26/05/2023
Today I had a rather interesting conversation with a recent passport photo client, which I want to share by way of an insight into professional photography. This client had come to me for passport photographs of their newborn baby. They brought along their young son, the baby's brother and asked if I could take a picture of the two of them together. I explained that this would normally be done as a separate portrait session but as they were both there I agreed to take a few shots of the two children together. I took four shots in total one of which was very nice with both children looking directly at the camera and with the little boy holding his baby sister's arm. The only problem was that because the background was only set up for a passport photograph, I had an unsightly open doorway behind the little boy. As it was otherwise such a lovely shot of the two of them I agreed to photoshop the picture so it had a completely clear, plain, unobtrusive background.
The client liked the portrait so much that they bought an 8" x 6" print in a mount for my standard portrait print price of £30 on top of the cost of the baby's passport photos which were £20.
Today I had a text message from the client saying that unfortunately, the print had become damaged and that they tried to clean it with a damp cloth and had made it even worse. They wondered if I still had the original photograph as it was such a beautiful memory. I called to ask whether it was a replacement print that they wanted or the original digital version. They said that as it was their fault that the print became damaged, and they didn't want to pay another £30 for a replacement print, could I please just email them the original, photo-shopped digital file.
Now for some reason they seemed to believe that the digital file would be free where she would have had to pay for a replacement print.
I explained that, unfortunately, sending her the digital file would be similar to sending them the original negative in the days of film which was something unheard of. I said that I could either replace the print at the same price as I charged them for the original print or I could send them the digital file so that they could either make as many prints as they wanted, send to family by email or use for social media, but that I would have to charge for this and agreed to discount this to £35 which would be a saving off my usual one off digital image portrait price. They said that as I already had the file they could not understand why they had to pay for it and surely it would be cheaper for me to just email them the file rather than make a new print. I tried to explain that the digital image was my stock-in-trade and that I could not just email it to her free of charge, especially when I had neither charged them a separate shooting fee nor charged for the photo-shopping of the background.
They said that times were hard and they could not afford to pay for it. I understand this, of course so I told them that I did not want them to be unhappy so I offered instead to reprint the original 8" x 6" print for them completely free of charge so it puts them in exactly the same position as they would be had they not damaged the original print, but that I was not able to send them the digital file unless they bought it.
They declined as they did not wish to put me in position where it would cost ME money to reprint it and refused to accept charity. I told them that I was simply trying to put them in the same position as they would have been had the print not become damaged. They still declined.
The point of this tale is that people seem to think that digital files have no monetary value and that professional photographers can simply give them away freely. The number of times that we hear "We only want the digital files, surely that would be cheaper?"
No, it is not cheaper it is actually slightly dearer than an 8" x 6" print but far cheaper than a 30" x 20" canvas because you can then make as many prints or canvases of any size and use it anywhere on your social media as you like. A digital file has value regardless of whether it costs us less than to print from it. It is our stock-in-trade. It is what we do for a living. It is like asking for free negatives back in the days of film.
Please folks try and understand that I am not a mean person by not wanting to give away my work, after all I offered to give them a free replacement print when it was not the quality of the print that was at fault but that they had damaged it. I was quite happy to do that as I did not want a disappointed client. I even said that if they changed their mind I would still replace the print for them FOC but, no, I would not give away my digital files for free. It's what I do for a living! DIGITAL FILES HAVE A VALUE, THAT'S WHY PEOPLE WANT THEM.
The accompanying image is NOT the image in question, as I wanted the client to remain anonymous, but is my grandson and granddaughter taken by my daughter, Nikki Nemorin (Kafouris), one of the best photographers and teachers I know.
