My wife and I are expecting our first child. My in-laws got us a maternity photo shoot which costed $1800 for 2 hours. It included make up for my wife and access to a wardrobe. Everything was great the pictures were beautiful when shown. But now she sent us a proofing of about 300 photos to choose 15 for further editing and touch up. All photos she sent have watermarks and are blurry and don’t have the sharpness like when she was taking them and showing us. We asked about this she stated it’s common. Because people try to steal extra pictures by screenshot. We asked about adding a few extra. She wants $100 per 1 photo $300 for 5 and $800 for 20 I was so confused. And asked what happens to the photos we don’t get she said they will be deleted. To which I said but why couldn’t we have the unedited photos if you’re going to delete them, there’s a lot of really good pictures we like. She paused and said that just how things are done and this is standard. Idk it’s really making me want to never deal with a professional photographer again. Cause it seems like a money grab to me. Am I wrong?
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Yeah mate. That’s what I charge.
But just to put things in perspective. All of the editing, the retouching, not to mention the gear and the dresses, all takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money.
I offer a buy out for the extra photos. You can ask her about that if you want them, though many photographers don’t.
It’s sounds like you got a premium photographer, there will be cheaper ones. But seriously, you will be getting some wonderful shots that will be leagues above your average shot.
They are a business, trying to make a profit. You want something for free. How is this a money grab?
I don’t get it. You bought (was gifted) a picture package of 15 photos. You want more photos and the photographer asks more money for them to get them to you. And now you’re expecting that they’d just dump all the RAW files your way? I find the pricing pretty steep btw but that’s not in question.
Do you go by the bakeries in the evening, expecting they gift you all bread that hasn’t sold? Because you already bought one loaf earlier that day?
You didn’t pay for two hours. You paid for many years of experience, which led to two hours of a professional doing their job for you. Additionally, you’re paying for expensive equipment to take the photos, to light the photos to process the photos, and to print the photos. In order to keep doing this and be able to feed their family they need to be able to charge the fees you were quoted.
First off congratulations on the pregnancy!
I say this with love, because I know you just want the great photos and are excited about it.
If I’m taking photos and delivering a service based on a contract, the client shouldn’t get to change the terms of the contract without it being mutually beneficial. If they want more photos than stated in the contract, they’d either pay or negotiate a new amount.
You wouldn’t go to the grocery story and say “can I have the rest of those bananas for free, I see you’re about to throw them out.” You could say, “hey I have this amount to give, money is tight, how much can I get for that?” Some grocery stores may just be like “here ya go, all this for free!” Some may be like “get out of here you damned banana loving human!” They’re all different. They may not want to devalue their brand. They may not want people to expect free shots.
All that being said, photographers charge premium prices, especially those that are in high demand. They can and usually do charge whatever the market allows. But they also generally disclose it all ahead of time so there’s no surprises for either side.
I hope the photos all works out. Again congrats on the baby!!
Thank you very much. I feel I’ve been educated on the subject. We were gifted the package. So we never saw a contract. I just didn’t know it was common to delete unedited photos. I am however still mixed about it. Cause I’m a carpenter and when I work for someone I usually go above and beyond if it’s not more work for me I don’t mind something’s. But it’s okay. We’re totally happy with the 15 we choose. Thanks again
Am I wrong?
Yes.
The way this photographer is conducting their business is standard in the photography industry. Here’s a list of reasons why most photographers won’t give you the RAW files
- In the US and many other countries, the person who takes the photo owns the photo. It’s literally something they created and are not obligated to give it to anyone.
- RAW files are huge, and if you do a photoshoot with hundreds of photos, sending those files to the client can be a huge pain
- Many RAW codecs require special drivers to preview on your operating system, and special software to edit. I do send clients RAW photos for an additional fee, and even though I always send them with explicit instructions on how to handle the files I always get an e-mail saying they can’t open them. Literally. Every. Single. Time.
- Photography, particular in the modern era, isn’t just about knowing how to operate a camera and some lights. The editing process is a large part of the skill that goes into being a photographer. With the RAW photos, you could very easily make some wacky edits to them, post them someone where online or in public, and potentially damage the photographer’s reputation since they took the photo.
