mattnnat

That’s right we give away the high resolution files in all of our wedding packages.

And our Brides loves us for it. But a lot of photographers don’t. I hope this post isn’t to controversial. It’s just my attempt to explain why we do things the way we do. We hope to inform our brides and other photographers why we do this.

Way back in time when photographers used to process film, like say 10 years ago, photographers would charge a minimal fee to come photograph your wedding. They shot lots of family and group pictures hoping that you and them would want to purchase prints after the wedding. In order to make a decent living they needed you to buy a stack of 8×10′s and 5×7′s. They would never consider giving away the negatives because they were the only means for reproduction. If you were lucky enough to score some proofs from this kind of photographer you probably got the word proof stamped on the front so if you made a copy all your friends would think you’re a thief.

We do things completely differently. We charge a larger fee up front for our time and talent. We make our living by taking beautiful photographs while making sure you and your guests have the time of your lives. Our number one goal is to keep you happy. We are only salespeople once, when you book us for your wedding. We don’t rely on selling you prints, gallery wraps or even album upgrades after the wedding. We do sell those things, we just don’t rely on you to buy them. That means you don’t have to feel like we’re constantly trying to upsell you. Most of our clients are thrilled with the work we do and choose to upgrade their albums and purchase prints but we never pressure them to do so!

Our clients appreciate the work we do in Photoshop and are willing to pay a premium for the quality that we deliver. Our online proofing also serves as a way for your friends and family to order images without bothering you for them. Some of our clients don’t want to pay a premium or love to tinker in Photoshop themselves. That’s why we include the DVD of high resolution images. We don’t want to nickle and dime you over reprints. We much prefer to be payed a fair wage for our art, our passion and the heart we put into creating your images. This allows us to be the friendly photographers who give the files away in an effort to shamelessly get referrals from you… because you liked us so much and we treated you fair.

There are a few reasons why you’ll find that a lot of photographers have a problem with this approach. Some photographers think it makes them look bad unless they do the same… and we don’t disagree. In the past when a photographer gave away his negatives he had no way to reproduce his images. Not so with digital, when we give our DVD of images to you we still have copies for ourselves. Most of our clients still order images from our online shopping cart and upgrade their albums because they want top quality. Yet they still want a copy of the files to keep… and we’re happy to oblige. Another reason photographers keep control of the files is because they are afraid you’ll take them to Walmart or Costco and if they do a poor job of printing the files, it will make them look bad. I can relate to this, it’s painful to see our art poorly represented. When we hand over the DVD of images, we warn you about going to cheap photo labs and explain that the photos will look their absolute best if we do our photoshop magic and have them printed at our professional lab.

Ok, I’m done ranting now. Here’s a sneak peek of Chelsea and Jared’s Wedding. More coming soon!