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Can I Just Get The Digital Files?

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Dear potential client,

I have no crystal ball, yet, I know you will be calling me this week for information about what I do. You might have seen one of my displays or my website or, hopefully, was referred by a friend. And you will have liked what you saw-otherwise, you wouldn’t be calling me. And for that, I am truly happy.

And we will speak together on the phone: me asking questions to better understand what it is you are needing, but more importantly, what you are “wanting.” The wants are always more important than the needs when it comes to Art. And we will speak of the love you have for your family and ideas for your session and I will share your excitement, for this truly is an exciting time.

And then, dear potential client, you will ask that question that is asked every day in phone calls to photography studios everywhere: “Can I get just the digital files?”

I don’t blame you for asking this. I really don’t. It’s become as common as “Would you like fries with that?”

And when I first began to hear this question, I reasoned I had to come up with a simple response. It couldn’t be wordy or lengthy-just a one or two line answer as to why I don’t do that. But I couldn’t fit my response into just a couple sentences, because to do that would be to answer simply, “no,” without helping you to understand why, and that’s not fair to you.

See, my dear potential client, anyone can “give you just the digital files.”

Anyone.

And you must know that, as that was part of your inquiry. And may I be completely honest? If all you want is someone to snap off some images and hand you a CD or USB drive, well, you don’t need me. Seriously. Anyone can do that for you. There are thousands of people out there willing to make a quick buck by “shooting and burning.” Or shooting and uploading to a cloud. Heck, you can do it with your own iPhone. No need to pay for that. That would be silly, right?

My clients come to me because they want more than that.

See, I don’t believe in selling a CD or USB drive filled with images that will be shared a few times and then stuck in a drawer with other CD’s and USB drives.

Think I’m wrong?

Let me ask you-when was the last time you printed the snapshot photos you’ve taken with your camera phone? Exactly. We’re all guilty of it.

You called me, dear potential client, because, hopefully, you like what I do, and in order to get what I do, you have to let me do it.

See, I don’t believe the photography experience is over until I place a print in your hand. And not just any print, but an image created with great care and attention to detail, and edited the same way. I didn’t run it through a bunch of Photoshop actions, slapped it on a CD and called it a day. Oh no-again, I believe photography isn’t about that. I went over this image inch by inch-softening skin, removing fly-away hairs, calming down white tennis shoes, brightening eyes and teeth, making sure the image is as warm and pleasing as possible. And then, I have it printed. And, once printed, if it doesn’t meet with my expectations, it is redone until it does.

Why?

Because I know how it is supposed to look and I won’t settle for anything less than perfect. That’s why clients come to me. And, because unlike the drugstore or Walmart or one of the countless online sites from which you can get a print, it’s important to me that your prints be the best they can be. This is not “just paper.” I would be doing you a great disservice to hand off digital images for you to “finish.”

You told me at the beginning of this conversation that it had been years since your last family portrait. We talked about how quickly the children are growing and how difficult it is to get everyone together and how important this is to you.

And that, dear potential client, is exactly why we will print them-so that 20, 30, 50 years from now you, your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren won’t be holding a CD or hard drive that refuses to open, but will, instead, hold a glorious image in their hands, thankful that you cared enough to preserve it for them in print.

Now, my dear new client, lets make something together that’s going to last…

xoxo

#printwhatyouwanttopreserve

About the Author

Missy Mwac is a photographer/eater of bacon/drinker of vodka and a guide through the murky waters of professional photography. You can follow her social media links here: Facebook, Tumblr. This article was originally published here and shared with permission. Lead photo by John Liu.

P.S. Oh, I’ll make sure you get a social media copy of your favorite ordered poses. I love that you want to share them with family and friends and give them a sample of what will soon be hanging on your wall. I mean, pixels are for sharing and we love seeing our work shared online!

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  • Rex Deaver

    Understanding lighting, exposure, posing and all the other parts of the craft are just as important for shoot-and-share as they are for prints. Extensive post processing is a separate skill and product, and should be sold that way.

  • Nonummy Bobcat

    Bullsh!t. I’ll pay for your high quality prints and even get them framed, but when something disastrous happens to my home and I want to get those wedding photos reprinted, I don’t want to have to try to find you and ask that you reprint them … only to discover you’re no longer in that business and don’t have the original files some years later.

