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Fee for providing lost images?

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Joined
Feb 2, 2011
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Hey Guys! I am a wedding photographer. A client contacted me recently who apparently lost her wedding photos. I shot her wedding 9 years ago.
She asked me to find out whether I still have their images. It would take me a half a day to go through all the archives.
My question: Do you charge a fee for providing images 5 years after you shot a client's wedding, portrait session, etc?
If yes, how much and how do you explain the clients that a fee is involved...?

Thanks a bunch!
Otto, Miami
 
If you had an archive it would be organized so that you could locate a certain job, otherwise it is just a storage.

The question then is whether your client can expect that you are organized or not. In case you by default hold back the negatives/high-resolution files, the customer can expect that finding these is part of your wedding photography business and should not expect to get billed extra for the searching work. You then would make that part of the delivery of copies (of course at reasonavble fair. Not involving several hours of photographers rate.)
 
If charging such a fee... it had better be quite a nominal fee. Was a search fee ever mentioned when you talked of reorders? I doubt most folks would go for it.
 
I would expect a fee for unarchiving work that old. Unless you do a lot of work for that family or group, charges for your time are reasonable.
 
If you cannot answer the question about whether or not you have the negatives, you should bear the cost yourself of determining that answer - or tell the client you can't help her.
If you can answer the question, but retrieving the negatives involves time and effort, it is reasonable to charge for that time. I would offer to waive that fee if the client purchases a minimum amount of reprints, at a rate that involves profit for you.
 
As someone who is only beginning to sell any photography products, I'm viewing this issue more from the angle of my day job in the tech industry.

Organization and documentation is, to me, simply part of running my job smoothly, and providing copies of previously delivered digital content [And the storage of it for future use] really comes down to basically a marketing expense.

I charge for my time spent creating the content, or modifying the content, but I have a hard time justifying charging to send the content if there isn't reasonably justified work effort involved on my end.

Emailing a PDF of a report from years ago because a client can't find their original copy anywhere? Well being able to demonstrate just how organized and reliable I am is a goodwill and advertising bonus. I don't make any claims to always be able to provide copies indefinitely, but I want to be known as being easy and reliable to work with, and being the kind of contractor who can help someone out of a jam. Happy clients lead to happy me, because happy clients help generate more future sales.

If they wanted it printing off on fancy paper with embossing and debossing, and copies individually packaged in spiffy leather folders... Then yes, they're getting charged [a lot] for that. Or if they want changes made to the product, then there are charges to cover the effort.

But if I'm not making anything new and have 'already done the work', then I'm not going to try and bill a client for my time to find and send it. They're not responsible if I'm the one with shoddy record keeping and it takes me longer than it should to dig something up.


Of course making new physical prints of photographs, or scanning negatives/prints that hadn't been scanned previously, is entirely 'new' work, and I would expect any photographer to bill for such service, but the rate is kind of context dependent. - Someone 'just wanting more copies' is different than 'we lost all our wedding photos in a fire' after all.
 
9 years is a long time. The IRS requires you to keep records for less. I can't get a shipping manifesto from some suppliers over 120 days old. The files may be kept on removable media, requiring a physical search, Or even breaking out or finding old equipment to read it (zip discs for example). Unless they are a good client or source of work through reputation, a charge is in order. What do they want you to do with the files? Burn them to a DVD or CD, make prints or transfer them via ftp? Most firms charge for those services, plus materials.
 
As someone who is completely self employed (not in photography) I would agree that Matts advise is fair and reasonable. Only thing I would add is that you should be charging current rates for any work. Im sure your client would be satisfied with that.
 
FWIW, I had read the OP's question as referring to 9 year old negatives, but realize now that the OP may very well be referring to 9 year old digital files.
If they are digital and those old files are on old forms of media that are difficult to access with modern equipment (e.g. ZIP drives), I don't know whether it is fair to impose any related retrieval costs on the client. That is something that would depend on industry norms that I'm not familiar with.
 
What was the original agreement between photographer and client? IMO the client should be offered print packages, not files.. Use print package prices from your choice of todays wedding photographers.
 
If anyone was still using Zip drives in 2011, I almost pity them. Not quite, though. I would mostly shake my head in disbelief. They were already ancient by that time and horribly unreliable.

