what I do for fraction of the price that's actually takes to make it look beautiful!"

Apr 18, 2016 at 11:57 AM

Lisa_Holloway
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

gschlact wrote:
Lisa,
Does your price include digital of only printed and thus PPed shots? If not, how much time do you estimate you spend on PPing each additional digital to get your great 'look'?

I promise 20 edited images with all of my shoots, so the digital package would include the file for each of those images. My average editing time is probably 10-15 minutes per image, but it can span anywhere from just a couple of minutes on up to a few hours depending on the picture and the complexity of what I'm attempting to do to it. For what it's worth, I don't generally include many highly complex edits in a client gallery. If we are shooting at a location that I'm known for dramatic sunset images, etc - I may include 1 or 2 in a client gallery. The rest will be my standard edits.

Apr 18, 2016 at 12:36 PM

NYCPhotog
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

What a potential customer asked me recently is that in the past photographers have given her a CD containing all the photos and a couple retouched ones for no extra charge. I'm miffed that a photographer would do that for what is basically a sitting fee.

Apr 18, 2016 at 01:44 PM

jefferies1
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I only do digital files. My business is focused on commercial work and most have no use for prints. I charge per finished image file. This covers my knowledge and composition skills and cost of doing business. It is in the range Lisa had mentioned above. Most of the time it is quality over volume unless we get into day rates then have to balance the two. Business people need digital for websites, social media and ad layouts. They also value it higher than prints.

Apr 18, 2016 at 05:46 PM

Achilles2010
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

And it is absolutely acceptable business model, since your work is based on digital file. There is nothing wrong with it.

Apr 18, 2016 at 06:01 PM

airfrogusmc
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I only do commercial advertising work and it is half day, full day, all expenses and usage. No prints.

Apr 18, 2016 at 06:08 PM

elliotkramer
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I offer digital files, but not right out of the camera. Everything is post processed and considered a finished image before I let anything go. A session fee in the studio is $500. High res finished images go for up to $1000 each. The first image is $1,000, then I take a hundred off for each image after that with a max of 7 images. I do mostly portraits and head shots. (Film industry). My average portrait runs around $5,000. I try to get it as perfect as possible in camera because the post processing is what kills my productivity. I only can do one or two a week. I will also offer prints, but if they want to print them themselves, I don't care. I warn them that their print quality may be different than mine. I also offer low res files for sharing online.

Apr 18, 2016 at 06:26 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

Diavolo wrote:
What a potential customer asked me recently is that in the past photographers have given her a CD containing all the photos and a couple retouched ones for no extra charge. I'm miffed that a photographer would do that for what is basically a sitting fee.

If you're miffed by that, then you choose to be in a bad mood every single day if you're paying attention to photographers around you. I mean, we all had to start somewhere, including Lisa. I guarantee you her first paid shoot wasn't for $4000. (Of course, Lisa being Lisa, it was probably $3k.)

Just like my lower prices aren't going to steal any clients from Lisa, those shoot-and-burners aren't stealing clients from me. There's a place for them. And if they're good, they'll move up.

Apr 18, 2016 at 06:27 PM

bbourizk
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

Depends what sort of photographer you are and the market your in.

If you rely solely on photography as your income then your price will be more that what I charge.

I don't rely on photography as an income. Even if I wanted to do it full time it will never make me the same amount of money as my normal job does.

I might do 20 paid shoots a year. Maybe less and I charge $300-400 and give them the edited files on a disc. Even that is considered too much for some people. Who are expecting it for not much.

So really it depends on your situation.

Apr 18, 2016 at 07:42 PM

NYCPhotog
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I don't rely on photography as a sole source of income. I'm working to get to that point though.

Apr 19, 2016 at 06:15 AM

AmbientMike
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I've given cds to family members and one time I was mortified by the bluish, off center framed print (fortunately they broke up? Lol) when I saw it. I think there were problems with another time, nobody said anything, kinda got a vibe. Fortunately I had done a print for her mother, so they could see it was the kiosk or wherever they printed it and not mine.

So I'm kinda worried about providing a cd/dvd. But you may have to?

I think this pertains to the op, how do you provide images for fb? 600x900? I think most clients are going to want that. And you have to be careful, but I think that's often good marketing.

Apr 19, 2016 at 10:00 PM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

I do several different types of photography, with several different business models. For dance studio portraiture, 95% of my business is prints, with a few customers requesting digital files (which I provide but don't advertise). Some clients never need prints; their need is for digital files they use for web and for printed collateral materials they produce. In these cases, my standard practice is to charge a day rate or half-day rate, unless I have a contract to shoot events or other campaigns for them, in which case it's a negotiated fee. The balance is event shooting in which I post my images to my website, and offer a choice of prints or digital files. In this aspect of my business, there is an increasing ratio of digital file purchases to prints. Right now, I'd say the majority is digital. These jobs are not commissioned portrait gigs; a recent example is my local high school's senior fashion show fundraiser.

Because the vast majority of my jobs are event-based, I can't charge the same kind of rates that most commercial, or purely portrait and wedding photographers charge. Nevertheless, my income is substantially more than what it costs to cover my gear acquisition syndrome.

Apr 20, 2016 at 03:07 AM

renfield33
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · What to charge for customers who want digital images for printing and no prints?

This really depends on how good of a photographer you are and your market. We used a family photographer on vacation in NC and got a disc of about 20 good processed photos for $500. But this guy was a semi-retired wedding photographer who had moved from somewhere up further on the coast and was looking for some cash in his semi-retirement. The photos were pretty good, and I got a file big enough to print for over my mantle. This was by no means a high level deal though. Just a guy with a crop nikon and a fill flash!

edit: I also think that for the time he spent and the quality of the images we got, it was pretty fair.

Apr 20, 2016 at 07:07 AM

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