Wedding Photography - {{ What Now?? }} - THEFOREVERKIND's Pink Wedding by Color Blog

Wedding Photography

Anyone who follows my blog knows that I have been heartbroken over an issue that came up with my photographer regarding our High-res photos. The bottom line is that she doesn't give them out unless you buy an album which is RIDICULOUSLY expensive ($1300-$5000). Beautiful, but even with the 50% discount she offered if I do the designing, it is just not in the current budget. Without that purchase we only receive the low-res images which can't be enlarged past 5x7 without them becoming grainy and pixelated.

My mom contacted a photographer friend of a friend because I wanted to find out what this was all about. He was wonderful and his response is below:

"So here's the deal - high res disks are the crux of us photog types. Some offer them, some don't. There are valid reasons for both. Essentially your daughter is paying for the photographer's time, both at the wedding and the hours of postprocessing that go in after the day. If the images are not part of the package, your daughter is either forced to buy the disk, or purchase the prints online, which is a big money maker. I would suggest she ask what typical prices are for those prints. If it's very high, the disk purchase may be worth it.

Here's my stance on giving away the disks. I don't give the images out in my basic packages for this reason: in a basic package there is no printed representation of my work. If I give the bride the disk, she can walk into a CVS or send them to shutterfly. I cannot guarantee the quality of those prints. Color may be wrong, cropping may be an issue etc. I can guarantee that all my prints come from a professional lab on the best paper with my edits. That being said, if the couple chooses to buy an album, gallery wrap or specialty print, I give them the high res disk as my work is represented how it should be. In all actuality, my clients typically buy prints from me anyway because they know how they're going to come out and it's super convenient (next day arrival).

I hope that helps. If your daughter hasn't signed a contract yet, maybe she can negotiate print price or adding the disk for a nominal fee. If she has any questions or needs any advice, please tell her she can call me at any point."

Like I said...SO nice, even if it wasn't exactly what I had hoped to hear, at least he validated her view point. But the real question is....

....WHAT DO I DO NOW?? Sooooo not into starting the photographer search ALL OVER AGAIN....

I would call her or email her.
Start off with some flattery. Then explain exactly what you want from her. Don't leave anything out, if you want an engagement session put that it, if you want 10 hours of photos put that in, etc.... If you know your budget (what you can spend for her time & the DVD of images, tell her) then she can try to work with it and decide if she wants to lose you as a client or not. Or she might counter-offer & then you'll have to think about stretching your budget. This is along the lines of what I would say.

Your work is just beautiful & I really hope that we will be able to
work together for my wedding. Photography is so important to us,
and we are happy that we found you!

Unfortunately we are on a limited budget, and while in the future we would love to purchase an album from you, its just not in our wedding budget right now, however I am hoping you will be able to work with us, and create a custom package for us that would include.

8 hours of Photography Coverage
High Resolution Edited images on A DVD

We look forward to hearing from you,
and really really hope to work with you on our wedding day.
Your work really reached out to us. Thank you.

The whole to give a CD, to not give a CD is a really tough situation that has all but divided the photography community And the reasons your mom's photographer friend listed are pretty good.

And I'm sorry but you may have to start over with your search to receive exactly what you want. I would try to talk to your photographer first. But DO NOT ask her to do something for free, that is incredibly annoying. It is her livelihood, and there are oodles and oodles of other expenses that are not obvious,(not to mention the thousands and thousand of dollars worth of equipment that needs to be ungraded and maintained). And when you consider that with the high res images you most likely won't purchase many prints from her it will hurt her profit considerably. But if you love this photographer try to meet her in the middle, make sure she knows that you value her. And realize that she may not be able to bend anymore, she did offer a 50% discount.

The economy is rough on brides and photographers alike. I really hope that you are able to get what you need to make your wedding photos amazing.

Neogotiate, neogotiate, neogotiate! I knew right away who I wanted as our photographer, but she was also very hesitant with releasing the CD & copyrights. At first I explained that I needed to print the photos myself because they would be part of my centerpieces. She didn't budge.

I looked around for a few weeks and came back to her again. I was very open with her about which other photographers I was considering and the fact that they had agreed to release the CD & copyrights to me. I honestly told how her how much we desired to use her services, but unless we could have access to the CD that we would be forced to go elsewhere. She agreed to releasing the CD by writing it in our contract. I also gave in some & agreed to purchase 3 image albulms ($400) & a canvas directly from her (which otherwise I probably would have skipped).

In the end we are paying about $2600 for engagements, boudoir, rehersal dinner (which she threw in for free), 8 hours wedding day, the 3 albums, the canvas, & the CDs from all 4 shoots. Yes it's a bit more than I hoped to spend, but I feel confident in getting what I originally wanted. Good luck!