Photography - what do you want?

[COFPhoto]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougsGirl rights to all pictures of ME that I paid for might be your work of art, but it's my face, haha

Just to be clear on what you should be asking your Photographer for in this regard - whoever owns the "copyright" to the images holds the right to basically do whatever they want with them. In most cases a Photographer just wants to be able to use the photos on their website, flyers, ad campaigns, etc.

What brides should ask for is something along the lines of "full reproductive rights" to their photos. That means that you can basically do whatever you want with them, outside of selling them for a profit or using them commercially. You can print photos, books, whatever you want.

This is something that gets mixed up quite a bit both with Brides and newbie Photographers. I've seen many Photographers who say "I sold the B&G a DVD and gave them the copyright to all of their photos". If that is the case, then the Photographer is no longer allowed to use those photos - without first getting permission from the client.

So if you're discussing this with a Photographer, I would recommend asking for reproductive rights, not for the copyright. They may take it the wrong way.

HTH!

[COFPhoto]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dbld78 Excellent thread topic... It's interesting... you know I had posted a thread a while back with your blog post... it's also interesting... http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t15885

LOL, you posted it here twice then! Thank you again for sharing it. It's amazing how many places that article has popped up now. You should Google "why are professional photographers so expensive" and see how many pages of links come up - pretty cool!

Which brings us to another interesting topic. This thread is proving once again that digital images are the most important product these days. Most people unfortunately are perfectly happy with prints from Costco and photo books that they've made themselves.

Back in the day, a Photographer would set their pricing based on the fact that the B&G would spend an average of $x on photo albums, prints, enlargements etc. Nowadays most people don't want that.

We are constantly tinkering with our pricing structure, and I'm in the process of eliminating the big all day wedding package completely. For both my Wife and I to spend 8 hours shooting and directing a wedding, and the time involved to sort through about 1,500 photos, edit them, etc. people just aren't willing to spend enough to make it worth my time. Not to mention you usually meet with the B&G 5-6 times throughout the process.

Give me a low key beach wedding with some candid shots and 30-45 minutes of posed photos and I'm good. I think we're going to focus in that direction moving forward. I'd rather get into the small destination type weddings, especially since I already do so many beach portraits (hence the post).

Thank you all for your input!

[rodent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by COFPhoto LOL, you posted it here twice then! Thank you again for sharing it. It's amazing how many places that article has popped up now. You should Google "why are professional photographers so expensive" and see how many pages of links come up - pretty cool! Which brings us to another interesting topic. This thread is proving once again that digital images are the most important product these days. Most people unfortunately are perfectly happy with prints from Costco and photo books that they've made themselves. Back in the day, a Photographer would set their pricing based on the fact that the B&G would spend an average of $x on photo albums, prints, enlargements etc. Nowadays most people don't want that. We are constantly tinkering with our pricing structure, and I'm in the process of eliminating the big all day wedding package completely. For both my Wife and I to spend 8 hours shooting and directing a wedding, and the time involved to sort through about 1,500 photos, edit them, etc. people just aren't willing to spend enough to make it worth my time. Not to mention you usually meet with the B&G 5-6 times throughout the process. Give me a low key beach wedding with some candid shots and 30-45 minutes of posed photos and I'm good. I think we're going to focus in that direction moving forward. I'd rather get into the small destination type weddings, especially since I already do so many beach portraits (hence the post). Thank you all for your input!

This is very true. Most brides don't have the eye for quality that a photographer has so a cheapo print looks great to them. I'm sure its hard for you to see your work printed off at costco, but it looks great to a non-pro.

Also, for many of us making the coffee table books is a really great experience. it's a lot of work, but I love the finished product of something I created myself. I feel like it makes it more personal & my parents love showing off things I made for them. I am already gathering up ideas for my coffee table book. I want to include quotes from the songs we used at the wedding & from our ceremony script. I also plan on making different versions for family members.

With everyone having computers & software it makes sense that more people want to go the DIY route. But, at the same time it allows us to get so much more enjoyment out of our pictures that people may now be willing to spend more on photography.

[amdecker]

Humm, interesting. I guess I am just lazy. I would love to have a set of edited pictures, a canvas print and a coffee table book all made up for me. I just don't have much time to do it myself. I would def want full reproductive rights so that IF I got the notion to make some kind of photoalbum myself, I could. But if the price is reasonable, I would rather just order everything from the photographer.

