So, despite having been doing this for, well, I don’t really want to admit how long, I’ve never tried do to the “print and sell” or “sell and print” type of photography business.
I’ve always had jobs or contracts where I delivered film or digital results and went on my merry way.
I have two clients in the span of 48 hours asking for physical prints as the delivery method.
I recently had a shoot for an unrelated client, and Just on a whim, I sent a couple .tif and .jpg to Walmart and Walgreens to see what would come back, and as you can probably imagine, I was shocked at how bad the images look.
I am proof positive it’s not an issue with the images. They’re flawless on a color-corrected reference monitor as well as your run-of-the-mill Macbook monitor. There’s a couple of these images that may legitimately be amongst the best work of my career because the model, the environment, the sun, the weather, and the wind just all came together in the most miraculous way.
I would not be ashamed to deliver these digital images to any client, regardless of their company size/scale. I’ve sold much worse in the past, just being realistic. Also, the client who I shot them for was ecstatic about the results, and I’m not the only shooter doing work for them.
Anyways - those of you who might be in this side of the industry, where are you getting high quality prints made?
I need to know how much to charge for the sitting fee but also for the delivery.
If it costs hundreds of dollars to get the prints made properly, I need to adequately address this.