This article in the Inquirer sparked a debate in techdirt about the future of wedding photography. Gizmodo picked it up from there and ran this little blurb on their site.
The synopsis: if you are a wedding photographer you are gonna have to change the way you conduct your business because it is much too easy for your clients to simply and quickly (and illegally) copy your work. Sad, but true.
The times they are a changin' – so look at my price packages for wedding photojournalism on my professional wedding photojournalism site: Pipal Productions. The budget packages, starting at $999, are all digital and include an archive-CD or DVD with high resolution images.
Seshu is an Avon, Connecticut based headshot photographer and family portrait photographer. He edits and publishes Tiffinbox and produces Tiffincast for photographers like you!
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It seems clear to me that you can either fight this at every step (disable right-click on wedding web site, include watermarks on proof prints, etc.), or just accept that people want to make copies of their pictures by themselves and price that into your packages so that you’re not dependent on reprint sales to get by. I don’t shoot many weddings, but most of the people that come to me like my work, but also like getting high-res pics on a CD, and knowing they won’t be charged $8 for a 4×6 reprint if they do decide to order from me.
It seems clear to me that you can either fight this at every step (disable right-click on wedding web site, include watermarks on proof prints, etc.), or just accept that people want to make copies of their pictures by themselves and price that into your packages so that you’re not dependent on reprint sales to get by. I don’t shoot many weddings, but most of the people that come to me like my work, but also like getting high-res pics on a CD, and knowing they won’t be charged $8 for a 4×6 reprint if they do decide to order from me.