Tom Szabo: tom-szabo.com, Email: 440-725-6504

Deliverable – What’s A Deliverable?

The phone rings, after I answer and identify myself, the magic question comes; how much do you charge to photograph a wedding?  Wow, that’s like asking; how much does a car cost?  Do you want a Hyundai or a BMW?  In order to answer the bride or groom, some details are needed.  Often I ask:  What do you want as a deliverable?  That’s when the discussion comes to a halt.  I can tell by the prospect’s voice they don’t understand the meaning of “deliverable”.

So let’s try to explain.  Wedding photography consists of 2 parts; the service of photographing a wedding, then delivering some finished product to the bride or groom.  I’ll refer to the final product delivered to the newly married couple as a “deliverable”.  So what do you want?  The deliverable can be in the form of: a CD (with or without a license to purchase your own prints at a local photofinishing lab), album with prints, proof book, individual prints, thank you cards, or a coffee table book.  In fact you can order any one item or a combination of them.

One variable that impacts the “cost” is the type of deliverable.  Let me go into greater detail.  Photographers can fall into two broad categories.  They both provide photography wedding coverage.  Most will offer a range of service based on the amount of time the photographer is needed.  Now, here’s where the two begin to separate.  It has to deal with the “deliverable”.  The first type – “Traditional” generally start by providing proofs for view.  Proofs may be in the form of prints or image files on a digital medium.  You then purchase prints, wedding albums or other “hard copy” images.

The second type is often referred to as “shoot and burn”.  After the wedding photography is completed, the photographer delivers a CD with full camera files.  See my post: http://athomasimage.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/you%e2%80%99ve-got-a-cd-with-1000-images-now-what/

Some “traditional” photographers look down on the “shoot and burn” photographers.  It’s just how people are.

Remember, photographers own the rights to all images they create.  You need to purchase a release from the photographer to copy or print the image files.  I know, you’re going to say but it’s my picture – I can do what I want with it.  NO, read my post about copyrights:  http://athomasimage.wordpress.com/2009/10/09/copyrights-whats-the-deal/

If the CD includes such a release, then you may take your CD to a photo finisher to print the files you want.  The details of your rights will be spelled out in the release you purchased from the photographer.  Let me suggest you read it before signing your contract!

Why do you care which type of “deliverable” you purchase?  Let’s say you purchased a CD of files, now you must sort through the hundreds and hundreds of files, select the files to print or distribute and source a vendor to provide printing services.  If you don’t like the final print results, then you have to go back to the lab and argue your case.  The lab now has an easy “out” by claiming they printed the file you gave them and the file is poor.  So you go back to the photographer, claiming the file is of poor quality.  The photographer may claim his file is acceptable, but your lab is not providing quality print services.  Now what do you do?  Who do you believe?  Or do you even care?  If not, simply accept the poor print quality. 

Often when purchasing prints from your photographer, there is time built into the cost of wedding photography services to provide touch up or enhancing, counseling time with the bride and groom to make print selections, design time for albums or coffee table books and the photographer wants you to have the best final product they can offer.

So how do you know which way to go?  Well, you have to do your research and make a decision.  If you really are on a tight budget, talk with the photographer.  Explain your budget restrictions.  Don’t get me wrong.  There are many very effective ways to hold down your wedding cost.  But, remember – you get what you pay for!  That statement may refer to quality of service or the amount of service you can expect.  You may or may not get much post wedding support if you’ve hired a “budget” photographer.   Be a good consumer.  Ask questions and make an informed decision.  Be ready to tell the photographer what you expect as a “deliverable” and best of luck!

When I talk with customers and other business owners, I can generally follow the logic behind their budget and how products or services are priced.  I often draw an analogy to the automobile market.  Cars all perform the same task; they get you from point A to point B.  But they have a huge range of selling price.  That’s because different people have different budgets and will spend varying levels of money to purchase a car.

A Thomas Image is signed up to get alerts from brides looking for photography services.  In many of these alerts the bride can list her budget.  I can understand that some brides will have expensive taste (especially if Mommy and Daddy have lots of money to spend on them) and some brides want to put their money into a house rather than a fancy wedding.  I applaud people who think ahead like that.

Here’s my dilemma.  I see more and more brides trying to put a wedding together for a total budget of $500.00 to $2000.00.  That’s their TOTAL budget for a hall, decorations, food beverage, entertainment and photography.  We’re not talking about a small wedding for 15 to 20 people either.  The figures appear to include wedding photography.  Am I missing something here?

How can anyone hire a professional anything, expect them to have top notch equipment, a back up of everything, spend time with the couple to prepare for the wedding, shoot the wedding, come back into the studio to spend 8 to 30 hours to sort and prepare images to view and do all that for a measly hundred bucks.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect wedding couples to pay my entire mortgage for the month.  But at least let me clear some money to put towards the mortgage or buy some food.

If things are that tight, maybe couples should simply continue to date, get an education and start a career in hopes of someday being able to afford to get married and afford to run a household.  Are couples that out of touch with reality, to not have a handle what things cost?  Does everyone think they are entitled to whatever they want and should be able to get it for FREE or near nothing?

I’m willing to help people keep costs under control.  As a business owner I have to do the same thing – keep my costs under control and work within my budget.  What am I missing here?  Can someone tell me?  This photographer is truly baffled.

