Protecting or Proofing 35mm print sets from scanning and dodgy re-printing

[ic-racer]

I'm not sure I understand. Are they buying the proofs, or are you giving them away for free?

[tkamiya]

A couple of friends and neighbors recently got married. At least in my area and for the price/quality range of photographers they hired, they all received a CD containing decent quality jpegs as part of their package. With recent abundant availability of scanners and printers, you may be fighting a losing battle trying to protect your proofs.... Even if you say NO, many are going to do so anyway. Unless good size watermark goes across face or something (which I think, destroys the beautiful proof and defeats the purpose.....) I don't think there is much you can do about it...

[2F/2F]

This is not a digital problem. People paid to have copy negs made all the time for the same purposes before scanners were commonplace household items. I certainly had my share of them made to protect family photos that existed as prints only. I agree with Steve and Matt. There is not much you can do if they are willing to settle for the quality they get by copying proof prints. The best way to fight it is to choose your clients wisely. Working for scumbags is rarely worth it, no matter how much money they are paying you.

[chriscrawfordphoto]

Today, with home scanners being as good as they are and printing kiosks everywhere, you're fighting a losing battle if you stick to the old model of charging a low sitting fee and then making your money on expensive prints. Charge them a price that makes you the money you need to live and give them the film or high res scans. Everyone's happy, you get a good payment for your work, they get no hassle printing.