Newbie! Best way to photo share with out-of-town clients

brownbutterflyy81 · Oct 1, 2015

Hi
I'm new to the photography world and it's been an awesome journey so far! It all started with pictures I took of my daughter who has Autism. I began to receive a lot of compliments on my photos of her, especially ones where she gave me great eye contact, something she would never do in a photo studio. I use a Nikkon DSLR 5300, absolutely love it!

So far my clients are local, not very far from my home studio. I set up viewing appointments with them, drive to their home or another convenient location to show them their photos and have them select which ones they like. I would like to know the best way to do this with clients who live outside my 20mi round trip boundaries? I'm afraid to send via email because of unauthorized reproduction.

Any suggestions please? I would really appreciate it, thanks!

Designer · Oct 1, 2015

Send them small low-res images. Even if they steal them, they won't have anything they can really use.

My editing software allows my choice of size and format when exporting, so send your clients "small e-mail". And be sure to tell them the larger hi-res images are available upon payment.

Also, there is a way to attach your copyright notice in a way that is not visible, and that would become your proof of copyright in case anyone tried to claim it as their own.

vintagesnaps · Oct 1, 2015

People say that, but on the occasion that I post a photo (which isn't often) I sometimes have a hard time getting a photo to look crappy enough, even downsized and lo res. I do my own customized watermarks for each photo so it can still be viewable but will at least make it more trouble to remove (I feel like people will probably go look for something easier to take and use! lol).

I'd think about which select photos you'd put online or email as samples, making sure especially with kids that you're getting photo releases signed by the parents. Photographers I know usually have their own website, then you can control which pictures are on there for potential clients to see examples of your work.

Photographers usually seem to have clients that are within a reasonable driving distance but especially if you specialize in working with kids then maybe see if you can find some halfway points to meet clients - whatever coffee shops etc. are within 20 mi. but not too far for a client either.

If you haven't yet I'd get on American Society of Media Photographers or PPA and get some info. for professional photographers to find out what would be some options. I think too that family and friends might be supportive and the real way to gauge how you're doing is pricing competitively in your market.

wyogirl · Oct 1, 2015

Look into getting a website through Zenfolio or other similar type of site. You can create galleries and even watermark with a custom watermark or "PROOF". You can get orders straight from there.

tirediron · Oct 1, 2015

wyogirl said:
Look into getting a website through Zenfolio or other similar type of site. You can create galleries and even watermark with a custom watermark or "PROOF". You can get orders straight from there.

Or do all of that right in Lightroom and upload directly to your own website.