Portrait Photographers, are you giving away high resolution images to customers?

[catchlights]

This question is asking photographers who shooting portraiture, be it full time/part time/freelance basis, as long you are hired to shoot portrait.

Notice this is a very common practice for local photographers to give away all high resolution images, and it is one of the main factor which many customers determine whether to engage the photographer beside the price.

I would like to know how fellow photographers' views on these.

 

[catchlights]

some hiccup during the threads merge, this follow message is by ahmad0420

i'm glad u asked this question.

i have this question also.

The issue is that when I edit the pics, i have to assume a certain size for the final output. so if i have decided to give a pic of 800x600, then i will edit the pic to look good for 800x600, and when edit is finished, i will resize it to 800x600 and pass it to the client.

So if i give them a file with higher resolution, they will see it differently when enlarged, and if they are likely to blame me.

I feel that we should only give them the size that we intended.

does your ALL means..
ALL images u shot.. ?
ALL usable images.. ?

the following message is by fotoudavid

normally photographers will mark up then give all, do not need to explain to clients at all.

in the past, i give, then after some times, i sell, yup sales will drop a bit initially, but slowly pick up again, and now clients will know that i do not give back all.

 

[catchlights]

delete duplicate post

 

[ahmad0420]

High resolution images, only screen? Or prints? For me that's the point of my shoot for the customers, to provide them with high-resolution photos. But will charge for prints though.

 

[Xiao_shin]

Portrait as in studio portrait? Outdoor portrait? Pet portrait?

 

[ed9119]

sure, depending on original sales/service agreement.....they get the high res Jpegs (usually events) and/or Tiff files (images that normally used for printing large)

as providers, we usually keep on record a copy of the original RAW file for future use .... in the most common cases, more than a few will usually lose or damage the delivered files ..... sell them the replacement cd's (warehousing costs money)

 

[Agetan]

Uhm... my way is kinda none of the above that you mentioned.

I don't sell the high res, but I put a minimum spend before I release the high res to my clients and have the release statement on my CD to inform my clients about the right that they have over the use of the images.

The worries that I have are mainly the quality of prints that my clients will get from 3rd party printer which is not within my control.

My idea is through word of mouth, you will get more jobs, however, you will get more jobs with word of mouth plus best work of yours that is printed to your requirement.

To be successful, you will need to be able to protect yourself and your brand name from being damage by printers who don't give a damn with their work and choose your printer wisely.

In doing so, it is in your best interest in the long run not to give out the high res images unless your clients have enough products that is done by you.

Also, high res is the end product of a photographer's work... why would you give it out so readily anyway?

I was told not to sell something that my clients want to buy.

Regards,

Hart

 

[GeonSG]

Uhm... my way is kinda none of the above that you mentioned.

I don't sell the high res, but I put a minimum spend before I release the high res to my clients and have the release statement on my CD to inform my clients about the right that they have over the use of the images.

The worries that I have are mainly the quality of prints that my clients will get from 3rd party printer which is not within my control.

My idea is through word of mouth, you will get more jobs, however, you will get more jobs with word of mouth plus best work of yours that is printed to your requirement.

To be successful, you will need to be able to protect yourself and your brand name from being damage by printers who don't give a damn with their work and choose your printer wisely.

In doing so, it is in your best interest in the long run not to give out the high res images unless your clients have enough products that is done by you.

Also, high res is the end product of a photographer's work... why would you give it out so readily anyway?

I was told not to sell something that my clients want to buy.

Regards,

Hart

I agreed, unless the client is willing pay the "right" price the photographer determined himself as a reasonable offer otherwise giving away high resolution image has no difference in positioning by pricing.

The photographer work would still remain an exclusive right to the photographer himself, therefore it should be clearly indicated to the client especially where the work is carried out for personal use only. This is just my personal opinion and practice though.

 

[hotwork77]

This question is asking photographers who shooting portraiture, be it full time/part time/freelance basis, as long you are hired to shoot portrait.

Notice this is a very common practice for local photographers to give away all high resolution images, and it is one of the main factor which many customers determine whether to engage the photographer beside the price.

I would like to know how fellow photographers' views on these.

I'm not a photographer per se but in a trade that require photography.

My view is that since the client paid up in full for the contract, it is only right that all high res images associated with the job should be handed over. However, we do appreciate repeat business so we will definitely archive the work which as an added service will reproduce those same high res images when called upon for additional copies.

Clients sometimes want us to reproduce again all those delivered files as they have lost it along the way.

 

[wdEvA]

hope I'm not OT-ing, but since the photographer is paid, doesn't the rights go to the cilent (unless stated)?

