Friends wanting free pics?

[Mike_E]

I wouldn't give data to someone whom I didn't know well enough to know what they would do with it. There is however a cost in friendship whether or not money is involved. There is the investment in time, in effort and in emotional involvement. The first sentence in this thread was about "friends" and giving of yourself is part and parcel to friendship. Later "others" were mentioned. Others = customers. You'll have to differentiate the individuals involved for yourself. mike

 

[Stevedevil]

It can also be Where you are in Photography!!!

We all post on the forum and say " Its OK to Edit My Photo's "

Is that not the same as giving them away!!!

 

[rmh159]

I like this thread, something we can all relate to at one point or another.

My thoughts... if the photos are good enough that you're even bothered by their lack of offer of a payment then you're probably at the point where you can take some pride in your work class your above the type of photographer who's just snapping random shots for the joy of it rather than trying to create art. That said... I wouldn't give away your art.

How I'd handle this if I were in your shoes... address it light heartedly or maybe jokingly and just say "My stuff isn't free.". Anticipate a reaction and be prepared with a price. Like others suggested if you feel they're good friends and you don't want to leave them hanging just give them low res shots that they can view on a PC but not really do much with and add a digital signature.

I wouldn't give them the digitals either and for this reason alone. Imagine your friend taking those digitals and getting them printed at some cheap, shop and creating horrid prints of your work. They hang them up cuz they're pics of themselves (we're all vane like that ) and when people ask about the pics your friend says you took them. Now you're receiving the credit for prints that look like poop, or at least a different version that what you might've intended.

Maybe another question to ponder is how seriously do you take yourself as a photographer. Once you can answer that one, the other questions might answer themselves.

 

[xfloggingkylex]

You really have to play it by ear and do what you feel is right. Unless they asked me to come out and take pictures of them, I'd give them a CD of pictures on it. There would be little to no post processing done to the pictures because I am not going to spend a lot of time working on pictures for free. If a friend of mine asked for a picture of mine in a frame, I would ask them to pay for the materials, but I wouldn't charge any of my good friends.

I see it like this, everyone has their own strengths or uses. If a friend of mine is having a problem with their car or wants a part installed I'll do it and just ask for maybe a burger to eat while I work. The trade of being that when there is something that friend can do that I cant do, I would expect that same hospitality in return.

That being said, I do not have my own photography business so it may be different if normally I would charge for shots, and I started giving them away. But for a friendly outing, I just cant justify charging my friends money in exchange for my passion. Of course anything they offer I'll gladly take

the digital signiture is good, and if I was giving photos to a friend, they would all be sized down to 1280x1024, since that is as large as your average monitor will display for the sake of backgrounds. That will make it so they can not print off your work (at last not at a high quality).

 

[theusher]

Personally.
I'd get them to give me a disc and I'd give them the files at 800x600 at 72dpi with my name/websire written in the corner. So if they decide to show them on the internet, at least people will know who took them. I'd kinda see it as a free advertisment.

Personally I would not charge my family and friends anything as long as it was simple and not too time consuming. But I'm very close with most of my family, and the friends I keep are pretty close to me as well. Most have done favors for me in the past, and I probably owe my immediate family more than any amount of pictures would ever cover.

I think the answer above is perfect, as they will have unprintable images, and you get advertising. Also next time make it be known that you have to spend a lot of time processing the images, etc and your time is money. Or just decline the request to be their photographer.

 

[Mole]

Thank you everyone for your opinions and advice This was just a fun trip and I was orignally just taking the pics for me and to improve my skills.

A new problem arose tonight though. The offroad company that my friend bought all his parts saw one of the pics and now they want some. The problem is that they are my buddy's friends the own the company. If I give him a cd I don't want them printing some crappy low res pics for display with my watermark on it. How do you tell your friend, "here's your pics don't give them for others to display"? They also want to send in some of the pics to a couple of the magazines.

This is just me rambling along.

I guess what I'll do is, charge for any prints I make and just give them low res cd's with watermarks and leave it at that. If they actually get a magazine to want some of the pics they will want high res pics so they will have to cantact me for those.

Man this is difficult. It wouldn't be that bad if just a couple of people wanted the pics but it's turning out that a lot of people want them. Someday I would like to do this for a living. I guess if this gets my name out there then it would be worth eating some of the cost of giving my pics away for free.

 

[astrostu]

Thank you everyone for your opinions and advice This was just a fun trip and I was orignally just taking the pics for me and to improve my skills.

A new problem arose tonight though. The offroad company that my friend bought all his parts saw one of the pics and now they want some. The problem is that they are my buddy's friends the own the company. If I give him a cd I don't want them printing some crappy low res pics for display with my watermark on it. How do you tell your friend, "here's your pics don't give them for others to display"? They also want to send in some of the pics to a couple of the magazines.

