Traditionally, the photographic industry has held that photographers must keep all ‘negatives,’ digital or otherwise, and never sell them except at very high cost. This article discusses the importance of receiving your digital negatives.
Stephanie and I at SCW have spent a good deal of time refining what we offer our clients and how much our services and photo products are worth. As our education, equipment, and techniques have increased over the years, so have our prices, to better reflect who we are and what value we afford our clients. But directly related to our cost is this question: What, exactly, are you as a client going to receive from us?
When we initially meet clients for the first time, we do so in a common, relaxed area; ideally a coffee shop nearby you. We purposely choose this setting to offer a low-pressure and familiar environment, mostly to offset any undue stress of “meeting the photographers.”
We’ll show you samples of our printed work and give you a packet of information to go over, with our prices, what we offer, and our contract. When you sign the contract with us for your photos, we will have an agreed upon price written into both copies of the contract, and that price is the only cost you will ever see from there on out. We have no session fees, no sitting fees, no proof fees, no printing fees.
Take, for example, our engagement photos. We offer you about two hours of time – there actually is no time limit, but sessions generally last one to two hours – and two different locations. Again, there isn’t *technically* a limit on locations; we just want to make sure we have plenty of time to work with the light and weather in each area. Once you and your fiancé arrive on location, the first thing I mention is to just relax: treat this time as a date together, on which you have no set plans, and are simply enjoying some unstructured time alone!
We’ll gently script some photos, pose a handful of others, and catch the little things unique to your relationship as we progress. It’s a very relaxed and fun time! Some couples want a high level of posing or instruction; others just naturally fall into poses and need little refinement.
We use off-camera lighting and some light modifiers like umbrellas, soft boxes and reflectors, in combination with professional control over our equipment to result in photos that are almost ready for viewing at the moment they are recorded to our memory cards(I say ‘cards,’ plural, because our equipment backs up your moments onto two separate memory cards in one instant, for redundancy!). We wrap up the evening around sunset, and part ways from there. But that’s when all the action really gets going behind getting your photos to you!
Stephanie will normally work on the digital versions of your images, adjusting color, saturation, contrast, lighting tones, white balance, and most importantly, clearing up little blemishes on your skin. It never fails – you can have perfect skin your whole life, but the day before the photo session, your face breaks out! Stephanie likes to pick a small handful of photos to upload and tag on Facebook that same night or the next day. Once I look everything over and do final edits, Stephanie burns a custom-ordered DVD or CD for you.
She puts all of your full resolution photos (approx 3,000 x 2,000 pixels) in one folder for printing enlargements; in another folder, she puts your low resolution (approx. 700 x 1000 px) photos for uploading online. The DVD then gets put in its own leather-bound case and storage box, packaged up, and mailed USPS Priority Mail to you.
You’re 100% free to print any photos from the DVD! The only contractually binding obligation is that you may not use them to gain profit; for example, selling at an art show, allowing anyone to use for business promotion, and the like. We retain all copyright to the photos, which simply means that we are able to use them for our advertising and business promotion.
Stephanie and I feel that this business model I just described is beneficial to our clients by offering a great deal of value. For example, we found that one of our competitors offered a sub- $100 photo session fee, but then required that you spend at least $300 to use those images, and ultimately could spend over $1,000 before receiving the use of all of your images.
One of our passions is to capture the love and joy that soon-to-be married couples have that is unique in itself! And at that turning point in their lives, many couples find that spending an extra $1,000 on engagement photos is an unrealistic objective. Therefore, we choose to offer 100% access up-front to all finished digital negatives.
There you have it – our business in a nutshell! We are truly passionate about a very select few things in our lives, and photography is one of the strongest. We love doing what we do, and believe it’s a gift from God that we are able to support our (growing!!!) family by working at something we both enjoy. Hopefully, little soon-to-be-born Edward will follow in our footsteps. It won’t be much longer before we meet him, too… Only four weeks until his due date!
Stay classy, San Diego!
