With digital files becoming more and more popular, so is the subject of image licensing and how/what licenses to issue to clients. Many photographers that I talk to about this subject charge a lot more for a print license than they do for their prints - and there's a great reason why. 

When you hire a photographer, you're hiring someone for their work, art style, and talent (or at least you should be). There's much more to it than snapping a few photos and loading them to a site for you to view. Countless hours of editing go into your images and careful thought goes into every detail - the cropping, color cast, temperature, which details should be highlighted/eliminated, the list goes on!

When you take your images to an exterior lab that your photographer does not work with, things can take a turn for the worst. They can change the color cast, brighten/darken images, and even adjust cropping. There's a reason your photographer works with a professional lab for all of their prints - professional is a big deal! 

A few years ago, when I worked exclusively with digital images, I would release my images to the client on a disc and let them print however/wherever they wanted. Finally, a client of mine showed me her photos she had printed at Walgreens. They, by no means, were awful but I remember thinking to myself, "I really hope she doesn't tell anyone that I took these". That's how badly they turned out. I couldn't possibly imagine putting my name on these images because they looked overexposed and had a greenish tint to them and any images looking like that would never leave my workspace.
 
Last year, I finally got around to teaming up with a pro lab to which I am able to link my clients. After seeing their prints, I am really pushing for anyone that hires me to go through them. Their service is phenomenal and their quality is simply outstanding. 
Of course, I'll still offer print licensing for sale but now I see the logic behind the pricey nature of these items. 

So why the high price tag on print licenses? The answer is quite simple: quality. Photographers work hard to find a lab that they like to work with. Most of us do not profit much on sales (I make almost $1.00 per purchase through my lab) so if we're pushing our lab, it isn't because we want your money - it's because we put a lot of effort and work into our final products and we want them represented accurately. If you're more interested in cheap prints that may or may not turn out exactly like your image, then we want some compensation for our work being subject to manipulation and distortion. 

You hear it all the time and there's a good reason for it: "Good photography isn't cheap and cheap photography isn't good."




Still not convinced?
​
​Check out these collages from other photographers:
(Keep in mind that your individual opinion of which photos "look better" has nothing to do with the quality of a print and that these images are being used to illustrate the differences from the original photos vs the prints and not to inspire any opinions on the editing styles of the different photographers being represented here.)