My wife and I are expecting our first child. My in-laws got us a maternity photo shoot which costed $1800 for 2 hours. It included make up for my wife and access to a wardrobe. Everything was great the pictures were beautiful when shown. But now she sent us a proofing of about 300 photos to choose 15 for further editing and touch up. All photos she sent have watermarks and are blurry and don’t have the sharpness like when she was taking them and showing us. We asked about this she stated it’s common. Because people try to steal extra pictures by screenshot. We asked about adding a few extra. She wants $100 per 1 photo $300 for 5 and $800 for 20 I was so confused. And asked what happens to the photos we don’t get she said they will be deleted. To which I said but why couldn’t we have the unedited photos if you’re going to delete them, there’s a lot of really good pictures we like. She paused and said that just how things are done and this is standard. Idk it’s really making me want to never deal with a professional photographer again. Cause it seems like a money grab to me. Am I wrong?
This sounds like a higher end, IPS model photographer. In person sales. Her average sale per session is probably 3$k, 1800 for the shoot (minus costs to wardrobe, studio, make up) and then sales of extra digital images or products afterwards. Good for her - she’s probalby one of the few photographers out there making good money. In your mind imagine she pockets 20% as pure, pure profit cash in the bank. The rest goes to running a business, gear, employees, marketing, studio costs, workshops and learning, monthly fees, insurance, make up artists, etc. So if you have paid 1800, she might keep 600 as pure profit for x hours put into prepping you, shooting your session, editing and uploading the images, and doing detailed skin and hair work on the final chosen images.
She cannot just give you the unedit photos 1) photographers HATE doing that for so so so so many reasons 2) she’d never make an extra sale again if she did 3) it’s her ART so unedited is unfinished. You would never ask a carpenter to just dump wood on your doorstep and let you finish it, nor would you ask a painter to just get most of a portrait done but then give it to you and let you finish it. It’s not how art works.
You could ask her to not delete the extras in case you change your mind.
Meanwhile your chosen images will not be pixilated or blurry or logo’d once you have paid.
You’re working with a professional and not a hobby tog. it comes with a price tag. The big question is: do you love the photos?