Print Your Nudes, An In-Depth Look Into My Printing Process | Cedar Falls Iowa Boudoir Photographer
Print Your Nudes
An In-Depth Look Into My Printing Process
Cedar Falls / Waterloo / Eastern Iowa Boudoir Photographer
“How many pictures come in that session?”
That is my most frequently asked question when potential clients are inquiring about my prices. We’ve gotten so used to the new all-inclusive digital photography model that that’s the first thing I usually get asked. I’m not mad! I love this question and love answering it.
What I offer is a totally custom, cutting-edge boudoir experience. I’m not knocking the all-inclusive photography model at all, but for me, my passion lies on paper or on display. The fact is, seeing an image printed is an entirely different experience than seeing a digital image.
The way I have my sessions set up is so that the session itself is separate from any prints, products or digitals. This allows clients to choose their experience as well as customize how they want their images displayed. Most of my clients go for my collections, which includes an album or heirloom box, metal print and an ala carte item, which starts at $950 for the lowest collection. All of my print pricing info can be found on my Print Guide. You can also fill out my contact form and get an email that goes in-depth with my print pricing and collections!
I have nothing against digitals, and all of my prints unless otherwise specified come with a corresponding digital image of each image that gets printed. These are delivered on a password protected online gallery and can be downloaded with a pin, or on a keepsake USB if purchased.
One thing I always stress is that boudoir specifically can be harder to print. Sometimes Walmart/Walgreens/Cosco will print images, but more times than not they won’t print anything that shows too much. Not only this, but I certainly work hard to make sure that minors do not handle my work and these places to employ minors. I take pride that my prints are handled with the upmost discretion and only print through professional commercial labs that I trust. I’ve personally called each lab and asked about how prints are handled and who sees them because I do have a lot of clients that don’t let me share and client privacy is my biggest concern! I do have a full resolution digital menu but always stress this to my clients who purchase full resolution digitals.
The Process
Right after I meet with each client and we decide what images they want printed and how they want them printed, I promise prints officially 3-4 weeks after. I usually have all the images edited and ready for printing within a week and immediately send off my orders for the lab.
Now, my wait time is normally (except for overly busy times and holidays) closer to 1-2 weeks for prints. I love the labs I print through because they are so dang quick! Usually, the only item I have actually taking 3-4 weeks is my Heirloom Boxes since the glass box is handmade. Each client gets a different time frame depending on what they ordered but usually albums and prints come next day after ordering. Lockets take a bit longer and always go straight to my client free of charge so that they don’t have to wait for the whole order to come in!
I will usually wait until I have a full order before even unboxing them. My orders are normally multi-item orders so I need to go through, unpackage them, quality check them, and then prepare them for client pickup and make sure everything is together organized by client. I have a toddler running around so everything stays in it’s box until absolutely everything is ready to go home. After that it’s up out of reach!
Whenever I have time I love to take photos of my client orders. My prints are so pretty I honestly just can’t help it! Yesterday I had the big task of unboxing three multi-item orders so I decided to use that time to take photos of the orders as well as take updated photos of my studio samples since I changed vendors for a few things over the winter. Yesterday my assistant Kasie and Zeppelin hung out with me while I took product photos and prepared client orders!
I also try to take the time to write a little thank you note for each client, because each client is truly so special to me and I want them to know it! Usually at this point I’ve seen them 2-3 times so we’re basically BFF’s by the time they pick up their prints.
There’s nothing that compares to seeing my beautiful and amazing clients go through their prints during pickup. I love making sure they absolutely love them before leaving! After they go through them, they sign their product delivery agreement while I wrap up their items and send them on their way!
I’ve had this blog on my agenda for a while. I want to make booking a session as easy as possible. If you have any more questions or comments, comment them below! You can also contact me to get an in-depth pricing guide for all of my collections.
Keep reading to view full client orders so you can have an idea what to expect / what my client usually take home!
Signature Album, Metal Print & (not pictured) Rose Gold Locket
For this couples session my clients got my smallest collection, The Temptress. It includes an 8x8” album with 25 images, an 11x14” metal print with a wire hanger as well as a rose gold locket that was mailed directly to them. I love the sleek charcoal velvet cover contrasting with the red in their images!
Heirloom Box with Twenty Mounted Prints and a Keepsake USB, 11x14” Metal Print and a Companion Little Black Book
Miss D got the same collection as above, but substituted the album for an heirloom box and got a companion little black book instead of a locket for an extra cost. I love being able to make each experience totally custom!
Signature Album
Miss M got herself an 8x8” album with 25 images from both her sessions. I don’t usually do this, but her sessions were on the same day back to back so it worked out perfectly! It did make it harder to narrow them down to just the images she absolutely loved but I helped and I love how well her album flowed!
I hope you enjoyed reading through this as much as I enjoyed taking the photos for it and writing it! I love showing off client orders when I can so three orders with a full release called for a mini photoshoot.