Questions about releasing the CD to a client

[derita]

Hi! I'm new here and actually new to photography business. I'm trying to get my newborn photography business off the ground and have been taking photos for friends, etc. for free. I just got a first client who I will be charging. Because I am just starting out, I told her I will give her the CD with the edited prints. I will have her sign a model release form. I will also have her sign a print/use release form so that she can print the photos on her own if she chooses to do so.

To be honest, I'm getting very overwhelmed with the legalities of it all, so I have a few questions:
1) When I give her the CD, do I have 2 folders on it -- 1 folder with high res images for printing purposes (without my copyright/watermark) and another folder with web res. images WITH my copyright/watermark and those would be specifically for Facebook (for example)? Is that how it works? OR do I just give her the CD with high res. files and if she wants to upload them to FB, she can, but then the photos would not have my name on them at all.

2) I did mention to her that going through a pro photo lab would be best especially if she'll want to print larger photos. I was going to suggest that she orders through me, but otherwise I was going to direct her to MPix. My question is: if I am allowing the client to print their own photos, if all of the images are high res., do I need to worry about limiting the size of their prints because of the quality (or is it not a problem because since the images are in high res, the quality will be good regardless of the print size?). And also, if she does decide to go through me, how does this work? Do I just charge exactly what it costs to order the prints or do you mark it up? Sorry if this is a stupid question! Like I said, I am very new at this and very overwhelmed.

Thank you in advance for answering my questions -- any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!
- Olga

 

[vintagesnaps]

Sounds like you might be moving too fast into charging people if you don't already have the business aspects of this figured out. Try American Society of Media Photographers or other pro photographers organizations for resources. You need to be prepared to handle all kinds of potential situations and need to think about how you'd handle potentially unhappy customers, demanding clients; look into insurance, taxes, etc. etc. I think if you're prepared before you start taking other people's money you'd be more likely to have success.

 

[ShootRaw]

I don't think you are moving to fast. Gotta start somewhere right? If you wanna give them a CD with Hi-Res images then do it..But I would not hand over Hi-Res images alone..I would really push to print the ones your clients want with a quality shop versus them going to CVS and printing their selves..Nothing wrong with marking up the price of the prints..Make sure to export them to 300dpi.
You can export lower res for their social media etc..

 

[tirediron]

"How it works" is how you and the client agree before hand that it will work. If your agreed upon deliverables include web-ready images, so be it. If not, it's up to you. Personally, I will always give someone purchasing digital files a set sized for social media use because I know that irrespective of what they sign, there's about a 99.9% chance that they will put the images up on their facebook/twitter/?? page.


As far as printing; certainly you can include in the use license a limit on the size, but don't seriously expect them to adhere to it. I always mark up prints; somewhere between 200% for large wall art and 3-400% for smaller conventional prints. Print sales are one of the main money-makers for most retail photography businesses.

 

[Overread]

A few thoughts

1) Most people have no idea what so ever about printing stuff. Really they've not got a clue. AS a result if you put part of your product (the print) into the clients hands chances are they'll muck it up; and you'll be the one who gets the "well they're ok photos, but not really that good" comments.

2) If you sell a CD of high res prints your clients won't have any need to buy prints off you; whilst this business model can work it requires a high sitting/session fee to cover your costs and profit. A high initial cost can dissuade many potential clients.


It can be a lot easier to charge less for the session and then sell prints direct to your customer. In that you retain control over the quality of the product that you produce so that you know they are getting good quality prints; furthermore you can be a salesman and encourage the client to spend more money by buying more prints than they otherwise might have (especailly if you sell them in person after the session with proofs/prepared displays ready to show of the photos - note that oft means your client comes for the shoot and then has to return later to order prints).

As for the web an optional CD of web resized photos would be a good option to have in todays market. They don't need to be much more than a few hundred pixels on the longest side and you could even just make them Facebook avatar size and sell them as "facebook ready photos". You don't have to hand over a huge high res file to the client for that and the facebook ready photos won't be printable (at anything much beyond a business card size).


If a client really pushes for high res photos on a CD then price accordingly; which means price high because chances are they are not buying prints so you've got to make up for that fact; you can always offer a discount on the CD if they have bought a lot of prints.

 

[derita]

Thank you so much, everyone! I really appreciate all the feedback!! One more question: if you do give your clients web-sized images, do you keep your watermarks on them?