Selling Your Wedding Pics Online???

[keithfullermusic]

I have a quick question for your wedding photographers out there:

I recently did a wedding and I'm trying to post the pics online for people to purchase/order.  I'm not looking to make money off the pictures, but I just wanted to make it so everyone could get the pics that they wanted.  What do you guys use for this?  I was thinking something like Snapfish, but I'm open to suggestions. 

Also, I'm using Lightroom and I was wondering how people use it to export their pics for these sites.  Do you do 100% jpgs, at high quality (90/100)?

Thanks - and I really appreciate all the input.

[nightbreath]

I have a question instead. I don't know what laws you have in your country, but do you have the right to sell pictures of others? In our country you need a legal agreement between you and your models (couple in this particular case) to sell photos with them as main subject on the shots.

[keithfullermusic]

not sure, but these are being sold to the people at the wedding (friends and family), so i really really really really really really don't think anyone is going to be upset at all - in fact, i'm positive.  how else do you get photos to everyone?  should i just send them a dvd and say go figure it out on your own (i'd also like to point out that these are very good friends of mine)?

[nebugeater]

I use MPIX.com to do exaclty what you are asking to do.  Uplad the images, share the catalog and the people you share it with can order what they want in the form they want.  The otehr people will need an MPIX acount to see the album you share.


Ifyou want to do the same thing on the cheep and with a lower quality print if they are more what I call snapshots you can do the same thing at Walmart.com, Snapfish as you stated, or Flikr, to name just a few.

[Chris Burch]

I use Smugmug to upload and sell the photos.  They have a huge variety of print options and you can get add-ons like frames or photo boxes.  The only catch with Smugmug is that they just announced a huge price increase.  You might check out Zenfolio...same type of service with cheaper rates (after Smugmug price increase is effective).

[bp]

Zenfolio.

I would have also recommended Smugmug up until their brilliant "We still love you, but now we're going to bend you over a table and **** you" announcement a couple weeks ago.  100% price increase coming in October.  But hey, at least they took the time to make a video to try to be all nice about it.  (ha)

[distant.star]

.
I didn't see the Smugmug price increase. Damn, I knew I was uploading too many pictures there.

To answer OP, Smugmug is (was?) the answer. They use Bay Photo (my preferred) for printing fulfillment. Bay Photo knows as much about wedding pics as anyone in the business.

[keithfullermusic]

the main reasons i don't want to use smugmug are a) its expensive for me, and b) it looks like their cheapest 4x6 print is $0.21 - that's crazy to me.  Snapfish is about $0.09 a print, and they look really nice.  I just don't want to upset people by only giving them an expensive option for purchasing pics.

i've never really looked at zenfolio, but i heard of it.  is there really any difference with them and smugmug?

[RLPhoto]

I have a quick question for your wedding photographers out there:

I recently did a wedding and I'm trying to post the pics online for people to purchase/order.  I'm not looking to make money off the pictures, but I just wanted to make it so everyone could get the pics that they wanted.  What do you guys use for this?  I was thinking something like Snapfish, but I'm open to suggestions. 

Also, I'm using Lightroom and I was wondering how people use it to export their pics for these sites.  Do you do 100% jpgs, at high quality (90/100)?

Thanks - and I really appreciate all the input.

I Use Viewbook + Fotomoto Plig-ins software to sell prints and downloads. Its flawless.

[unfocused]

Can't resist an editorial comment. If people aren't willing to pay $.21 a print there is something seriously wrong with them.

You need to consider the quality of the printer. I no longer use anyone but MPix because I just couldn't count on the color being right using less expensive alternatives. Even if you aren't charging, you have a reputation to protect and you don't want a bunch of pictures where the guests look they just got off the set of the Walking Dead because of sloppy color balance on the part of the printer.

[keithfullermusic]

Can't resist an editorial comment. If people aren't willing to pay $.21 a print there is something seriously wrong with them.

You need to consider the quality of the printer. I no longer use anyone but MPix because I just couldn't count on the color being right using less expensive alternatives. Even if you aren't charging, you have a reputation to protect and you don't want a bunch of pictures where the guests look they just got off the set of the Walking Dead because of sloppy color balance on the part of the printer.

I understand your point, but not why you seemed upset.  Anyway, I have used snapfish a lot and I thought they turned out great, so I'm not worried about them turning out like crap.

But also, I know .21 isn't that much, it's just that it's the cheapest option.  I would like to give these people choices since they might want to print a ton of pics.

[nightbreath]

how else do you get photos to everyone?

By providing a DVD    We don't have an ability to deliver the photos in another way, so I might be negotiating this with some photo printing stores in future 

[jmonfajon]

Using Fotomoto with the Lightroom plugin from The Turning Gate (TTG Highslide gallery).
And it's working very well !

[PeterJ]

I have a question instead. I don't know what laws you have in your country, but do you have the right to sell pictures of others? In our country you need a legal agreement between you and your models (couple in this particular case) to sell photos with them as main subject on the shots.

I live in Australia and it's fine, and about 99% sure same goes for the USA and UK. A model release is required for commercial use but that's a bit different to what it sounds. Selling prints to anyone is fine, the commercial use is only if you use them to promote products such as advertising, using on the front page of magazines or the front of your website / portfolio and things like that.

[keithfullermusic]

thanks for all the advice.  i looked at the sites recommended by everyone, but they are too expensive and complicated for what i'm looking for at the moment.

the main problem is that the other ones are more about you making money off the prints - which is great if you're selling your art pictures to the general public.  however, i'm not looking to make money off these prints, only distribute them to the family and whomever they would like to share them with.  this is partly because they already paid for my services, and i'm not trying to charge them a second time to get the images printed.  in the future, this might change.

i'm now seriously considering just using picasa.  i can pay 2.49 a month for 25 gigs of space, and i really only need it for a few months because it will be for two weddings.  this way, i can upload full quality jpegs, share them, and they can choose to do what they would like with them.  also, picasa is very easy to use for most people because they are already familiar with it.

they offer the following companies to make prints from:

Snapfish
fotoflōt
Printed Art
Ritzpix
Walgreens
LifePics Network of Local Photofinishers
Shutterfly


Also, people can just download them and choose to get them printed wherever they like. 

Does this sound like a terrible idea?  to me it just makes sense because it is cheap, easy, and allows the customers to do what they like with the images that they already paid for.

like i said, in the future i will probably do something a little more "professional," but this seems like a good option for the time being.