    That happened to my wife and I and, although it wasn’t digital files (it was photo negatives), we no longer have any of our professionally-taken wedding photos because once we finally found the photographer, she informed us that she was “tired of having all of these negatives take up so much ’emotional and physical space’ in her life.”

    I kid you not. She threw them all away.

    I have all of the negatives from every roll of film I ever taken and 3 terabytes of digital photos and files backed up on duplicated drives and stored in a fireproof lockbox because I value them 1000x times more than you ever will. To you, they’re simply files, easily delete-able when you grow tired of paying for storage space. To me, they’re much, much more and I will treat them that way.

    You’re a work-for-hire business and you have deliverables, just like any other business. If you won’t give me the original digital files to go along with my prints, then I’ll find a more empathetic photographer to work with. It’s *my* wedding, not yours. And those are *my* memories and *my* files… not yours.

    • HyperJ

      AMEN to that.

      If you – as a professional photographer – think it is worth keeping your digital files (do *you* only keep prints???), why in the world would you not expect your customers to do the same. Those pictures that you shot so well are actually worth more to them (in emotional investment) than they are to you!

      If you are a photographer that advertises that you do not provide digital files, I will stay away.

      • Joseph Varner

        I am starting a digital photography business and I have really thinking about my business model. I have been seriously thinking of definitely providing the digital files while still attempting to get the client to order some type of printed picture. If they don’t want the printed picture then digital it is. However I have a different motive for my business than the author does. My photography business is not my bread and butter. It is a part time venture that supplements my full time job. I figure if I don’t make money I just stop the business and am not hurting myself by doing so. From what I have been reading so far in this blog as well as others that digital file photography is not a bad thing and you can make some money just from doing that.

    • Chelsee Teleha

      “And those are *my* files… not yours.”

      actually, contrary to popular belief. you do not own the files. the photographer owns them. if the photographer releases files to you, they are simply giving you a release to print & share them. original ownership and copyrights retains with the photographer. unless of course, the photographer decides to sell you the copyrights for more money, which would mean she would no longer own the files and she would transfer ownership to you. photography copyright law is quite convoluted.

      • Cedric

        That’s right, but brides don’t care if they actually “own” their photos or not. They just want to enjoy them and eventually share them with their family and friends. And that’s still considered as a private use.
        I never heard about brides trying to make money from their own wedding photos…

  • aleroe

    And what happens 10 years from now, when your customer wants another print? Do you still have the file, or did you throw it out after 7 years? Can you find it? Did you leave a forwarding address when you moved to another state? How about 80 years from now, when your print is disintegrating and the grandchildren are interested in genealogy? Are you even still alive?

    Think about preserving old movies: we don’t want to preserve them by saving a DVD or (God forbid) a VHS. We want the original film. If the cameraman who filmed Gone With the Wind was the only one with a print, that would not be good.

  • Sorry I have to disagree for a few reasons.

    1. It’s well known that selling prints is far more lucrative than selling a disc so I have to think this is more about the money than the art. And that’s ok. You have to make a living, but don’t leave that out like it’s not the primary factor.

    2. You’re hired for your skill with the camera, posing, framing, lighting, post-processing, etc. Things that cannot be done with a P&S or an iPhone. All the skills that lead to a final, finished file. I find it very hard to believe that you’ve ever returned a print because a pro print shop made it so far off the source file that you found it unacceptable. That has to be the exception not the rule.

    3. With the exception of a large wall print how often do people really blow the dust off the printed wedding album? It’s just as easy, probably easier, to dig into the files. And 30 years from now if my kids want to appreciate them I seriously doubt the computer industry is going to abandon the jpeg format. So anyone’s photo collection will continue to bounce around media as the trends change. I have digital files that started as 35mm negatives, were scanned, stored on DVD, transferred to hard drive, and now stored on a combo of local drives and cloud storage. On the flip side, a print can be easily lost to anything from a fire to a child’s crayons.

    In my opinion the wedding photo industry is changing much the way the music industry changed. The consumers want the product digitally but the content creators don’t like that idea and are fighting it. I think as time passes it will become more acceptable.

  • Daniel Shortt

    I haven’t shot a wedding yet where the couple have said that they intently DON’T want prints… Its a little sad I agree, but digital’s are just as safe as print if not more when stored in the correct way. With that said I still give out a 6×4 of every delivered shot as part of the base package.

