My wife and I are expecting our first child. My in-laws got us a maternity photo shoot which costed $1800 for 2 hours. It included make up for my wife and access to a wardrobe. Everything was great the pictures were beautiful when shown. But now she sent us a proofing of about 300 photos to choose 15 for further editing and touch up. All photos she sent have watermarks and are blurry and don’t have the sharpness like when she was taking them and showing us. We asked about this she stated it’s common. Because people try to steal extra pictures by screenshot. We asked about adding a few extra. She wants $100 per 1 photo $300 for 5 and $800 for 20 I was so confused. And asked what happens to the photos we don’t get she said they will be deleted. To which I said but why couldn’t we have the unedited photos if you’re going to delete them, there’s a lot of really good pictures we like. She paused and said that just how things are done and this is standard. Idk it’s really making me want to never deal with a professional photographer again. Cause it seems like a money grab to me. Am I wrong?

  • malloryy9000@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    11 months ago

    Photographer here, in the business for 10 years, done at least 50 photoshoots, 20 weddings, and hundreds of events. Even thinking about giving out unedited photos makes me feel physically nauseous.

    You have an expensive photographer. I am a lower price photographer and have never been able to make a complete living out of it because I don’t charge enough. I do too much work for too little pay because I don’t charge enough. And I barely even do photography any more because I wasn’t charging enough. Your photographer is charging enough, but it’s hard to say whether they are charging too much.

    Photography pricing is so precarious. And every photographer has different quality levels, standards, client budgets, etc. I’ve never charged anywhere near what your photographer is charging, but I’ve also never successfully made a living off of photography.

    My recommendation is to get another shoot with a cheaper photographer if you want more photos for low prices. There are many photographers who operate like her and there are many who don’t. If that doesn’t suit you, you can go with something that suits you better. She’s not in the wrong, but she might be wrong for you.