Prints or CD?

[canonbraden]

I'm trying to find out what will be best for the client and their pictures. Should I give them actual prints or a CD with the pictures they want so they can get the prints themselves?
Thanks!

 

[Mach0]

Whatever they want

 

[480sparky]

Whatever they are willing to pay for

FIFY.

 

[KmH]

Lots of photographers require a minimum purchase before customers qualify to buy a disc of images.

What aspect ratio do you give them on a disc? The 3:2 aspect ratio most DSLR cameras produce natively? - 4x6, 6x9, 8x12, 10x15, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30, 24x36
Or 5:4? - Which is what a 4x5, 8x10, 10x12.5, 16x20, 20x25, 24x30 is.

To make an 8x10 (5:4) print from a 3:2 (8x12) image 2 inches will get cropped off the long side of the photo.

Wallet size and 5x7 prints are 7:5 aspect ratio. 7:5 doesn't require as much cropping to get from 3:2.

How many of your clients do you think will know about any of that, or understand the difference between image resolution and print resolution?
Customers generally don't understand why their prints come back with part of the photo missing, and might think that somehow the photographer screwed up.

Another scenario is the customer crops an image so much that the resolution falls below the minimum required by the print lab or it looks like **** from their home printer.
Customers generally don't understand why that happens to their prints, and might think that somehow the photographer screwed up.

Here is some other stuff that relates to having prints made - Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

 

[canonbraden]

Lots of photographers require a minimum purchase before customers qualify to buy a disc of images.

What aspect ratio do you give them on a disc? The 3:2 aspect ratio most DSLR cameras produce natively? - 4x6, 6x9, 8x12, 10x15, 12x18, 16x24, 20x30, 24x36
Or 5:4? - Which is what an 4x5, 8x10, 10x12.5, 16x20, 20x25, 24x30 is.

To make an 8x10 (5:4) print from a 3:2 (8x12) image 2 inches will get cropped off the long side of the photo.

Wallet size and 5x7 prints are 7:5 aspect ratio. 7:5 doesn't require as much cropping to get from 3:2.

How many of your clients do you think will know about any of that, or understand the difference between image resolution and print resolution?
Customers generally don't understand why their prints come back with part of the photo missing, and might think that somehow the photographer screwed up.

Another scenario is the customer crops an image so much that the resolution falls below the minimum required by the print lab or it looks like **** from their home printer.
Customers generally don't understand why that happens to their prints. and might think that somehow the photographer screwed up.

Here is some other stuff that relates to having prints made - Tutorials on Color Management & Printing

Wow I never really thought of that! Thanks a bunch man that helped a lot

 

[KmH]

Think about this:

Mpix.com charges $2.59 (+shipping) for the basic paper and ink it takes to make an 8x10 print. Mpix does not provide the image.
Mpix.com charges $7.49 (+shipping) for the basic paper and ink it takes to make a 11x14 print. Mpix does not provide the image.
Mpix.com charges $16.99 (+shipping) for the basic paper and ink it takes to make a 12x24 print. Mpix does not provide the image.
Mpix.com charges $47.99 (+shipping) for the basic paper and ink it takes to make a 24x38 print. Mpix does not provide the image.
Mpix's customer has to provide the image (made by someone) that gets printed.

You provide a luxury service of making high quality images that for whatever reason the customer elects to not make, or lacks the ability to make, themselves.
Your work product is the making of those luxury images and the preparation needed to make those luxury images ready for the customer to use.

You provide all the time and effort spent acquiring the expertise, knowledge, and gear that is involved with making high quality luxury images. You also provide the further services of editing the images and otherwise preparing the images so they can be made into high quality luxury prints made on high quality print paper or other media like canvas, acyrlic, metal, or a disc.

You are selling your photography expertise and the post processed images you make, not prints and discs.

There is only 1 place in the entire world where people can have custom, luxury images made by you.

 

[Tony S]

I seldom give out a CD with images on them, if I do they pay a premium for it.

 

[herrickphoto]

I've found that most of my clients prefer a CD so they can print and/or share the photos themselves.

 

[cptkid]

I normally use a dropbox folder to share my images with whomever i've shot them for. CD's are costly and time consuming.

If they wish to order prints, then I can do this for them.

I always make them aware that they can go ahead and order prints themselves, however, I always advise them to try and avoid highstreet printers or cheap quality online print shops.

 

[jowensphoto]

I've found that most of my clients prefer a CD so they can print and/or share the photos themselves.

...and that isn't always good for YOU, especially if they don't know jack about printing. As Keith explained.

 

[pixmedic]

I normally use a dropbox folder to share my images with whomever i've shot them for. CD's are costly and time consuming.

If they wish to order prints, then I can do this for them.

I always make them aware that they can go ahead and order prints themselves, however, I always advise them to try and avoid highstreet printers or cheap quality online print shops.

CD's are costly? Time consuming? Last i checked even DVD discs were cheap, and burning images is pretty fast on even a halfway decent computer.

 

[Juga]

I normally use a dropbox folder to share my images with whomever i've shot them for. CD's are costly and time consuming.

If they wish to order prints, then I can do this for them.

I always make them aware that they can go ahead and order prints themselves, however, I always advise them to try and avoid highstreet printers or cheap quality online print shops.

CD's are costly? Time consuming? Last i checked even DVD discs were cheap, and burning images is pretty fast on even a halfway decent computer.

I concur. It costs me less than $1 to burn and package a DVD disc for my clients and the burn on my mac takes 5 minutes...at most.

 

[sscarmack]

CD and they pay for it.

 

[DSRay]

Never, Ever, give up control of your photos unless they pay dearly, very dearly.

 

[pixmedic]

Never, Ever, give up control of your photos unless they pay dearly, very dearly.

What do you mean by control? You can provide a disk with images and still retain image copyright. Print sales and CD sales fall under the same category. Just another detail worked out before the shoot. And they are no different in the fact that you have to set a price, and the client has to be willing to pay it. You are either willing to provide a client with what they want for a price they are willing to pay, or you aren't. The photographer and the client have the same options of turning down or accepting the terms.

the print -vs- CD option is for each photographer to work out. no single business model works for everyone.
find the options that work for you and your client base and use them.