I do agree with hotwork77's view

 

[Agetan]

hope I'm not OT-ing, but since the photographer is paid, doesn't the rights go to the cilent (unless stated)?

I do agree with hotwork77's view

It is really depend on how much u charge and if u want to hand over the high res because you have earn enuf to cover your cost and make some profit, sure, the images can then be release.

If it is a commission work, generally the copyright belongs to the clients unless the copyright is transferred over to the photographer in the form of contract.

If u r running business full time and own your own studio, generally the outgoing is quite high so u will need to factor in those when calculate the total amount chargable before releasing your work.

As a small studio, it is quite easy to hit 5 figures cost every month, so obviously need to factor those in. If you want to run a succesful and dependable business for long term.

Hart

 

[gremlin]

Frankly, one thing I admire about the local bridal studio scene is that their clients accept that they have to pay $x (usually $70-90) per photo on top of what is included in their package. Many of them easily spend a few Ks topping up to get the extra images, on top of what they paid for their original package. No such thing as return of all images...

 

[snowspeeder]

Frankly, one thing I admire about the local bridal studio scene is that their clients accept that they have to pay $x (usually $70-90) per photo on top of what is included in their package. Many of them easily spend a few Ks topping up to get the extra images, on top of what they paid for their original package. No such thing as return of all images...

If they don't do that often enough, many of them will not survive for long.

 

[catchlights]

so sorry for not replying to this thread.

the main reason to ask these question here is many photographers don't realize that the underpaid themself by giving away the soft copy.

I have study this topic for sometime, sharing ideas with many photographers, and also find out what other photographers being doing, and the industry norm.

 

[catchlights]

first let us look at the legal aspect.

as in SG law, we portrait photographers are under "work for hire", so the images we create are belong to the person who commissioned us to create the work, unless a contract/agreement supersede the default law.

so in this case, client/customers get to keep ALL the work we created for them, and we can't resell them or keep them, ain't we suppose to price enough to cover all our hardwork?

buying up all the rights it could easily cost a few thousand dollars, are you really to put that into your portrait packages?

please share your views here.

 

[Lumiere]

I think its been discussed before...perhaps for those who don't know...in Singapore..if your client paid for your service...the copyright belongs to them unless stated in an agreement that they have limited rights to the images and you own sole copyright.

I do own the copyrights of the images I created paid by clients. It is stated in my T&C.

Back to the topic. I only return high res images to those they choose, esp bridal portraits. The rest of it are in low res in case they wish to re-order...they have a CD of low res images for preview.

 

[catchlights]

Portrait as in studio portrait? Outdoor portrait? Pet portrait?

any types of portraits, human or pet. include bridal as well, but specifically on the consumer basis.

 

[catchlights]

sure, depending on original sales/service agreement.....they get the high res Jpegs (usually events) and/or Tiff files (images that normally used for printing large)

as providers, we usually keep on record a copy of the original RAW file for future use .... in the most common cases, more than a few will usually lose or damage the delivered files ..... sell them the replacement cd's (warehousing costs money)

was recommended to achieved images only for one year, after that just discard it, since unlikely will have any sales and it is not cost efficiency to ahcieve anything won't generate profit.

 

[catchlights]

Uhm... my way is kinda none of the above that you mentioned.

I don't sell the high res, but I put a minimum spend before I release the high res to my clients and have the release statement on my CD to inform my clients about the right that they have over the use of the images.

The worries that I have are mainly the quality of prints that my clients will get from 3rd party printer which is not within my control.

My idea is through word of mouth, you will get more jobs, however, you will get more jobs with word of mouth plus best work of yours that is printed to your requirement.

To be successful, you will need to be able to protect yourself and your brand name from being damage by printers who don't give a damn with their work and choose your printer wisely.

In doing so, it is in your best interest in the long run not to give out the high res images unless your clients have enough products that is done by you.

Also, high res is the end product of a photographer's work... why would you give it out so readily anyway?

I was told not to sell something that my clients want to buy.

Regards,

Hart

yes, yours is the common practice in the portrait industry.

 

[catchlights]

I'm not a photographer per se but in a trade that require photography.

My view is that since the client paid up in full for the contract, it is only right that all high res images associated with the job should be handed over. However, we do appreciate repeat business so we will definitely archive the work which as an added service will reproduce those same high res images when called upon for additional copies.

Clients sometimes want us to reproduce again all those delivered files as they have lost it along the way.

client wish to keep all the images, but do we charge enough to cover that?

in my view, if your already sold them all, the job consider closed, any replacement copies is chargeable, since this is kind of after sale service.