Dammit I hate being asked asked this type of question

Garbz

No longer a newbie, moving up!
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So I'm amature only. Really. I do photo shoots on request and charge for weddings and portraiture and I give the original files on CDs. But then I don't take much pride in these photos either.

Today I got an email about one of the photos I took of the lunar eclipse over brisbane. The person who is a friend of a friend said she wanted to make a print for her wall, and asked if she may have a large copy of the file.

Now this type of photography I am proud of. On the one side I don't want to charge her a professional fortune for it, on the other side I won't part with the file. I guess a compromise would be I can get a print made for her at a requested size for little above cost price. Or she can pay me a bit for my troubles to send the print directly to the company which would print her the picture.

What do you think about that?
 
If you've presented photography as a hobby thus far, rather than something you do for a living, it's hard to turn around now and say "Pay me." I couldn't find a "email us to buy Print" or equivalent on your site.

Ask for a nice dinner.
 
Don't give her the file. Ask her what size print she wants and quote her based upon actual cost. I've just done one for a "friend", an A2 enlargement and I charged at cost. It all depends how you look at it I suppose. If it was someo9ne I didn't know I would, and have, charged a "proper" price.

Cheers, Lol
 
Even if you give your work away, never give the file to someone, for obvious reasons. Who knows what they'll do with it and who they'll give it to. Perhaps the most important reason however is: you don't want a print of your work floating around that you didn't print your self and/or approve. Prints I've given away were printed at my lab with my approval, and they were matted and framed by me, and signed, so I know they are something I can be proud of. At least represent yourself well and get some free advertising out of it.
 
Yeah Mike that's where the little bit extra comes in. Iron Flatline is right I don't want to charge for my prints, and I happily give people files in wallpaper sizes. On a side not I'm impressed you went to look at my site since I don't pimp it here :goodvibe:.

I was thinking along something like cost of print + $20 to cover preparing the file and taking it to a lab which will do something like this and picking it up a few days later.
 
? The digital Sig thing? Sorry, I didn't make it to your site, I was just suggesting that you have your name on the photo somewhere for your own piece of mind.

I was thinking about cost plus whatever time and expense to get it mailed to her, you've already done the post work right? It takes what- 2 minutes to to crop and resize to whatever spec she wants?

Maybe the couple of cold beers you missed getting it all done? ;)
 
I'm curious. I understand a pro putting images on a web site to help promote business. Why does an amateur do it?
 
I'm curious. I understand a pro putting images on a web site to help promote business. Why does an amateur do it?

Thats a really provocative and elitest sounding question

Are you suggesting there is no reason for an amateur to allow anyone to view their images unless they get paid to ?

carefull....
 
I'm curious. I understand a pro putting images on a web site to help promote business. Why does an amateur do it?

Potential instant fame, self indulgence, insecurity, assorted personality issues ... etc.
 
I have a photoblog, it's a hobby of mine, I like my images, it gives me a chance to share it with people other than walking around with a protfolio full of prints.

I hope and assume I'm not expected to justify or explain that to any of you, right?
 
Sorry Mike I meant Iron Flatline going to my site. The coldbeer idea sounds good. That is actually my normal payment for taking photos which don't involve boring weddings or other such less fun nonsense ;)

Thanks for the input all.

I'm curious. I understand a pro putting images on a web site to help promote business. Why does an amateur do it?

This ties in with the thread about why post pictures on this forum. There's plenty of people here who post photos in the galleries just to share not to critique.

Why do I put them on a site? Because I can and a friend of mine wanted in too. I have the domain anyway, nothing related to photography so I figured I'd put photos up so I can stop having to send my friends the photos via msn or facebook or other such nonsense.

If armatures didn't do this there would be no market for sites like flickr or deviant art. Incidentally my page is only a PHP API which pulls the gallery from my flickr account and displays it in a pretty table with a fancy effect.
 

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