  • Please drop the patronizing tone. Photography and printing are two different disciplines, seldom combined in one person. With film, there is only one physical artifact, the negative, and it cannot be shared, but if you are working digitally, there is no justification for not giving a copy.

  • I see my digital files much more often than my prints, minus my family portraits (took myself and printed). I pull them up on my phone to share. I make sure I have a backup. Most of my clients don’t want prints, though some buy them because they feel they have to, and then rarely look at the prints. But with digitalis, Facebook surfaces those photos regularly. Digital photos go on the screen saver on the TV and computer, seen and enjoyed often.

    I believe in being a full service shop, so they don’t have to hassle to get prints if they want them, but the worst thing I can do as a photographer is hold someone’s else photos hostage. When I shoot a wedding, I realize those are THEIR memories, and I hate it when photographers hold memories hostage by charging exorbitant prices for prints, not having any way to give a back up or digital files.

    My family’s favorite portrait was done on medium format film. We ordered a very large framed print of it. It has faded and turned blue. It’s so ugly now. We’d have to spend over $500 to get a reprint. If we had a digital version, we’d still have that shot to put on our tv, print, share, and preserve for our family. My grandkids may see a faded, terrible version of that photo someday, but they will never see it in good condition. My digital files and backed up three ways. They will be able to cherish those, when many prints of my childhood have become torn, faded and ruined.

    Photographers that want to only delivery prints have that prerogative, that’s fine. I just don’t think the reasoning for that as presented here is the best representation of why.

  • catlett

    Dear arrogant photographer who isn’t nearly as uniquely skilled and artistic as you think you are. You could have just given a simple no or made it plain in your advertising that you don’t provide digital copies and kept me from wasting my time moving on to the next person who is every bit as talented as you, has less ego and understands that digital copies are common in today’s market.

  • Rick

    “See, I don’t believe in selling a CD or USB drive filled with images that will be shared a few times and then stuck in a drawer with other CD’s and USB drives.”

    As opposed to the old school method of filling a binder full of photos that spends a few months on the coffee table then moves to a spot under the sofa, then the hall closet and finally to the attic never to be seen again?

    I think you overestimate the lasting value of your work. It will not be placed on a pedestal. There will be no altar built for it. The only place it will ever likely be displayed is on a wall at the bride’s parent’s house as a constant reminder why they can’t afford to retire until they’re 75.

    Get over yourself. Accept that times change and the best use most clients will ever get out of your craft is by using it in the here and now on social media which is the reason they need digital files. And if you did a good enough job, these files make for great advertising that will lead to future business. And if you didn’t, they deserve to be lost to time anyway.

  • Fernando plus

    I hate your post 🙁

    ahother thing I hate is that professional photographer provide digital copy of every shot with a super intrusive watermak, occupying like 40% of the image, I know they want to give out, but that is an agressive move… and rude, IMO.

  • Dirk Sachse

    At the end of the day I have to do anything to put food on the table. The industry is changing and giving away the original files is becoming the standard now these days. If it pleases the customer, I ll give them whatever they want, as long as they pay me. If I keep sitting on my files, I would have to turn away almost 50% of my business.

  • Doug GNapp

    Thank you for all the clients who prefer to work with a photographer that gives the images thrown in as part of the package. Business is good.

  • chris

    Judging by the comments below I’m not the only one that takes the exact opposite view. You can still do all your finishing touches and provide final digital versions in jpegs of your images instead of the raw files. Your clients have multiple options for storing the images after they receive a usb, dvd, or download link from you. They can live forever in the cloud backed up not degrading in your provided media. Plus even protected any print you provide can also degrade based on exposure to various elements. In the end you sre selling memories and the customer is always right, you need to get with the times or go back to shooting film.

  • cbenci

    Another head up arse DIY Photography article.

    I know I’m in for a class article when it starts with ‘Dear (insert condescending tone and person type here)’

    Send those clients my way, I’m happy to provide edited, hi-res tifs.

