reflections on Walmart copy center

[DougAxford]

A friend's wife is dying of cancer and I offered to take a family shot in the hospital. He asked me to make a few copies of a wedding shot I did 18 years ago. Since I had long since pitched out the negs and he needed prints ASAP, I took his 8x10 to the local Walmart Copy Centre.

They had 3 kiosks and they were all pretty busy. Small statement on the top of the scanner said copying of professional photos was illegal and part way through the process, I had to check mark that I had permission or ownership of image. That was it for copy protection. No one at the desk said a word when they handed me the finished package for what was so obviously a pro shot.

Biggest surprise: 8x10 copies were $1.95 each if I waited an hour and it was done through their lab. If I wanted it instantly (dye-sub), they were $4.49.

Well, quality was not bad at all. Their monitor was off calibration by a long way. I added green so that it looked perfect on the screen and the print was way green. Probably no one would ever adjust color and would never care. I adjusted color and re-made them - just about as perfect as I could do.

Hard to imagine how we can keep customers from getting all the copies done at Walmart. I certainly can't match that price. There were lots of options for personalized templates and they offered every size that was ever needed.

DougA

[KevinStecyk]

Originally Posted by DougAxford

Hard to imagine how we can keep customers from getting all the copies done at Walmart. I certainly can't match that price. There were lots of options for personalized templates and they offered every size that was ever needed.

Sorry to read about your friend's wife. I am sure it is difficult and painful for all concerned.

Regarding the prints, is it possible you just forget about prints? You charge for your services of getting the image. Once the image is obtained, then allow the customer to have full sized digital image. Let the client go nuts and make as many copies as he or she desires. Your fee is not based upon the copies made, but rather the skill, time, effort, resources to effect the image?

I am not a professional photographer, so I don't know if this business model would work (or not).

In effect, I'd view my work like the music industry does its work. Recognize the customer can and will make copies for their own internal use. And many might make copies for the friends (illegal). Rather than trying to restrict the number of copies, can you change the business model to be compensated for creating the image only?

[DougAxford]

Originally Posted by KevinStecyk

Regarding the prints, is it possible you just forget about prints?

We've tried that on family portraits and it did not work. Weddings are OK to shoot & burn because so many do it and the prices are still workable, but not on anything else.

The problem is that if you try charging $25. for a T&I to get full images on a DVD, you'll get a few that buy and the rest, just grab the copy, so you lose money big time. If you ask for $200 for the whole team, the reaction is very negative. With portraits, I have always found that trying to charge a hefty fee up front for services reduces bookings to close to zero. Some can seem to do it, but it has never worked for me.

DougA

[ChrisPerry]

I too tried the 'creative fee' but and give them the files or the option for the files. It doesn't seem to work. Not even for wedding IMO - there's more profit in the album than in the shooting (based on what people pay and the time each takes).

Things may be changing - the photographer that shoots my daughter's preschool offer a CD of images, 1, 3 or all I think is how they do it, for $79, 99 and 139.
Walmarts around here just went digital and they now offer a CD of your session for $119. They want an average sale of $99 so you can see their logic.

So if you follow their thinking then if you want to average say, $35 per T&I client, offer a CD of the image and team for $40. Some will take it.
For HS seniors I want about 900 average so I could offer a disk of all the images for $1000.

Problem is that people aren't getting anything for that. Yeah they complain that an 8x10 costs $2 why are you charging $40 but they won't pay $30 for the file and then print 5 copies for the same price, so it seems anyway.

I include lo res files for seniors and it's there for the asking for other portrait work (for web, email, digital pic frames, etc).

[LarryRyder]

On thing I am trying is if you purchase $X, then you receive a CD with up to 10 files that they ordered prints from, I include the edited, original and web versions. Or you can buy a CD for a much higher price. I have not had many seniors yet but the few I have liked getting the CD as a bonus and I assume many of them will make copies anyway.

[David_Buzzard]

I came to that conclusion years ago, it's just too easy to make copies from paper or digital proofs. The way I look at it, clients are paying for your talents for the event, wedding, or portrait, not a 5x7 or 8x10 inch print. If you don't get your fees upfront, you're going to have a difficult time selling them prints and albums after the fact.

[DougAxford]

The problem with that business model David is that apart from weddings and some commercial work, it's been a real tough sell to get the public to agree with paying a reasonable fee 'up front'.

Added to that, you completely lose control over the final outcome of your product and photographers are big-time control freaks. I certainly would not want to hand over any digital file without at least some prints. My Walmart illustration shows how little people know or care about colour. I would take down the shingle on the door before allowing an off colour blurry print to hang in someone's home that was my creation. Yup, I'm a control freak.

When I shoot & burn weddings, I do not allow DVDs to go out the door without at least one proof album and one web slide show so that people know what it should look like.

The reality is that most of my customers are viewing my work as something that is for today and very few are concerned about tomorrow.

DougA

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