Jeff Smith's Guide to Head and Shoulders Portrait Photography

name of a company that sells the machines. While they can run $1500 or more,
it is an investment in your profits.
When using texture and logos on your work, you must make sure that every
print your clients see in your studio has the same texture and logo on it—you
do not want it to be a surprise when they pick up their order. In our studio, we
only texture prints up to 8x10 inches, but our logos are on every print size.
Stop Selling Single Portraits.The last step in eliminating copying is to
stop selling single portraits from a session. Do you have clients that order one
8x10 and nothing else from a beautiful session? Then you have just identified
your worst copiers—copiers who don’t even care if you know they are copying
or not. These are the people who think that they are entitled to copy your work
because they paid a sitting fee. The average person will at least order a small
package or a few prints so you don’t suspect them of copying. The single por-
trait buyer is the worst, so stop selling them.
Notice I said stopsellingthem, not stopofferingthem. If a client wants a sin-
gle image, sell it to her—just make sure it is so expensive that it is same price as
a small package would be. Some photographers eliminate this problem with a
minimum print order. Everyone knows that the cost of a portrait is in the re-
touching, enhancement, and testing to make sure that final image is flawless.
After that, whether you print one portrait or ten, the cost is about the same—
at least that is the way you explain it to your clients when they ask why one por-
trait is the same price as your smallest package.
To sell individual, untextured prints with no logo on them is giving your
work away. It also causes suspicion in your relationship with your client; you
can’t look at your clients as copyright violators and still treat them with the re-
spect they deserve. In reality, people most often do the right thing. If you re-
move the temptation to do the wrong thing, you’ll be secure in the knowledge
that your clients are treating you with the same respect you show them.

122 JEFF SMITH’S GUIDE TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

To sell individual,

untextured prints with

no logo on them is

giving your work away.