Post Wedding Blues

What’s this I’m talking about now?

Initially most clients think I’m trying to squeeze extra money from them as soon as professional print services are mentioned. The honest truth is that I’m a selfish photographer who just wants my work to be shown to the world in print! It’s great having a usb or hard drive full of images but there is just something that hits differently having a physical wedding photo print in your hands to see….then obviously to mount somewhere in your house.

The point of this article is to give an insight to why I offer a printing service but never ever push it on clients, the other point is to hopefully have some people reading it too!

First contact

After the big day is done and you have laboured over the digital negatives to create your client’s final images the next step is to contact them and deliver the final product. No matter how you may present and deliver the images it’s a nervous affair for both parties. My only advice here is to hand deliver them when possible. If you can’t do this then mail them, here packaging is everything. Put little extras in to make them feel special, a wee packet of fancy sweets, a complimentary print and most importantly a hand writing thank you!

At this point, you may have already discussed printing services and sorted everything out, if not this is the last chance I will normally get to organise this. I am going to explain how I approach this and why convincing clients to use my printing services isn’t just about extra income!

“But won’t I have all the files……I can print them myself right?”

This is normally the first thing I hear as soon as I mention printing services. Now there are two options here the first which most photographers will do and this is to swerve this comment and continue on trying to push a sale. Option 2 is what I do, I lean into the comment and be completely honest. For me I always use the honest approach. 

“Yes. It will be also be cheaper 100%. It will also give you more control over what you order regarding sizes and probably allow more prints”

So yes it’s true, you have the images and I have given you printing rights. But how many times have you had a great image and thought “I gotta get that printed for the wall”, I’m a professional photographer and I have a stack of external hard drives full of images I must get printed. More importantly most printing services open to the public won’t have the same quality of albums, printing paper and wall products that professional photography print services offer. So those great captures that look good may end up looking mediocre once printed if not harnessing your wedding photographers skillset. A photographer will detail, sharpen and colour correct each individual image to the paper and ink so what you see on a screen is what you get on paper. Not darker, not lighter or saturated….but a pure copy of what your eyes see.

Basically I’m a vain photographer and I want to see my work being showcased and the best way to preserve wedding photos at their best is on High-quality wedding prints rather than sitting on a USB in a desk drawer or gathering dust in a shoebox somewhere. 

After the wedding, celebrations, honeymoon and back to the mundane Monday to Friday work-life routine most people end up leaving the images on their USB/Hard drive with good intentions to get them printed but never do. Here’s the thing, technology is amazing and progresses all the time but nothing lasts forever…..USB’s can get lost or it may just stop working no matter how high tech it is. This could result in the one thing that documented the most important day of your life being lost forever! 

Prints, on the other hand, will always stand the test of time… unless lost in a house fire or a naughty son or daughter with a sharpie. 

Conclusion

So being a selfish and honest photographer isn’t always a cash grab, tell the client the truth. You want them to have a prints, albums and whatever else you can do with the images because you want to see the images being put on a show. Most importantly for me is I love capturing emotions and you want your couple to be able to feel the emotion they see in your image flood back to them as much as possible.

Being honest and up front is always the way to go, I don’t over charge on the products and most importantly I always stress how much better it is to be able to see their happy memories on a day to day basis! 

Prints and much easier to see than loading up a computer to check out the USB!