A good way to stir up controversy in a gathering of photographers is to bring up whether or not a photographer should sell the digital files. The practices of photographers range from those whose primary business is the delivery of files to those who only sell prints and never allow the images out of their control, even for online viewing.
There is not one “right” answer. This is what I do and why I do it. It may not be what you should do.
I am in the business of selling prints. It is the only reason I take pictures. It is how I think I can best serve my customers. I sell lots of prints. Just ask Kodak or Fuji. But I am also in the business of serving my customers. This means giving them what they want as long as it does not hurt my core business.
For me, it started more than forty years ago. A customer asked if she could have the negatives. She had already purchased the package for about $10 and she didn’t want to place a reorder at that time. She wanted the negatives “just I case”. So I said “yes”, for another $10. (This was in the 70’s. A new Ford or Chevy was about $3,000 and our most popular packages were from $9.95 to $14.95.)
There was little chance of a reorder. I had another $10, doubling my sale. The customer was happy. We put it on our reorder list. It became our most popular reorder item. Let me emphasize, we only sold the negatives if they bought the package. We were still primarily in the print business.
Many other photographers went nuts. The objections were that I was giving up creative control and forgoing all future reorder income. I was ruining the business. I was no longer a professional. I was a disreputable hack etc.
At the time, some of my customers were already making cheap copies of my prints. As soon as I delivered any form of the image to the customer there was a chance this would happen. It could be done then. It can be done now. We are all at the mercy of our customers and we depend upon their goodwill for our incomes. Nobody can be all things to all people. We just need to decide which part of the market we wish to serve. How we are going to serve it. Then serve it.
If you don’t put your images online customers cannot take a shot of the screen with their phone and share it. But, when you deliver that beautiful several thousand dollar framed wall print, some will snap a shot of it with their phone and share it with all of their friends.
First, you can’t stop it. Second, it’s a good thing. They are proudly showing your work to all of their friends. You already have your money. If I were in that end of the business I would offer a low resolution file of the framed, finished print delivered to their computer or phone to be shared with the world. I might charge an additional fee or it might part of the package. I would do everything I could to make them feel good about sharing it with everybody. I might even take a special shot of the family standing beside the print hanging in their home.
But, that is not my business. My primary business is high end school photography, preschools and child care centers. We deal with some of the same emotions but at a much lower price and lot higher volume.
One thing is different. Some of my customers are going to make their own prints. Some of them only want digital files and don’t want prints at all. Either way, if I sell them a print I can’t stop them from copying it. It serves my best interest to serve their interest.
With a minimum print purchase we sell the digital files with complete copyrights. If they do not want any prints we will sell the files for a higher price, a price that allows us a reasonable profit. The files are delivered on their choice of a Gold Archival CD or a USB flash drive. We don’t deliver files by email, download or text. We know that the customer has the files in a form that will last for many generations if they pick the archival quality CD.