PASS

[Sarah]

http://pass.us

What do you all think of this new photo sharing thing? I feel like it further ruins the industry with the you get everything for free/cheap attitude. I understand that people are using it to let clients download the photos for free? Not cool.

They even say: “Zenfolio/Pictage and Smugmug were created before social networks and before smart phones and are made for product based photographers who want to sell stuff and who don’t want to share their photos.”

Umm what photographer does not want to make money at their business? And what photographer does not want to finish the job? Offering a print IS the finished product. I just hate the shoot and burn attitude.

[cameraclicker]

Pass looks like $29 per event, per year.  So if you shoot a wedding a weekend from May through September and you want the photos up for more than a month, for 20 weddings you are looking at $580!  That’s a lot more than I pay for my web page, so I don’t think I will be joining PASS.

Printing details are sketchy:  “We’re working with WHCC to develop a beautiful print solution for those of you who use PASS to Shoot and Share with your clients. This feature is coming late Spring!”

I was a huge fan of slides and not really a fan of prints, so I am a big fan of viewing photos on computer screens.  My wife likes prints, so we have binders full, but only of the photos she is interested in.  The ones I like revolve in screen saver displays so we actually see those more.  I have a portfolio collection in my phone so those are available at a moment’s notice, it’s easier than carrying around a binder.

There are different business models.  The “print is the product” model is usually some mix of payment to take photos and payment for pictures on media.  Shoot to burn presumably front loads the cost so you pay for taking photos and if you want prints, you cross that bridge later.  Possibly someone else gets the printing profit.  As the photographer, you loose some control and non-photographers (and even some photographers) don’t understand 4X6, 5X7 and 8X10 are different shapes.  I like the idea of breaking it into the shooting part and the printing part because the customer can have flexibility, no one is tied into a large album and two small albums, and you can show friends and relatives around the world easily.

I still don’t think PASS is the answer.

[Worst Case Scenario]

I signed up just to get an idea of how it works. Most of my clients pay for images on discs, so this might be a quicker / cheaper way to deliver them. As for people sharing them…. the days of keeping the negative and demanding a premium for prints are long gone. Any thing that leaves my studio on a disc I fully expect it to be shared and badly printed, so this might even be a better way of doing it.

You only pay the 29 bucks if you want it hosted for more than a month. With a wedding they will download them that night, and it’s not like you upload the only copy and it gets deleted at the end of the month.

The main draw back with the free service is that you can only download the images one at at a time, if you pay you can press a button and come back when it’s finished.

I’ll report back when I’ve given it a go..

[Sarah]

Eh id rather try to sell prints since my family owns a printing company. I dont like the idea of the client most likely sharing the gallery and having guests at the event download the images. I charge for downloads and have had guests from weddings buy prints from me so I really think this takes extra money from people.
Also zenfolio give the ability to enable free downloads so if I ever want to give up on prints ill just use what I already pay for.

Also another thing about prints is they have to be able to see it and hold it to want to buy it so keep several samples in your studio.

[Author]

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