Selling all the shots from an event.

[BillClark]

I am talking to someone about shooting their daughters Bat Mitzvah.
She like all my pricing so far, but she asked if she would have the option to buy a disc of all the pictures from the event.
My initial reaction, and reply to her, was that I generally lean against doing so, but if she wanted lower resolution pictures we could work it out.

I then talked to some other family friends who recently had some events and they said that most of the photographers they talked to had a deal to purchase all the photos.

I am now wondering if the landscape is changing and in order to stay competitive you need this as an option, even if you are potential losing money on the printing side.

I am by no means established, and the photography is still a side job for me. I could easily say yes and do the shoot and sell the disc cheaply as my livelihood does not depend on it, but I don't want to short-change myself, or other photographer by undercutting the market.

On the same note, I was recently at a dance competition where the contracted video/photographer was selling the images by the dance for only $35, which is ridiculously low for dance competitions.

Have things changed that rapidly? Is the proliferation of digital cameras and SLRs changing the pricing structure and market that drastically?

I would appreciate anyone with any insight or thoughts into this trend.

Bill

[OsmosisStudios]

In a sense, yes: the change is inevitable and is that drastic.

In another, you can still make a decent run of it. Many photographers sell a limited-use rights CD of lower-res images (usually big enough for 5x7 prints) at an extra cost. Many deal solely in digital files (I do for commercial work).