Selling images from Website

[YellowBay]

Hiy guys,
A friend and I have just taken a whole load of photos of a recent Enduro event. Our aim is to try and earn some cash from them by offering them to the riders.

We would like to give people the ability to order different sizes of image, say 6x4, 10 x 8 etc, or the opportunity to own the original file.

We have no problem in hosting and displaying the images (I'm a designer and he's a programmer), but we DO NOT want to print the pictures ourselves.

I realise that we could just take the order and then order the prints manually through an online printers, but then we'd have to repackage and post them to individuals and obviously, this potentially doubles the delivery timescale.

Our other option was to use something like Blurb, but neither of us are very keen on the available layouts.

Has anyone managed to get round this problem? How do you guys deal with producing professional prints for customers?

 

[Big Mike]

There are several sites that will provide this service for you. Collages.net a high end option that comes to mind. You can upload the images to a gallery and your customers can order directly from the site. If you choose, they will take care of the printing & shipping.

Of course, there is a fee. You can get a monthly or yearly plan or just pay per event. They also take a cut for printing & shipping etc.

I'm sure there are less expensive options. Many photo labs have some sort of on-line ordering and direct shipping.

Have you taken any thought to the legalities of selling photos of the event? If you are going to sell the images, you may have to be careful of any logos that appear in them, and you may need model releases from people who appear in the photos.

 

[CanonSnob]

that is a curious point. I have yet to run into the situation where there are other people, bystanders, in my photos at events I shoot. But I'm sure I will come across it sooner or later. How would it be any different that paps shooting people <u>you know</u> they don't get model releases from yet get away with publishing it in nationally spread mags? I would assume you wouldn't need the riders to sign model releases???

 

[fredpb]

if you want to charge for them, look into dotphoto.com . Also photoshelter.com, on their "personal archive" side. Photoshelter requires paypal, though.

 

[Mike30D]

Check out www.eventpix.com also for online galleries, printing and shipping. As Big Mike mentioned, Collages is nice too.

 

[Moglex]

Check out www.eventpix.com also for online galleries, printing and shipping. As Big Mike mentioned, Collages is nice too.

The people who run this site are making a big, big mistake.

If you go there with a view to checking out their services, whatever you try and do you come up against a requirement for a password.

It's obvious that they are doing business but how much more would they do if people doing an initial scan for a service provider could actually see an example of the way things are laid out - costs, etc?

It may be that you can navigate to such information but after going down eight 'password required' dead ends I gave up and moved on. How many others have done the same?

 

[Mike30D]

The people who run this site are making a big, big mistake.

If you go there with a view to checking out their services, whatever you try and do you come up against a requirement for a password.

It's obvious that they are doing business but how much more would they do if people doing an initial scan for a service provider could actually see an example of the way things are laid out - costs, etc?

It may be that you can navigate to such information but after going down eight 'password required' dead ends I gave up and moved on. How many others have done the same?

That's the one thing I didn't like about eventpix, at least with Collages you can check prices before you sign up.

 

[penfold1]

adoramapix.com lets you ship the print jobs as "gifts", so you can send to a different address than paying from and it will also not send them the invoice.

 

[scot711]

Hi,

I suppose for a one time situation it's tricky. However, if you want a good, solid, well priced app I think that Photocart is unrivaled.

It cost me $285, there are free upgrades for life, and you pay no monthly fees. Just upload images to your own site, set prices, discounts etc as you wish. Really, a great application.

Have a look over at OSP, you will see that people are dropping out of things like Pictage in favor of Photocart. It is getting quite a following.

Some people reported that the online demo was crap, and almost put them off buying! So, expect more from the actual package. Here is a link:

http://www.picturespro.com/

By the way, I have no connection, just love using this.