I haven't had anyone ask for images that old, but I did have a client (husband) come to me about a family member (wife) who had passed away unexpectedly. I made all their family images available on OneDrive for 30 days with a release. Losing one's wedding photos isn't quite the same. I, personally, wouldn't charge for locating them and would probably give them a reduced rate for reproducing their original orders. They've already paid once before.

People talk when you treat them well in times of need - they talk more when you treat them poorly.
 
cramej said:
If anyone was still using Zip drives in 2011, I almost pity them. Not quite, though. I would mostly shake my head in disbelief. They were already ancient by that time and horribly unreliable.
Click to expand...
Probably a bad example!
How about on a decommissioned NAS unit?
 
MattKing said:
Probably a bad example!
How about on a decommissioned NAS unit?
Click to expand...

RAID 10 and you're golden . No choice but to replace the drives when they fail so bit rot is less of an issue. Bonus points if you have it on a UPS!
 
I charge by the print. Depending on the cost of paper and chemicals, prints will cost more now than 9 years ago. I'd certainly look for the negatives if there were the possibility to sell more prints. I charge quite a bit for my prints.
 
I’m not clear on what you are providing. If prints, yes, charge. If digital files and it would take a half day, explain that to the client and set a fee of some sort. But as others have said, you should be more organized. I design and format books for authors and small publishers and have gone back several times to replace digital files for customers who have lost them at no charge.
 
Nobody promises to find or surrender files or negatives..do they? Sell prints. You don't owe anybody any apologies.
 
Hi Otto:

Charge her a fee based on your day rate / 8. Keep track of and charge her maximum 2 hours to find the film. Be up front tell her they are in storage and you have to search.
Then charge her by the print with the pricing structure that you would TODAY charge. / print.
Don't charge he what your prices were 10 years ago. Prices go UP ...

Good luck finding your film !
John
 
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I think this is an interesting scenario. Historically the storage of negatives was a common practice for professional photographers. Some such as William Notman's have been stored for over 160 years. Sander had many requests for reprints after the First World War and used many prints from his archives for his 20th Century series. This archiving was related to copyright. Many early digital photographers would refuse to copy and print a portrait on the excuse that copyright would be held by another professional photographer. Clearly the expectation that a professional photographer should have their photographs archived has diminished even as it would appear to have gotten easier of access.
The access of the archives would never have been charged by reputable photographers of the past, clearly this has changed.
Do other professional photographers here have an expectation that their archives are accessible easily for future reproductions. If not , When did this change? If yes then how much should lack of professionalism as regards storage, cost?
I see from looking at many of the contracts online that the storage issues have been passed to the client in this day and age. Past practice has changed.
So what did your contract say in 2011?
You seem to have/aim for a high end and elaborate practice now; do you what to be risk a bad rating or get 5 star love in Miami.
It's complicated! Eh!
 
If she lost her photos, she obviously wants new ones. Otherwise, why would she inquire? If I were them I would expect you to give me a price to replace the albums (assuming you have the negatives). So give her a price, 1 album $___? 2-5 $____? 11x14 $___? etc. Ask for a deposit.
 
And if all she received at the time were digital files???
That seems to be the business model for many photographers now.
I agree with cowanw - and should have said this earlier.
What did your contract say about the negatives or digital files? If it dealt with them, that is what determines the answer.
And by the way, does your current contract deal with this issue? It should.
 
1 album $___? 2-5 $____? 11x14 $___? etc. Digital files only. Handling charge includes memory card or DVD $____?

Ask for a deposit.
 
I don't think this is a contract question, it's a customer service question. If you have the negatives/files, I think you should dig them up for her, and don't even tell her how much work it was. Pretend you were better organized... Offer her more prints and see if she'll pay for them. If so, great, some money for you. If no, oh well, you have a happy customer who will recommend you to her friends. If you really feel like it's taking away from your productive time, you could make up a policy that you will store negatives for X years for free, and anything beyond that point incurs a retrieval charge to find, if you have it at all. But then you have set the expectation that you will have the files archived for your customers, which I don't think you want to do.
 
It makes total sense to extend services you are not contractually obligated to - as a good will gesture, and to build a great reputation. If you do, make sure that the customer knows.
But first, determine what it is (if anything) that you promised to do, and she promised to do, nine years ago!
 
A fee should apply. Not for finding them, but for making prints. Maybe you should work on your filing system so it doesn't take too much of your time.
 
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