VS 
I often get asked why it costs a lot to buy digital files of images from a photographer and the reality is, you may get a different answer from every photographer you ask. My position on this topic is fairly simple, however long winded, and it goes a little something like this……..
In the age of Facebook, digital photo frames and Apple TV (love!), I totally appreciate there is a high demand for digital images. My house is certainly full of them, as I know are many of yours. The screensaver of photos on my computer is often a topic of post-dinner conversation with guests and family alike.
I also know a whole lot of people that love the traditional framed photo or the more contemporary canvas art and have them plaster on walls and every flat surface above floor level. I sit somewhere in between………...I love both. (Funny that!) but I could never replace a printed photo with its digital form.
As a photographer, my job is to make my customers happy.
What do you come to me for?
I think this is again, fairly simple. I provide my clients with beautiful images they cannot take themselves, in a high quality medium, for the purpose they intend. So why not sell the digital files too?
The issue is often this – Perceived Value.
We all have pc’s and digi cameras so a file seems quite cheap and cheerful. However, a digital file is the basis of the photographer’s product. And like any other product has an inherent value. It also carries risk for us. If we sell you a file on the cheap, you get a poor quality print out from a photo kiosk and put it on your wall, it is still seen as our product. Word of mouth is powerful.
There is also the precious time its takes to edit and process your images. An often forgotten but necessary and occasionally time-consuming part of the process. This cannot be free! How would we eat?
There is the inescapable truth that photography is an expensive business to begin with. It is impossible to ignore the 10’s of thousands of dollars in equipment, insurances, general running costs, taxes (ah tax!), printing costs, industry memberships, travel expenses……the list grows and grows……
For a photographer to be a photographer, we need to pay for all these things and more to provide you a service, otherwise, we would never begin.
Personally I think, if you go to the trouble of having professional photos taken, why not get some prints?
It is art in itself, it is your family, your mum or dad, kids, and is worth putting on display. I really don’t see the point in only buying a disc. You are capturing a moment in your lives that will never happen again, so you should have the memory on your wall, or on your desk.
This is why I always encourage my customers to purchase prints and I include one print with every portrait session. It’s something tangible, in your hand that you don’t have to press a button to view.
I am always happy to package in a disc that contains digital images for my customers and combine it with beautiful printed images for you to brag about and remember forever.
Please contact me if you want more information.
