ahhh that's the thing.

nowadays those who engage those high-profile photographers aren't exactly not savvy either.

they're like TS, they see the resolution they know it won't look good beyond 4R print. they know only suitable for web. so in that sense, they're pretty assured they're not printing large, if they printed large also too bad la.

at least by not giving high reso photo, it already is a form of check against printing. I tell you, some photo studios are just horrible. I've printed for competition and printed at 4R shops (eg Foto-zoom) for non-competition stuff. Difference is huge, imagine blowing up the image to say 16" by 20". It's going to be a joke, not because the image are bad but the lousy print.

Let's just say low res is not an absolute check but it discourages people from doing so.


here's the thing..........

while many are aware of resolution for detail, many are not aware about print quality.

so supposedly this couple printed it and thinks it's ok. And put it on display some place.

Then one day a friend, let's say a photography enthusiasts who knows a bit here and there but not that experienced. (*now do note that most people stop at the question WHO TOOK THE PHOTO, no one actually asks who prints them because it's generally assumed that the photo studio handles the prints too, just like any other bridal house*).

so in the end, this photography enthusiasts may just think "Oh Mr BC Studio did a lousy job in printing" and then word goes around.

I understand where you're coming from Paul but there's the other side of the picture which is what the seasoned photographers practice. The reason they practice it because they learned from past mistakes of others.

My take is if they didn't plan to give out the photos, they better store the photos properly under client's profile. Telling us the photos are no longer available is just as unprofessional.

Even we bring back the low resolution photos back to the original photo studio, they can't print them in good quality either.

... some company say keep - in the end close down terus ... what you want to do? ...

Nothing I can do but thanks to them, a lot of freelance photographers bloom with lower rate but willing to give photos to us. Photo studios are making themselves losing customer loyalty and yet I dun hv to do anything

freelance photographer dun really have overhead to sustain but a studio photographer does, and studio shoots is still studio shoots, freelance dun have the capacity unless they are willing to rent the space to store big lights and backdrops, some even come with costume and dressing room for makeup, there are many type of photographer thesedays

Got lar. Their gadget is their overhead cost le. They oso got team of people to edit photo and video oso. Some even collaborate with makeup artist too. Not easy leh.

Idk but when i take passport photo, the shop give me RAW/PSD format which is super big...

But from your story it looks like modelling shots is it?
If its modelling shots then it sounds logic coz its their rights.

I got 1 passport photo I really like but kenot find anymore cuz no psd format and they didn't keep oso

Uhhh... TS is talking about studio photography.
Not the RM10 passport photo booth.

They're not called modeling shots btw.

It's like comparing an economic rice shop with a buffet.
Irrelevant.

wow this sparked quite a discussion.

I'm a tech guy not a photographer so clearly I have different expectations.
When i reach out to them to buy the softcopy, i wasn't expecting they would give me 10MP RAW file. But i wasn't expecting a facebook profile photo size either.
What i have in mind was something in the range of 2MP or above. Something i could effortlessly show on TV/PC and slide into my mom's digital photo frame she so fond of.
I wasn't planning for any additional prints. It has been decades since i went for photo printing. The reason we ordered that 3 shots & print in the first place is cause that is all I plan to print for my old folks to hang on wall.
All i'm asking for is a resolution that fits my PC/TV and if they given me a 1920x1080 that fits into my TV, i would have shut up even with the fact that its still not quite 300dpi 5R resolution. And i did explicitly told them that. The reason why i bring in this 5R printing resolution is cause the shop insist they gave me a photo with resolution good for printing 5R. I never wanted to print anything additional in the first place.

So the part 2 of the story is when i went to their shop yesterday night, as the lady over the phone promised to replace me a copy of photos with resolution fit for proper "5R" quality, and we explicitly agreed it would be 3MP over the phone.
But this time around, they gave me a 800 pixel photo....
I asked politely i thought we agreed to be 3MP and She say "what i'm giving you is way over 3 megapixel"
Being an *******, I tried to show her calculation that this is a mere 0.5 megapixel. Obviously she didn't care bout the calculation and more importantly, she genuinely has no idea what i'm talking about. She insist her "Designer" has told her this is fit to print nicely up to 8R, and that the only concern about quality is file size. Not one single person in their business history has ever voicing concern about this thing called "resolution".

Looking at the file size, it was a mere 150KB, and she insist that's what they sent for printing, every single day.
I realized i'm f***ed, i'm the big ******* there as no one in the entire shop has ever heard of this resolution thingy.
I tried my best to explain resolution and file size is inter-related but not the same. But no one would pay attention as i now looks like a conman, trying to con them over the fake term "resolution".

to cut the rest of the ridiculous story short, I end up teaching them how to use their own PC on their own software, to do a proper resizing on one photo. When the lady commanded the photographer to do what i just did to give me the minimum size i want, the photographer stoned cause he didn't know what i did and how to do it. I have to sit down and do it all by myself. And i tell them i'm gonna charge them for that.

Seriously, they own a freaking photo studio with not one person knows the basic of digital photos.
The place in question is Paris Wedding digital photo in Raja Uda, Butterworth.
They have this room with printed rolled down backdrop, some tables, chairs & bears. As some of you pointed out, the setting looks like they're qualified to be named as a studio.
The photographer skill is amateur, as I could find flaws here and there in every photo taken.
In case you guys are scouting for a place to start a photo studio business, next to this shop is a golden opportunity.

But i must give credit where its due: the staffs are pretty friendly before we came into dispute.

This post has been edited by fx_53_xt: Aug 1 2013, 10:44 PM

Since this happen in Penang, the consumer board in Penang is very efficient.

Hi bro, im from penang, bm area. thx for your info. i will blacklisted the shop in my mind
It's bad if a photographer don't even know how to sized down to lower megapixel ...it's kinda crappy

that's why people pay RM 1k - 2k for family studio portraits.

those pro studios like the ones i mentioned earlier, they will send to expert printers who can give you a full lecture on print.

too bad you're not in KL but for those in KL, please come listen to Mr Wesley Wong's talk.



details are here https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1295195/+100

Good or bad? Well, I don't think one can really tell another he/she can be the true judge of it - cause it about ones taste to another. Business is business, once you have a high overhead cost you can't charge lower, else you be running a loosing business. It really has nothing to do with good or bad. Have you eat roti canai at a posh place and another at a back lane, and one charge higher than the other. Its really a perception to assume the posh place roti canai would taste any better than the back lane. I think I have read somewhere on Donald Trump own words,"... its not about putting a high or low price, its about putting the right price ...". Even when you are good, you will still be judge among the goods available in the market, and if you don't perform the best among the goods - you will still be judge back to bad in the end of the day, because there will still be people thinking its not worth to pay the price for that sort of so call "good" standard.

~ ~

This post has been edited by esy: Aug 2 2013, 08:55 AM

Expensive studio or photography services don't need to waste 80% of their time and effort on cheapskate customer for 20% of their income.

... and that is where Air Asia, Maggi and Google is making tons of money from. Well, not everyone thinks there is no money there depending on the type of business model. I do understand what you mean - it's just like Prada won't want waste their time on the normal consumer needs.

~ ~

That applies to airasia and google as well.
Airasia gets their a majority of their profit from the 20% who pays extraorbitant prices when the planes are packed.
Google gets most of their profit from 20% of their advertisers.

The Pareto principle applies to all industries regardless of target market.

K no more about photography d. So I shall stop commenting.