My in-laws got us a donut shop gift card which costed $18 for 15 premium donuts. Everything was great the donuts were delicious. The shop had about 300 donuts on display and we were able to choose 15 to take home. All the donuts were in a glass display case so we could look at them but not grab them from the customer side. We asked about this she stated it’s common. Because people try to steal donuts if they’re just left out in the open. We asked about adding a few extra. She wants $1 per 1 additional donut, $3 for 5, and $8 for 20 I was so confused. And asked what happens to the donuts we don’t buy she said they will be thrown away because it was the end of the day and they would be expired when the store opens tomorrow. To which I said but why couldn’t we have all the donuts if you’re going to throw them out, there’s a lot of really good donuts we like. She paused and said that’s just how things are done and this is standard. Idk it’s really making me want to never deal with a donut shop again. Cause it seems like a money grab to me. Am I wrong?
I dunno where you buy baked goods man but my local bakery gives stuff away for free or heavily discounted at the end of the day
Are these baked goods of which you speak made specially for you? Would you call it a cash grab if they said no we aren’t giving them to you for free?
I mean I think you’ve hit on why this analogy doesn’t work - the photographer’s products are specific to the client, the bakers are not (and have lost value by the end of the day). No baker would bake a bunch of extra cakes for an order just in case the person happened to buy one.
I think if I went to a baker and they made a bunch of cakes for me and then said here are the cakes in your package and I’ll just throw these other ones away if you don’t pay an extra fee for them I would find that a bit weird? And would probably go on r/baking and be like ‘is this normal?’
Let’s adjust : in the process of baking your special custom cakes I made a bunch of other cakes you did not order. You can buy them if you want otherwise I’ll throw them out. Got it now?
Yes, that would still be weird tbh. Can you imagine a bakery or indeed pretty much any other business actually saying this to a customer? A baker would not present the other cakes to you as an option.
It happens in photography sometimes for justifiable reasons (particularly if there is extensive retouching required) but it’s not a familiar business model to most people so it’s unsurprising that people aren’t familiar with it and find it a bit gross.
It’s weird that people even need metaphors to understand the very basic business model of photography. 🤦🏼♀️
The photographer is rendering a service for you. If you want to benefit from her service, you must pay for it.
Was there a said agreement when purchasing her service of how many photos would be included?
Unfortunately it’s normal practice in newborn photography. Shoot then charge a ton per printed product. By the time client realises, kid’s too big to reshoot
Question for you: did this come up before the shoot? Did you sign a contract? Was it mentioned at all that you’d get 15 photos for your $1800 price?
Sorry to hear that. As a photographer I let my clients have all the original photos and then have them send me a certain amount of photos for me to edit. Every photographer is different.
Seems extreme, this is what publications/companies would pay, a lot of these “premium” photographers can’t get commercial work so they up charge those who do render their services.
In my opinion the 1800$ could have been spent on something more worth while for your wife and child, at least someone who would give you all the photos even if they were unedited.
This is not the only business model used by photographers but it is a standard one. If her package includes fifteen photos that is what you get. Why would they give you the rest? Also watermarking and low res is done because many people don’t think there is anything wrong with taking photographers photos without paying for them. For some reason people don’t see this as stealing.
Photographer here, in the business for 10 years, done at least 50 photoshoots, 20 weddings, and hundreds of events. Even thinking about giving out unedited photos makes me feel physically nauseous.
You have an expensive photographer. I am a lower price photographer and have never been able to make a complete living out of it because I don’t charge enough. I do too much work for too little pay because I don’t charge enough. And I barely even do photography any more because I wasn’t charging enough. Your photographer is charging enough, but it’s hard to say whether they are charging too much.
Photography pricing is so precarious. And every photographer has different quality levels, standards, client budgets, etc. I’ve never charged anywhere near what your photographer is charging, but I’ve also never successfully made a living off of photography.
My recommendation is to get another shoot with a cheaper photographer if you want more photos for low prices. There are many photographers who operate like her and there are many who don’t. If that doesn’t suit you, you can go with something that suits you better. She’s not in the wrong, but she might be wrong for you.
Thank you well explained.
To add to what others have said: the photographer is also conscious of their brand. They want to provide photos that they feel represent them as a photographer, which includes their editing style.
I understand why you ask “why not just just give us the unedited photos if you’ve already taken them and are just going to delete them anyway”. I mean, from your perspective it looks like you’re not asking for any more work from the photographer. But think of it from their perspective: when you show off those photos and tell people they were taken by Photographer X, then Photographer X feels like there are images out there attached to their name which are not representative of their work. Even worse, you could edit them in a way the photographer doesn’t like at all and then they feel like their name is attached to images they wouldn’t have distributed willingly.
Thank you for providing clarity. I get it.