  • Olena Zaskochenko

    It seems in the article photographers saying about the clients “I want all digital files of all images you shoot during the session, I know you took a lot of them. I will chose the best of them myself” and ets. I think it just like potato. It’s like if you go to the restaraunt and say, would you please charge me less, and put food in plastic plate instead? Or would you please give me this potato raw,I will prepare it at home.. Instead of just go to walmart and get some raw potatoes. It just case of choise, you can go to local market and get some raw simple food, or you can go to the restourant and get a lacarte menu. (and yes, I think providing high res copy with the final print is good, but not instead of it)

    • HyperJ

      “and yes, I think providing high res copy with the final print is good, but not instead of it”

      Why? If that is what the customer wants, why not? Assuming your are fairly compensated, who are you to say how they should enjoy the photo(s)?

      And I don’t think anyone is arguing that RAW files needs to be provided – by digital files most mean a high-res JPEG.

  • Ahmet

    Sorry, but (generally speaking) wedding photographers are the worst kind. They think that they are artists and the wedding is staged for them to be photographed in a way that expresses their artistic vision.
    Well, dear wedding photographers, this is not the case. There is a wedding, there are guests, and maybe after those things, comes the photographer. You are not artists (in a pure form), you are photographers, employed to take photos of an event. If you were pure artists, you could go to the wedding and take photos of just what you like.
    So get off the high horse and provide what the customer wants if you want to survive.

  • Leo Falcon

    In my experience the “the client us always right” is not just to keep you a mindless worker. As a photographer in modern times people will think of the digital files as something already implicit. If they don’t want prints then don’t give them prints but neither discount them from the price and make that clear. As photographers we should keep a line between the art and the job.

  • Some interesting comments, however my take is she is discussing portraits sat in a studio, not actually at a wedding? Perhaps to some it’s the same thing, but it can be very different. She also add’s that she will provide the clients with digital copies of prints that they have ordered, I think this is perfectly fair. No one is going to spend several hours retouching (high end) dozens of images for no gain and your average client isn’t going to either. They will take the cd to Tesco and get the cheapest prints done they can, regardless if these files are retouched or not and they are a reflection of your work, shown to family and friends. This photographer is providing a high end package which includes post production, the files out of the camera will bare little resemblance to what she hangs on the wall.
    Regarding clients knowing how to best store their files for the future, BS! The number of times I have had to rescue people who have lost all their photographs because; Hard drive failure + no back up, laptop stolen + no back up, house fire + back up stored at home, deleted the wrong folder by mistake, stored on CD’s and no longer have a CD drive, the list is endless… Not all photographers will be around tomorrow, not all do store every file they take, however they are far more likely to still have the file in a working formate in 30 years time than the typical client.
    As an aside, I get married in a couple of weeks, my photographer offered to do a files only service as one photographer to another, but I want a nice complete album with his finished look and touches, it’s one of the reasons I’ve hired him!

    • She is not providing her clients with digital copies, only with low-res digital versions “suitable for sharing on social networks”, big difference. The high-minded rationalizations are a transparent cover for greed, nothing more.

  • Ray Dennis

    “Yes, you can.” Because I have watched too many other industries desperately cling to business models that their customers no longer wanted, turning those customers bitter and resentful. Eventually making them look for alternatives. I’d rather change than become obsolete.

    I can’t work for less, I still have to afford to live. But I’ll offer new services to keep up. Load most of my fee onto the work done, rather than the tangible prints… where it really should have been in the first place. Break my services apart so you can buy only what you want. And if you really want to print them yourself I’ll tell you that Costco is far better than Walmart for that. Of course if you want professional prints, I still do that too.

    I got into this business, among other reasons, to make people happy. I think you’ll be happier with professional prints, I can show you a comparison, but it’s your call. Forcing you into something does not make you happy and that does not make me happy.

  • If you really are half the photographer you try to portray yourself as, giving out digital files should not be a problem. Your clients would still gladly pay for your services as a photographer (and skill in post-processing). Today, images are shared digitally. Be that through Facebook, a computer screen or a tablet. Get with the times.

  • I have to laugh at all the heated comments here, because to me, it depends solely on the agreement I negotiate with the client, period. Either one of us can walk away if we aren’t happy with what’s being proposed. And, BTW, my agreements (performances and events are what I shoot) generally include prints and/or JPG’s – low res with an unobtrusive watermark, priced and provided with agreed-upon usage rights accordingly. No RAW files, and I never delete my selects from shoots. One point though, that seems to be missing from all this is the thing we always get told, and clients need to remember. Always back up your files.

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