FAQ

FAQ
HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GET MY CD / PRINTS BACK?

It depends on what package you have ordered. But in most cases you will have your cd with in a week and your prints/enlargements with in 2 weeks.

DO YOU EDIT ALL MY IMAGES?

All of the images you will receive either on a CD or printed will most likely have some sort of editing on them. However, I do not believe in OVER editing any image!

WHAT IF I WANT TO ORDER MORE PRINTS IN THE FUTURE?

I will always keep your session images. At any point in the future you are able to come back to me and purchase additional items from it. However, I only honor the price quote I gave you at your session for 6 months. After that the price will be at my current price scale.

I think the number one question a lot of people ask them selves is:
WHY ARE PROFESSIONAL PRINT PRICES SO HIGH COMPARED TO STORE X?

In this digital age where everyone has digital cameras, scanners and home "photo printers", when people upload their photos to a local drug store website and pick them up a few hours later, we hear this all the time - How in the world do Professional Photographers charge $20+ for an 8x10 when they cost just $1.50 at the drug store?

Here's why.

Simply put, you're not just paying for the actual photograph, you're paying for time and expertise. First, let's look at the actual time involved:

For a two hour portrait session:

- about one hour of travel to and from the session
- two hours of shooting
- 30 minutes of setup, preparation, talking to the client etc.
- 30 minutes to load the photos onto a computer (2 - 4 Gb of data)
- 30 minutes to back up the files on an external drive
- 3 - 4 hours of Photoshop time including cropping, contrast, color, sharpening, saving a copy for print and a copy for the internet and backing up the edited photographs
- 1 -2 hours to talk to the client, answer questions, receive their order and payment, order their prints, receive and verify prints, package prints, schedule shipment and drop package off at Fed Ex.

You can see how one two hour session easily turns into more than ten hours of work from start to finish. So when you see a Photographer charging a $150 session fee for a two hour photo shoot, you are not paying them $75 / hour.

Now for the expertise.

Shooting professional photography is a skill, acquired through years of experience. Even though a quality camera now costs under $2,000 taking professional portraits involves much more than a digital camera.

Most Professional Photographers take years to go from buying their first decent camera to making money with their photography. In addition to learning how to use the camera itself, there is a mountain of other equipment involved, as well as numerous software programs used to edit and print photographs, run a website etc.

And let's not forget that you actually have to have people skills, be able to communicate, make people comfortable in front of the camera - and posing people to make them look their best in a photograph is a skill all by itself.

Think of it this way - the next time you pay $X to get your hair done, a drug store pair of scissors only costs $1.50. But you gladly pay a lot more to hire a Professional.

What about the cheap studios at the mall?

Please don't compare us to the chain store studios. But if you must, consider all of the time and work that we put into our photographs, compared to what they do. Good luck getting a two hour photo shoot at a chain store. Not to mention they won't come to the beach! And of course, look at our work compared to theirs. You get what you pay for.

The truth is, most of the mall and chain store studios lose money. In fact, in 2007 Wal-Mart closed 500 of their portrait studios because of the financial drain they were putting on the company. What the chain stores bet on is that you'll come in for some quick and cheap photos, and while you're there, you'll also spend $200 on other things. They don't have to make money, they are just there to get you in the door.

Conclusion

I hope that those who have taken the time to read this page will have a better understanding of why professional photographs cost so much more than the ones that you get from your local drug store.

any other questions not answered here EMAIL me and I'll try my best to answer it for you!

BrittanyDavisPhotos@Gmail.Com