[Rufus]

Well, I took the proofs to the happy couple today. Will I get any sales??????

The last time I did this, I waited for 6 weeks to get an order, then got 1100AUD.
That was nice.

[shuttertalk]

Was t is the recent wedding you did?

How does it work over there - you don't get paid unless they order something? Do you agree on a package beforehand?

[Rufus]

Nononono.

It's just me.

"Normal" photographers will charge "upfront", often in the region of £600 - £1100, (2857AUD). I dont. I charge an expenses fee, which is small, and then I overcharge for the pictures. The client knows this. I tell 'em straight. The reason I do it, is so that poor families still get a reasonable photographer, but dont pay out excessive amounts unnecessarily.

[adam]

Wow! That's a lot of money! That's a good way to do it Rufus
Pro

[shuttertalk]

Hey, good concept! that way they pay only if they're happy with your work.

Hope they like what they've seen...

[Rufus]

I hope so too!

It's always worked so far, I've never done it any other way.

Mind you, I was conned once. The Groom asked me to put proofs on the internet, so I posted about 60 high compression proofs at roughly 400x600, believing them to be only "proof" quality.

Guess what?

The pages took about 140 hits in 3 weeks, and since only the groom had the URL, I thought that was a lot..........
He never bought any, nor did his family, nor the Bride, nor her family. Live and learn...............

(Yes, he printed 'em all off, and didnt care about the quality, so long as he got something for nothing).

Humans! Bah.

[Cailean]

There are some free batch water-marking programs out there, in case you get a request like that again... or, you charge a certain amount to put them on the internet, with the charge being waived if they order so many prints, etc.

[Rufus]

Oh, it's ok.

I print 6 to a sheet inkjet proofs now. They're awful!

[shuttertalk]

Haha, I did something similar for my wedding - he gave us the 5x7" proofs and I scanned them all (took me ages) and put them online for friends and family to see whil the album was being done.

But it's slightly different as we paid up front, and we got all proofs, negs, and album in the end anyway.

[Rufus]

Yes.
Very different really.........................

[adam]

OOOOOOOoh!
lol.

Anyone here getting married soon? I want to practice taking pictures

[de_axeman]

One way you could discourage getting conned it is to put some sort of marking on the proofs so that they can see the photos but, but it might have a ghost image of your name & logo on it, or something?

That's what our wedding photographer did, although our proofs were hardcopy, not posted online. But with your post-processing skills, you could do this just as easily for your photos, no?