[rodent]

i think people are really different about what they want. my friend has no interest at all in her digital negatives. She knows she'd never bother to do anything. So having a variety of packages is probably best so people can pick what fits them.

[Hartyt509]

I'd just want the DVD with the pics that were taken, without any photoshop etc that way I don't have to sit through shed loads of pics going i love that one and that one and thinking crap how much will it cost to get all these lol

[nikkianddean]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougsGirl hi-res dvd of edited images, a slideshow set to music, flush-mount coffee table books, all hard-copy proofs, engagment or TTD session. as far as the DVD, i dont necessarily want to do ALL the work myself, BUT, i do want two things-- 1)the option to do what i want with the images, and 2) rights to all pictures of ME that I paid for might be your work of art, but it's my face, haha

ditto abbie!!!

[Dbld78]

Quote:

Originally Posted by COFPhoto LOL, you posted it here twice then! Thank you again for sharing it. It's amazing how many places that article has popped up now. You should Google "why are professional photographers so expensive" and see how many pages of links come up - pretty cool! Which brings us to another interesting topic. This thread is proving once again that digital images are the most important product these days. Most people unfortunately are perfectly happy with prints from Costco and photo books that they've made themselves. Back in the day, a Photographer would set their pricing based on the fact that the B&G would spend an average of $x on photo albums, prints, enlargements etc. Nowadays most people don't want that. We are constantly tinkering with our pricing structure, and I'm in the process of eliminating the big all day wedding package completely. For both my Wife and I to spend 8 hours shooting and directing a wedding, and the time involved to sort through about 1,500 photos, edit them, etc. people just aren't willing to spend enough to make it worth my time. Not to mention you usually meet with the B&G 5-6 times throughout the process. Give me a low key beach wedding with some candid shots and 30-45 minutes of posed photos and I'm good. I think we're going to focus in that direction moving forward. I'd rather get into the small destination type weddings, especially since I already do so many beach portraits (hence the post). Thank you all for your input!

So true! You're absolutely right, why spend the time and effort if this is all they want. I'm finding it increasingly harder to compete with the "cheap" coffee table book and design companies, why would they want to spend $2000 on a REALLY exceptional coffee table book when they can get a cheap one for $20! Now we know the difference is HUGE between the quality of the 2 books but that doesn't seem to matter to people.

What people don't realize that doing these "cheaper" options is doing there photographer a disservice because regardless if that's you in the images it was still created by us and anything that image is printed on or displayed in is ALSO a reflection of the photographer and if it's a crappy print or a shoty album that you are showing someone, that potential client doesn't know that YOU made these as a DIY project and the photographer reputation is compromised in the process. Because trust me there is HUGE difference in the quality of these products...

Prints from WalMart, Costco, Target..... ARE NOT COLOR CORRECTED!!!! And while your eye might not be trained it doesn't me that everyone else looking at your images isn't! Graphic Designers, Interior Designers, Wedding Coordinators these people all have a trained eye and everybody knows one or 2 of them.

I'm not saying that your projects are crappy, I'm saying that the quality of the prints you are using and the "consumer quality" album makers do not compare to the professional ones.

[Denise40]

I love photography. I play around with it. I have taken classes to learn new things, but when it comes to the professional pics I had taken, I want them to look good. I can tell how pics turn out from Walmart, Walgreens etc and I will take standard pics there, but not professional onews. I really want a coffee table book, but I will have to save up for that. I do have the copyright from my photographer and I will make some of the cheaper albums for my parents but thinking of having my coffee table book from Sarah here at BDW.

[tvt]

I had a few requirements I wanted in a photog - well product wise. Obviously talent was a top requirement!

 

Anyway, I wanted:

 

1. all of the images on a CD/DVD, along with a some edited/corrected pictures. With the ability to print them out if I wanted to do so myself

 

2. the ability to produce a big canvas, where the picture wraps around the edges.. i'm sure there is a term for this

 

3. A coffee table book

 

When search I found a lot of photogs that did invites, guestbooks, etc and all that wasn't important to us. I also found that a lot of the packages weren't condusive to what we wanted. In the end our photog created a "tara and joe package" for us, which was awesome.