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Author Topic: Fee for providing lost images?  (Read 1764 times)

haring

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Fee for providing lost images?
« on: July 17, 2020, 09:42:08 am »

Hey Guys! I am a wedding photographer. A client contacted me recently who apparently lost her wedding photos. I shot her wedding 9 years ago.
She asked me to find out whether I still have their images. It would take me a half a day to go through all the archives.
My question: Do you charge a fee for providing images 5 years after you shot a client's wedding, portrait session, etc?
If yes, how much and how do you explain the clients that a fee is involved...?

Thanks a bunch!
Otto, Miami

tcphoto1

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2020, 10:25:50 am »

In your example, I would charge $75-$125 per hour to go through my hard drive and deliver the images. I am in business and have a list of things that need to be done and this simply add to the list. I offer my Commercial Clients an option to edit and deliver images which is not included in my Creative fee and Licensing fee, why would you commit to find, process, edit and deliver images for free? It's one thing if it takes twenty minutes and quite a different situation if it takes more than an hour.
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haring

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #2 on: July 20, 2020, 11:00:57 am »

I agree. It is always great to hear other opinions.... Thanks! :)

kers

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #3 on: July 20, 2020, 12:41:58 pm »

Hey Guys! I am a wedding photographer. A client contacted me recently who apparently lost her wedding photos. I shot her wedding 9 years ago.
She asked me to find out whether I still have their images. It would take me a half a day to go through all the archives.
My question: Do you charge a fee for providing images 5 years after you shot a client's wedding, portrait session, etc?
If yes, how much and how do you explain the clients that a fee is involved...?

Thanks a bunch!
Otto, Miami

It would take me 5 minutes... to find anything if the names are still authentic...
All my photos have an unique number/ name.

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Pieter Kers
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tcphoto1

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #4 on: July 20, 2020, 01:25:09 pm »

I feel as though I'm well organized also but it still takes time to complete the task and I'm not going to do it for free. I'm trying to run a business and I've got to bill the client for my time doing their project.
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john beardsworth

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2020, 03:11:43 am »

Maybe ask why it doesn't you take 5 minutes?
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tcphoto1

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2020, 10:45:22 am »

The OP said that it would take him half a day to search his archive to do the task. Going by that, I made my recommendation for delivering the images. I have a simple system which has folders containing a clients name and subfolders with individual Capture One folders of each shoot dates. I haven't had a client come back and ask for images but I'd like to think that I'm reasonably prepared.
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hogloff

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2020, 07:25:43 pm »

I can't fathom taking half a day to find a set of images. With today's tools...that's not acceptable...not from a professional. I'd feel embarrassed to charge a client $500 for my own ineptness.
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kimballistic

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2020, 09:55:53 pm »

Agreed with hogloff.  Taking half a day to find images means you are not organized.  That is not your client's problem, that's yours.  You should not be charging for this.
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Joe Towner

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2020, 12:39:57 pm »

The context that may be needed is if you used something like Amazon Glacier or a tape drive as the final resting place for old images.  Keeping data on spinning disk has a cost.  If there are 3rd party costs, those will need to be accounted for. 

Plus, I would want to temper the context of what was originally delivered & what was stored.  If you previously delivered jpeg's & have those files stored somewhere, it's pretty easy/cheap. If you don't have those jpeg's now, and would have to do extensive exports of PSD's or raw files, then it would be more involved & the price should reflect that.

If you're exporting fresh jpeg's, it's worth looking over them & making sure the colors are accurate.
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JoeKitchen

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #10 on: August 13, 2020, 05:55:06 pm »

I have a pro Dropbox account that I use to deliver images to my clients and never remove any projects from it just for this reason.  I have a few good clients that are good on losing images from time to time.  Although none of the uploaded files are working files, but flattened TIFFs, it also acts as another backup. 

I would suggest doing this moving forward. 
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RichDesmond

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #11 on: August 13, 2020, 11:39:17 pm »

And then there's the customer relations/referral piece to consider. A fee not charged can be as much of an investment in the business as some piece of advertising that you paid for.
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Craig Lamson

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Re: Fee for providing lost images?
« Reply #12 on: August 28, 2020, 01:30:55 pm »

I have a pro Dropbox account that I use to deliver images to my clients and never remove any projects from it just for this reason.  I have a few good clients that are good on losing images from time to time.  Although none of the uploaded files are working files, but flattened TIFFs, it also acts as another backup. 

I would suggest doing this moving forward.

I use the FTP feature of my Synology NAS as a file delivery platform.  I also never remove a project from a client FTP folder.  On rare occasion I have a client whos corporate IT refuse to let them connect to the ftp, and in almost all cases once IT has checked it out, access is approved.  For those times when its still an issue I use dropbox but I never keep folders longer than required for customer download. 
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