Reply To: No sugar coating needed.. I am a big boy

[nesgran]

but hey I’m not that great of a business person lol

I think you hit the nail on the head here. I really think you should be charging more and giving less. 4-600 images on a disc are far too many, I would limit this to 150 at the most unless it was an absolutely massive wedding and you managed to get a head shot of everyone there. Decreasing the number you will also be able to edit the shots more consistently as you have 3-4 times the amount of time to spend on each photo (if needed)

Printing will be an easy way to give the couple a quality product to remember the day by. Most I’m guessing will be using what ever drug store they have close which will bite them in the arse years down the line. Even if you make a couple of cents on each printed photo it adds up for you but it will also mean that the client will get a better end result. Having a good working relationship with a pro lab will stand you in good stead and will mean that you can offer a higher quality product. Printing isn’t hard once you know what comes out the other end. Having a calibrated monitor and working with the same lab you know what the result will look like.

If you want to give them added value send along a dvd of the photos but in low res with a watermark and you will get free advertising on facebook. I think your photography is too good to be this lazy about it. At the moment you are competing with the fauxes which isn’t a battle you will ever win. I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t get more clients by upping your prices as it is then perceived as a higher quality product. In fact if I was shopping around for a wedding tog and found you I’d almost be a little suspicious it was a scam

Printing will not mean much extra work for you, especially if you decrease the number of photos you give them. Cropping to 5×7 takes seconds in lightroom and sending to the printers will be whatever time it takes for you to upload them. If you want to miss that step there are various services where the couple+family can select what shots they want printed and the printer will send them out dealing with the hassle of it.

My suggestions would be to up your wedding package cost a little to cover insurance, heck why not up it by $300 and that includes a 90 minute engagement shoot?. Aim to make 10 cents on each printed photo if you aren’t comfortable making money off prints. By all means continue giving them a coffee table book and a dvd with the photos if you want but make them low res and with a watermark, this will act as proofs for which shots they want. Most important will be to be more selective about which shots you include to the couple as too many photos isn’t helpful. The end result of this will be less time for you editing, more money from the fees, more work getting the stuff printed but also you will earn more from it. I think you are selling yourself a little short competing with the fauxes.

*Disclaimer* I don’t know what the wedding tog business is like where you work but on the whole this is what I think