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I'll jump in here as I recently started a side business shooting weddings. You're dealing with an old school photographer who expects to cover his costs (salar

by adyus 13y ago

I'll jump in here as I recently started a side business shooting weddings. You're dealing with an old school photographer who expects to cover his costs (salary, rent, equipment, etc.) from print and album sales, rather than scare you away with a large initial cost. It's true that photographers prefer to withhold RAWs because they're unprocessed and in bulk, but that's not your photographer's issue. I also mention upfront that I only provide web-quality images for the quoted cost, as I believe I can offer my expertise to provide better quality prints when requested, or any other image processing needs (slideshows, albums, collages, etc.). This also provides me with another much needed revenue stream, albeit it's often perceived as greed. I should note, however, that I charge much much less than $4k, as I am in a different market. What do you intend to do with the RAW files if you get them?

yajoe 13y ago
I'm a pack rat and I will archive these photos along with all of the other photos I've taken during my life. I currently have a terrabyte (not that much, but still enough to cause headaches) of such photos that are backed up in 3 locations, yada, yada, yada. On principle, if I am going to get pictures then I want the highest quality since one lesson I've learned is that the quality from 10 years is 1/10 the quality available today. Might as well record and store the maximum quality today since over the course of the marriage (10s of years, I hope) today's quality will be just 'average.' My suspicion is that he plans to make profit on the prints, and he's afraid I've found a way to bypass him. I just don't understand why he doesn't price his time and skill and use the prints as add-ons.
- 5555624 13y ago
  > I just don't understand why he doesn't price his time and skill and use the prints as add-ons. Is wedding photography his primary source of income? If so, it's his business model and the "standard" business model for wedding photographers for years. Find a photographer who does something else, but does weddings on the side. Elsewhere in this thread, I mentioned getting a print of each picture and all of the negatives from the photographer at my wedding -- he was a crime scene photographer and did weddings on the side. He did not want the hassle of dealing with prints, different sizes, packages, etc.
- 1123581321 13y ago
  If he front-loaded the price you wouldn't have progressed to this point in the negotiation yet. You would simply think he was an expensive photographer. And he'd have to average out the money he makes from prints/copies in the up-front price to stay in business. That would be unfair to those who don't order many.

by adyus 13y ago

yajoe 13y ago

I'm a pack rat and I will archive these photos along with all of the other photos I've taken during my life. I currently have a terrabyte (not that much, but still enough to cause headaches) of such photos that are backed up in 3 locations, yada, yada, yada. On principle, if I am going to get pictures then I want the highest quality since one lesson I've learned is that the quality from 10 years is 1/10 the quality available today. Might as well record and store the maximum quality today since over the course of the marriage (10s of years, I hope) today's quality will be just 'average.' My suspicion is that he plans to make profit on the prints, and he's afraid I've found a way to bypass him. I just don't understand why he doesn't price his time and skill and use the prints as add-ons.

5555624 13y ago
> I just don't understand why he doesn't price his time and skill and use the prints as add-ons. Is wedding photography his primary source of income? If so, it's his business model and the "standard" business model for wedding photographers for years. Find a photographer who does something else, but does weddings on the side. Elsewhere in this thread, I mentioned getting a print of each picture and all of the negatives from the photographer at my wedding -- he was a crime scene photographer and did weddings on the side. He did not want the hassle of dealing with prints, different sizes, packages, etc.
1123581321 13y ago
If he front-loaded the price you wouldn't have progressed to this point in the negotiation yet. You would simply think he was an expensive photographer. And he'd have to average out the money he makes from prints/copies in the up-front price to stay in business. That would be unfair to those who don't order many.