This is just me rambling along.

I guess what I'll do is, charge for any prints I make and just give them low res cd's with watermarks and leave it at that. If they actually get a magazine to want some of the pics they will want high res pics so they will have to cantact me for those.

Man this is difficult. It wouldn't be that bad if just a couple of people wanted the pics but it's turning out that a lot of people want them. Someday I would like to do this for a living. I guess if this gets my name out there then it would be worth eating some of the cost of giving my pics away for free.

Before I read this, I was going to say that my opinion had already been said by many people: They're your friends, just do it and expect them to return the favor somewhere down the road. Though charge cost for something like printing.

But when there are companies involved now that want to use them where they'll potentially make money off of it, it does get tricky. In that sort of situation, I would go with something like, "You're my friend and I normally wouldn't have much of an issue with providing you the original images, but since other people potentially want to make money off of this, I have to protect my artistic property and can't just give you the original files. Please understand that this is nothing about you, it's just the nature of the business."

I think if you were to say something along those lines that any real friend would understand and be okay with it.

 

[Jim Gratiot]

I guess if this gets my name out there then it would be worth eating some of the cost of giving my pics away for free.

If lots of people want your pictures... that's a good thing. In this situation, I'd give the pix away free... but be aggressive about asking everyone you give them to if they know of anybody else who would be interested in your services.

Don't underestimate the power of word-of-mouth marketing... and if you can have several friends on your side, all the better.

So yeah, chalk it up as... not an expense... but as an investment in your future.

Also, you could boldly approach the offroad company about future paying gigs.

 

[Riggaberto]

Simply ask them to pay the costs, rounded up nicely. Dont go doing it for like, friends of friends, however.

 

[Mole]

This is what im probably gonna do; I'll hook up my friends with prints for what it cost me and give them low res cd's also. That way they can print 4x6 prints themselves with decent quality but can not do large prints. I'll let them now that if they need large prints just let me know. I'll tell them the files are much to large and would take too many cd's if I didn't convert them to smaller files. I am also gonna put my sig on every file so if they start sending them all over at least I'll get credit. Also with them only having low res copies on cd people like the offroad company wont have any use of them being of such low quality. If they want an image they can use they will have to go through me.

Talk about a fine line to walk. Its hard for people that aren't into photography (for fun or business) to really grasp how sensetive something like this is.

To clear one thing up, I have no problem hooking one of my friends up its the freeloaders that just expect things to be given to them that im more concerned about. Also anyone that would try to make money off of my stuff (ie offroad company).

 

[Alex_B]

for close relatives and very close friends all is for free.

And no problems with that single shot of Aunty Emma either.

But once it gets into a lengthy portrait session or shooting a whole wedding, then that is a different story.

After all, when you shoot the wedding, you cannot really enjoy the whole thing as a freind's wedding, since you are seriously working. If I did this, I would make this my wedding present, and I am sure they would know it is an expensive present ... everyone who does a wedding, knows how expensive hiring a photographer would have been. Most who say they do not know, only pretend not to know...

Recently I shot like 80 pictures of a friends baby, I did not charge anything since shooting people/portrait is not my strong point, so I did not consider the outcome really professional. Also it was a very close friend of mine.

 

[LaFoto]

Well, I took my friend's baby pics the other day, and pics of herself with her two young children, and she only wanted "some photos with me in them, too, for a change" for the photo album. So I e-mailed her a 1200x800 version of the photos for free. It were like six or so. I would not charge anything for THOSE!

And also the solo singers who were in the Theodora-project with us did, indeed, get free CDs with the photos I took during the rehearsals, and likewise they also got free DVDs of the performance which costed 15 Euros for us choir members. It is just the thing to be done. (The CDs also had 1200x800px versions with my signature on them).

But when I documented that ballet performance a year ago and spent HOURS ON END on the photos, I find I later sold my work too cheap. I do myself more of a favour, I guess, if (when) I start to evaluate myself and my work higher.

And when people start to like the photos that I am going to show in a projection show come Friday, I will charge much higher prices for a print than I used to. And no one will EVER get a CD. Only prints.

 

[Alex_B]

And when people start to like the photos that I am going to show in a projection show come Friday, I will charge much higher prices for a print than I used to. And no one will EVER get a CD. Only prints.

So soon? good luck

 

[Alex_B]

We all post on the forum and say " Its OK to Edit My Photo's "

Is that not the same as giving them away!!!

not really, here it is only low res images .. of course someone could use them on a webpage without asking, but not for anything beyond it.

 

[darich]

It can also be Where you are in Photography!!!

We all post on the forum and say " Its OK to Edit My Photo's "

Is that not the same as giving them away!!!

Completely different.
Permission is given to edit - not to use or sell on.