Your wedding day is one of the most important days of your life.  Here are some basic things to consider about wedding photography:

• Your photographer will be with you all day long documenting a very personal time between you and your new spouse.  Make sure both of you are very comfortable with your photographer and willing to show your personal side.  Meet the photographer in advance.
• Consider an engagement announcement photo session with the photographer to learn about him or her.
• Make sure your photographer has back up equipment if something goes wrong.  If you’re going to have a friend or relative take snapshots for you, than have a back up to the friend or relative, if something goes wrong.
• Determine your budget.  If you haven’t set a dollar limit and you want a photographer, then prepare to set monies aside for the level of service you want.
• Find out about what special products or services are available through your photographer  Ask about albums, print stock and special photography effects.  Ask if  “save the date” and “thank you” cards are off-the-shelf or can you have them custom designed using images from your wedding day.
• It’s easier to gather around or pass around a wedding album than try to converge around a computer screen to view images on a disk.
• Ask your photographer about unique locations for photography in your area.
• All the “horror stories” I’ve heard about photographers and customer service issues tell me one thing – Get It In Writing.  Make sure you get a contract from your photographer.  If your photographer does not want to offer one to you – listen carefully, Run, don’t walk, Run the other direction!  You want to know exactly what you are getting and what it will cost you.  That word “cost” does not only refer to money!  If your friend or relative is photographing your wedding, meet with them in advance and make an outline of the things expected on both sides.  Don’t rely on “I thought you said?”

I’m always amazed at photographers that supply images on CD and don’t offer prints.  I assume if they’re somewhat like me, they offer wedding photography services to make money.  So why would a photographer in business to make money, leave money behind?  So you’re asking where did they leave money behind? 

 When the photographer turns over a CD so the Bride/Groom can make their own prints – the photographer gives up the income to be made from providing prints.  If the photographer wanted to make money shooting the wedding, why not make more money selling prints?  Is making money a sin or illegal?

 Let’s turn this around.  So you the Bride or Groom are getting married.  Granted, most engaged couples are “looking to keep costs to a minimum” – understandable.  I’m sure your boss at work is “looking to keep costs to a minimum”.  Give your boss a break, cut your hours and hey why not go a step further and cut your pay scale?  After all, your boss is “looking to keep costs to a minimum”.  Your work will still be the same quality for less money – right?  Why not allow your boss to make more money at your expense – you probably don’t need or want the money.

Now there may just be a real reason to turn over the printing process to the Bride/Groom.  Here are my thoughts:

1. The photographer only wants to make his daily rate, get out and not have more contact with the newly married couple.  Kind of leads you to ask – Why?
2. The photographer doesn’t want to be bothered fixing his/her exposure or photography mistakes.  Let the discount lab take the blame for shoddy prints.
3. Turn over the CD and run.  This way you the Bride/Groom won’t be able to deal with bad images.  Besides the Bride/Groom got a cut rate on the photographer.
4. It takes time to sort through hundreds and hundreds of image files, eliminate the “not-so-good” ones.  After all, if the photographer dropped their rate to get the job to start – why put more time into a low paying job?

 I know, at this point your thinking I’m pretty slanted on this.  A lot of photographers are very fussy about the work they produce.  When the product is delivered to the customer it carries their name.  A pro wants their name to mean quality.  That often means selecting suppliers like print labs that will support their quality demands. 

It takes time to sort through images, prepare the proofs, demonstrate special effects, prepare digital files for printing, pick up the final prints, handle any vendor problems, prepare the order for delivery and handle any and all customer service issues (read my post – You’ve got a CD with 1000 images, Now what?”).  That’s what it takes to be a pro and you the customer pay for that service.  Why because you deserve it – don’t you?

 I don’t mean to infer that budgets aren’t important.  If your wedding budget is small, than most photographers will work with the client to put a package together that meets your needs.  That might mean, shortening the day, cutting down the print sizes, reduce the number of prints or eliminate the wedding album.  There are ways to meet a budget and still get a quality product.  Remember, you get what you pay for.  There’s a difference between cheap and low cost.

 Those are my comments – what are yours?

Brides often say they want a CD of images from their wedding.  I often wonder – Why?  Sure you may wish to post them or email them to your friends or family.  Generally the CD requirement comes about because their friend told them to ask the photographer for the CD.

Do you really know what it takes to manage hundreds of images?  Think about how long it will take you to sort through 500 or more images, just to get 6 or 10 to send off.  Trust me you can spend hours pouring over all these images – that’s how long it takes me after shooting a wedding. Do the math:  10 second view time per image X 500 images = 83 minutes.  If you’ve got 1000 images that time is doubled – 166 minutes or almost 3 hours!  That’s just viewing time, no editing time is included.

Then if you want to email them, you have to drop the resolution or it takes forever and a day to upload and download.  Dropping the resolution means you need image editing software, i.e. Photo Shop. Now you have even more work.

Do yourself a big favor – Order a wedding album with 15 to 20 beautifully done prints. Sit with your friends or family and a glass of wine.  Then pass the album around the table.

Ask the photographer what it takes to put your prints on a web site or make a CD of them for you to email to friends. Asking nicely may even get them at low or no cost.

Spend the time showing and enjoying your beautiful prints in an album. Don’t waste your time trying to figure out how to fit everyone around a laptop to see small “thumbnails”. Enjoy your images don’t create a headache!