If you think you loose money by delivering digital files your photography business is mummified.

Lets face it the headline alone will leave many photographer puzzled and even angry of the raw thought of delivering their images on digital medium. To those I say hear me out. Read carefully through what I have to say and then think again. My guess is that you will agree with me in the end. Most photographers tend to forget the fact that they are in the business of selling service not print copies, unless you are a fine art photographer. Portrait and family photographers are selling to people a confirmation of how divine they and their family is. How that confirmation is delivered should in fact be irrelevant. 

This winter I was asked by a friend to photograph his family and the newborn when it was christened. There was going to be a family gathering and the local had a spare room. Could I set up a workstation there and photograph whom ever of the family wanted to be photographed. I agreed to this and thought nothing of it. Then he added: is it possible for us to get the files digitally. My first reaction was to say yes, but then I hesitated and started thinking of all the copies that would fly out of my hands and I remembered endless discussions on different photography chat-sites about this.

I asked if we could agree on that I would be there but I would have to come back to him with thoughts on how I would deliver because this was a completely new field for me. Of course that was no problem.

Delivering digital files is no new field for me but doing family portraits is. I have been delivering digital files since I got my hands on the first scanner. I guess that was around 1996. From then on I did not deliver copies, I always delivered digital files even though I had to let other scan for me if my scanner was not good enough.

The main reason for me doing it that way is that I had the full control. Advertising agencies and corporate clients got to know me as a perfectionist and professional when it came to control of colors and output. They would get a file they did not have to touch just place in the ad and send to print. I guarantied the correct colors and was willing to take all the blame if things where not right. Buy doing it this way I secured me extra level of job as they left it mostly to me to do the composites if necessary , plus the ability of quality control as far as I could reach. Only on those rare occasions where I either new I could fully trust the designers for knowing what they where doing ,as this was in the heydays of the digital revolution an not all designer had enough knowledge of what it was all about unlike todays designers, or if they had collages where there where images from other photographers also and I had not to worry that any quality mess up would be blamed on me.

Thus when it came to the though of delivering digital files it was all natural thought to me because I was used to dealing with people that understood all about photography and most important copyright.

Now I was faced with a totally new concept and clients that where less educated when it came to quality of things, endurance and copyright. This question did therefor puzzle me a lot. To be able to answer this question fairly I decided, based on my chat-board readings, that I wanted to see how others tackled this problem. Of course there are hundred ways of delivering a image and there seemed to be no general way about it. At least not here in Norway.

After thinking about it and being rather puzzled about the price structure of others I realized that my old style of doing business was in fact the best. All I had to do was adapt the price structure calculations from my advertising business to the business of doing family portraiture. This basically meant that I had to be sure I would break away from selling the images and constrain on selling service and package as I was used to. In the advertising business I was not selling one image or a copy of an image, even though I was selling the publishing rights, I was selling a product that was mostly constructed from my time solving other peoples problem. I was used to sell package base on the time spent creating it plus costs and creative fee. Here there was in fact no changes, and if there was I would have to find a way to make an advantage of it.

That is when the bell rang in my head and things got easy. By having calculated the cost of doing photography business plus creative fees I knew what my hourly rate needed to be. So instead of doing it like it was done in the old days shooting two films selling 10 contact copies and hoping I would breake even by pricing enlargements as high as I possibly could, I broke every thing down into bits and pieces.

From there on I set my standards and ethics

1. I will never ever deliver my raw file.

2. I will not even deliver a tif file.

3. I will never deliver un retouched, un color-corected file.

Having decided that, I then came up with my business plan

Shooting in studio for one hour of family up to 6 persons costs X amount

If done on location it costs x amount + extras if I need to drive far

Number three I will include in my basic package 10 digital files with basic touch up and color correction.

There is possible to buy two further packages one with 20 - 25 files and the other with 30 - 40 files. No need for more, but might be need to explain why to the client.

All of the files are delivered on cd disk accompanied with one file that is usable on webpages like facebook. Of course that image has my name, wesite or logo on it.

I have calculated the time for me to do this work and when the customer leaves with the images on disc, I have given him what he wants with out loosing anything my self. Most likely if the print service has any integrity my images will print fine and everybody will be happy. What is more I can point him to a shop I trust.

But there is a bit more to it than that. Before we agree on this though, I make it perfectly clear that there are the simmilar rules for this cd and its contains as there is for other cd. He is allowed to make as many copies and enlargements for him self as he wants, but if some one else from the family wants to get images they can a) buy copies from me or b) buy digital file from me. Yes that is right. I offer for certain price the possibility of buying a single digital file. But that is only as extra from a session. I make it clear that images are copyright protected and I trust their integrity and honesty.

Then comes the biggest and most important point. I tell them that if I deliver in this way, I on the other hand can take no guaranty for the quality of the outcome. Once they are out of the door, every thing should be fine but if it is not they can not blame me because the quality control is out of my hand. They leave the premises with the originals in hand and I can not keep copies of it long term as its no need because they are not turning back to get any copies.  On the other hand if they want full guaranty of correct colors and long time endurance of the images plus top framing and matting, I can take care of that for them and make sure that every thing is perfect (and it better be). Actually I am so convinced that my work is so top notch that if the image is not perfect in 50 years from now the customer can come and get a new one.

Now I have left the customer with a choice. Not only have I offered him the images digitally for the same or higher price than as if I would have done it on print following others old style of doing business.  You don't want the customer out the door with only a CD in hand, but if he does you have at least gotten paid for it. I have made him understand why this is and I have given him the option of paying me even more than before, for printing the images with utmost control and guaranty. This is a win win situation for every one. Guess which the customer will go for.