Giving Away Your Work On CD

A common frustration amongst professional photographers is the subject of image CDs and DVDs. Oftentimes, during a sales presentation, the prospective client might say something like, “I love your work, and would like to hire you, but do I get a CD of the photographs?” If you’re a struggling photographer, someone new to the business or just want to book this particular client, the temptation is to reply with, “Sure – if you book me, I’ll throw in a CD of the images for you.”

Big mistake… don’t do it! Giving away a CD or DVD of your work is a really bad idea!

But, I hear you say, “Everyone else does – my competition are including CDs in all their packages, and most my prospective clients are asking for them!” I understand where the frustration part comes in; I’ve been there myself many times.

No CD = No Jobs?

In the back of your mind during a sales presentation, there lurks a fear that, unless you give away a CD, you will lose the job. In some cases that’s true – I’ve had clients walk away when I’ve politely declined to provide a CD for them, but it’s by no means all of them. You have to decide whether you’re going to allow your clients to dictate your business policies or set them yourself.

My own position is this, and I’ll probably attract my share of criticism: A true professional photographer would not give away a CD of images to the client.

What’s Worth More – The Photograph or The Paper It’s On?

As a professional photographer, you are an artist – your clients hire you for three main reasons:

• They like you
• They trust you
• They respect you

The client looks at your work and sees you as a talented artist who is going to capture all the emotions, romance and relationships for them. In short, they value your work, which is why they’re prepared to pay for it.

I doubt that many of the photographers using film would give away their negatives – they’re simply too precious to the photographer. But, with digital, the originals we create are perceived with less value, since they can be duplicated so easily and it’s so convenient to burn them to a CD. The concept of an original negative that can’t be replaced is hard to apply to the digital world – but apply it, we must!

Just like film before it, the digital file itself is not the thing of value – it’s what is IN the file that matters. The image is the valuable thing – just as the photograph is what adds the real value to a print, not the paper it’s printed on.

So, if your client hires you because she values your work, what do you imagine it says to her about the value you place on your own work when you GIVE AWAY your images on a CD? Here’s an artist who has such little regard for his own work that he just GIVES it away as though it means nothing!

This leads to the situation where the client won’t pay very much for the photography and expects to get everything for little or nothing. To make a great living from your work (which you deserve to), you need to let this kind of client walk away – they will ultimately cause you more trouble than they’re worth.

If you feel you must offer a CD of your images then at least do yourself a favor and charge a significant fee for it. Your client will actually respect you and your work a lot more than if you just gave it away.

“I’m An Artist!”

These days, I’m actually pleased when a prospective client objects to my policy of not giving out CDs, because it’s the perfect opportunity to educate them. You simply say, “I’m so glad you brought that up, a lot of people ask me this question. As an artist, I don’t like anything to leave my studio that isn’t finished, or presented in the best way possible. I need to ensure that any prints made from my work are printed professionally and adhere to my high quality standards. I truly value my work and want to make sure that anything that represents my studio is as prefect as I can make it. How do you feel about that?”

Now they will probably see you as an artist and a professional. Sometimes, there will be no convincing them and they will walk away – but that’s fine, we have to accept that we cannot work with everyone. I only want to work with people who value the same high standards that I do.

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Sales & Marketing CD/DVD, professional photographer