Help! Novice here!

[RiverRun]

this may be the wrong section but..
How do you go about distributing photos to your clients and charging? I am so new to this. I can't develop my own photos, so I do not know the best way to distribute them after a photo shoot. I have been just putting them on a flash drive(keep in mind my past photo shoots have been friends and family). Should I take them somewhere to be printed instead and have the client pay per print? I have been considering making a site with Zenfolio, should I just upload the photos there and let the clients pick and choose which they want? What do you do about copyright privileges? If you give your client a digital copy, are they allowed to print and distribute the photos at their leisure? Any good advice and where I can learn more about copyright with photography?
PLEASE HELP!! I need to start doing more photo shoots, but I don't know how to handle this!

 

[bratkinson]

When you say you can't 'develop' your photographs, are you indicating you have no computer and/or no post-processing software? If that's the case, they you are a VERY LONG WAY from getting to the point of actually charging for your work.

If you already can do post processing/editing/cropping/WB correction, etc, then it's simply invest in a decent home-user type of inkjet printer. I get very satisfactory results with an Epson printer that costs less than $200. It's the ink that will empty your wallet, though.

If you're really serious about selling your work, you definitely want to start looking into calibrating your monitor and printer(s), etc as well.

 

[tirediron]

Moving to the Business District.

 

[jowensphoto]

The latest generation of photographers is full of "shoot-and-share" business models. The model charges a higher, up front cost (for time, talent and experience) and lower/no print cost. An example of a tool that's used is PASS. You can share the photos for free, or work in the upgrade cost of 30$ to allow low cost print options, that are printed out of a professional lab!

I've been talking about PASS a lot lately on here - just for the record, I'm not paid to advertise for them or anything. I just REALLY like the software!

 

[orljustin]

I need to start doing more photo shoots,

No, you really don't.

 

[Tamgerine]

Why on earth are you considering charging clients for a service when you don't even know what service it is you're providing? Who's your target market? What do THEY want? What do YOU want to provide?

Do you want to be a high end photographer that only sells fine art prints and delivers no digital files at all? Do you want to be a shoot and burn photographer? Do you want to sell prints? So you want to charge by the photo? Do you want to sell your rights? What business model works for the kind of business you want to run?

We can't tell you what the best business model is for you. We don't know what you want to be, or what your clients what.

Decide what you want to be, set your policies in place, then sell that to other people. Not the other way around.

 

[KmH]

First and foremost, you need business knowledge -
Photography Business Secrets: The Savvy Photographer's Guide to Sales, Marketing, and More
How to Start a Home-Based Photography Business, 6th (Home-Based Business Series)
Starting & Managing a Business | SBA.gov

And THEN, you need photography knowledge:
Light It, Shoot It, Retouch It: Learn Step by Step How to Go from Empty Studio to Finished Image (Voices That Matter)
Digital Photography Tutorials
Photo Editing Tutorials

And then you need to understand print making:
Digital Alchemy: Printmaking techniques for fine art, photography, and mixed media (Voices That Matter)
Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

 

[RiverRun]

that's what I am looking for, thanks!

And for the record, yes I was talking about printing the actual photo, not editing I am moving to film soon anyway as soon as I can learn how to develop it. Yes, I have an extremely long way to go, but I do provide a few small photo-shoots for friends. Normally just dogs and infants. I do a few birthday parties and births here and there. I have a lot of people interested in getting photo-shoots with me, which is why I am trying to get the business part down before actually getting too far into things.