CD of Images
I want a CD of my images. Can I order that?
Yes! Low Resolution files, for digital sharing only, are FREE and are gifted at multiple investment levels. High Resolution files, for printing your own images, are available for purchase.
Why do you want he disk?
It’s a fair question. You want to know if we sell it. But why do you want it? Let’s look at the most common reasons we are asked about the CD of Images.
1- You want the disk because you can’t decide which images you want to keep.
This is the most popular reason why our clients want he disk. And that is a compliment. We do offer an in-person ordering session where we will guide you through the ordering process, examining images one by one, just to help you narrow down what you really want. Remember that we want you to go home with beautiful wall art, a high quality Heirloom Album, or a Storyboard that includes multiple images, and not just a few 5x7s. Or worse, a CD of Images that sits on the shelf or in a drawer for a few months or years before you are enjoying it’s contents in print.
2- You want the disk as a keepsake or heirloom.
This is the real reason we sell the disk to begin with. We understand that, as a mother, those images of your baby (even if they are 17), are valuable. We moms want to keep all the smiles, all the expressions, all the memories of the way they were in our hearts. And it’s so much easier to remember those moments when there is a physical image attached to them. Our babies are priceless. And we want to preserve their past, for their children to enjoy in the future. There may be few times in your child’s life when you make it a point to schedule a professional photography session and capture the best images of them at any given age. Who wouldn’t want to keep all of them? Especially when they are newborns, their tiniest size ever. Or when they are High School Seniors, their last portrait session alone, because the next mile stone will be engagement or marriage.
3- You want the disk to print lots of your own images.
This is why some choose the disk. If you have a large extended family, and all of them want or expect lots of images, then this option does make sense. We limit the size of printable images to an 8×10 size for quality control purposes. If multiple family members want multiple small images, then pooling your resources to purchase the disk together is a more economical solution. You can make copies of your disk, so that extended family can have their own disk too.
4- You want the disk because someone else you know got a disk.
This is like that old apples and oranges comparison. Having a disk with 25 fantastic images that took your photographer about 18 hours of skill and craftsmanship to create, and having a disk full of half decent images created by a hobbyist in about 1 hour where only 1 or 2 of them are worth printing, are two completely different things. Images you can’t walk away from, because they are all so wonderful, are one thing. Having a disk full of 50 unedited, semi awful images where only 1 or 2 are halfway close to the quality you would get from us, is a whole other story. Be sure to read more on our warnings about the cheap disk below. If you want the CD of Images, you should have a reason why that makes sense.
How much is the disk?
The short answer is…it’s expensive. Simply put, you are paying for your photographer’s time and talent. But there are a few good reasons why.
1- We consider our images to be works of art and we invest in fully to create them with our time, vision, equipment, creativity, and show stopping post production editing skills. On average, we spend about 18 hours working towards a completed session, per client.
2- What we capture is PRICELESS. We know that. And you must know that too, or you wouldn’t be asking us to create something unique, and specifically personal to you.
3- We prefer that our clients purchase wall portrait sized prints through us so that we can provide them with mounted images, printed with professionally calibrated machines, using the best inks on the market. Professional print labs produce prints with much greater clarity, color, and all the layers of subtle contrast NOT possible to find with mass market production machines. Images printed through departments stores are of MUCH lower quality. There is absolutely no comparison for images larger than 8×10. The larger they are, the worse they look when printed by a consumer grade printer. So we do not sell printable images that print larger than 8×10.
4- That printable disk is a sought after product. Imagine that you ran a business, where some of your clients only wanted to purchase ONE thing from you. Regardless of whether or not it was the best option for them. If you were only going to sell one thing, you would need that one thing to produce enough revenue to sustain your business. (Take a look at the Custom Photography tab to learn more.)
For these reasons, we offer the printable disk with HIGH Resolution files, printable up to an 8×10 size, at a price we feel comfortable with. If the disk is purchased alone, it also includes 50% off any wall sized portraits you would need to purchase from our professional lab. The disk is half price, if purchased along with a print order of $750+.
We do offer the LOW resolution images files, for digital viewing only and not for printing, for FREE with your investment. These files are what you need to make screen savers, digital picture frames, and new profile pictures on Facebook. One file is provided with each $100 invested, with all of the session images as low resolution files for free with any investment of $995+.
Please Remember:
Most of our clients come to us for the quality of the images we produce, not the disk. About half of our time is spent in the studio, creating the sets and capturing the digital images, but then there are many, many more hours that we spend on the computer hand editing each of those images one by one.
Many of the part-time hobby photographers sell their session disks for a fraction of the cost of ours, and are usually also producing images with a fraction of the quality. When you are only spending 1 to 3 hours total to produce the disk, with very little time dedicated to digitally editing those images, one can price their disk of printable images much lower. And those disks reflect their lack of expertise. (Take a look at the Custom Photography tab to learn more.)
We strongly caution you against using any photographer that is selling their disk of images for a few hundred dollars or less. This is a red flag. And is a good indicator that they are not skilled in photography or digital editing and will almost certainly not provide you with quality images or good customer service. Usually these low priced disks are offered when a new inexperienced, part time photographer is trying to learn the craft. So to gain experience, using your child, your newborn, or your family as the test subjects, they offer you a cheap alternative to the quality assured by more established businesses like Vanessa G. Photography. They are using you to practice learning their camera, learning lighting, and try out some new posing. This is the risk you take with someone who is not a true professional.
Special Caution for Newborns:
We encourage you to choose your photographer wisely for a newborn session. Once those first few weeks have passed, there will not be another opportunity to recreate those images of the first days of your precious baby’s life. With Vanessa G. Photography you know you will be getting the BEST. And this is one time in your child’s life, when ‘good enough’ isn’t quite good enough. When your child is a year old, if you have a ‘bad day’ and your child doesn’t cooperate for their 1 year old photo session, you could go back and try again in a few weeks and your child will not have changed that much. But in the beginning, after just 2 weeks of time, they will change tremendously.
Your economy-priced-disk part time photographer will be less skilled with soothing a crying baby, less experienced in posing your baby, and have less options to give you for your session, your products, and your money. Should you try this option first, you will not be the first parent to do so. And we expect that you will be calling us, with tear filled eyes, asking for a session as soon as possible. YES, this has happened. Many times. Unfortunately, we may not be able to accommodate you at the last minute, but we will try.
Call us anytime with questions or to book your newborn session. 910.874.0058
Copyright Notice: All images taken by Vanessa G. Photography are copyright protected by federal law. No reproductions, print or digital, should be made without written consent of the photographer. At your session you will be asked to sign a Session Contract and Model Release form acknowledging these facts. The TEXT found on the website and blog is also copyrighted to Vanessa G. Photography. Photographers may link to this page if needed, but should not COPY our text.