Hi and welcome to my blog where I hope I can explain all about print credit and what that actually means. Whether you are reading this ahead of a shoot so you know what to expect, or you have just had your shoot and now you want to know what happens next, hopefully I will be able to provide all the answers here!
What can I spend my credit on?
So in essence, print credit means that part of the package that you have bought, be it for a wedding, babies or various family shoots, includes a certain amount of money that can be spent on any of the prints and products that I currently sell. All of the items that I sell are ordered from a Lab in Newcastle which, having been experimenting for several years, I can honestly say is the best that I have ever used. Their products are second-to-none, their work rate is excellent as is their their customer service.
I have spent several years selecting and buying a range of different products to showcase which I believe represent the tastes, requirements and budgets of my ‘typical client’. These include prints, frames, albums (recently added) as well as wall art and presentation products. I hope I have covered everybody’s visions and requirements although please do raise it with me if you would like to see anything else added to my collection.
I can fully apreciate that investing in any form of product is a big commitment in terms of cost, time and personal choice. I also can appreciate that it is very tricky to order something when only faced with pictures online as often you want to be able to look at the finish or feel the products to see for yourself. As you know, I am a fully-fledged outdoor-based photographer so as such I do not have a studio where my products are currently on display. I have started inviting clients into my home though where I have all products out and available to look at and discuss. I appreciate that this is not ideal being in my home but at the moment it is the only solution I have available where all the products can be out for you to look at in detail. I have tried taking them to people’s houses and it just does not work as products get damaged and there are too many to transport!
You will notice from my Prints and Products web page that there are no prices listed. This is because in many cases there are so many products at so many different sizes with so many options available, that it can take up a lot of space and be quite overwhelming. It is for this reason that I have created a Price List document, which hopefully covers all options!
So what happens after a shoot?
1) 7-10 days after your shoot you will receive your Pic-Time gallery link. This comes in the form of an email with a link attached (can often go straight into Junk folders so worth checking). If you are a new client you will be asked to create a password so that you can log in again over time. You can only access this gallery if you have the link which is great as it means you have the options of sharing it easily with friends and family, but it also means that it is not accessible to randoms online! All your images will be uploaded in high resolution but (if you are a client who has different packages to choose from) you will be unable to download any.
2) Once you have chosen your photos, please favourite them on the gallery by clicking the heart icon on your preferred images. I will then be able to see your choices without you having to write all the photo numbers down and emailing me. I made the decision at the beginning of 2024 that PicTime galleries and credit will now have an expiry date as many clients were forgetting to download their photos and I started running out of space on my gallery. Once you have notified me of the package you require and the photos you have chosen, I will invoice you and enable appropriate download functionality. This means that any photos you have not chosen, will be deleted. I always esneure that I set the download functionality to ‘everybody can download’ which means that anybody with whom you share the link, can download for themselves. My clients have found this highly useful in the past as it means that they have less work to do! Your gallery will be live for 30 days effective from the date I enabled download functionality (which in the case of Maternity and Dog shoots will be as soon as you receive your gallery). Your gallery will be automatically removed after 30 days. If, after 30 days you still have not downloaded your gallery but require access to it, please message me and I will re-upload it for an additional fee of £25.
3) Apart from the shoots that I run where all images are included in the session fee (Maternity and Baby Minis), most of my packages come with a print credit which, as explained above, is basically credit that you can use against any of the prints and products that I currently sell. Now the fun really starts as you can start to work out what to spend your credit on and what products or albums would look good in your house! If, like me, you really struggle to envisage which products would work in your home, or how your images would look within certain frames or products, please do not worry. The lab I use to purchase all the products from, have some awesome software so I can create digital mock ups using your own images! And if, as I mentioned above, you would like to see the products before you choose to invest, that is absolutely fine. Please never hesitate to contact me and ask for help, more information or the chance to get together to look at the items in person!
4) Once you have made your print/product selection, I will invoice you for the amount (minus the credit that you have) and once I have received your payment I will order your items. Prints take only a few days to arrive whereas larger products can take between 7-10 business days.
The Pic-Time Shop
I am currently working on overhauling the Pic-Time shop (affiliated with your gallery) so that in time, you will be able to order everything online, which should make the whole process quicker and easier for you. Please bear with me as this is a work-in-progress but it will be amazing once it is finished!
Any order forms that you fill in at the moment, come straight to me so please do not worry if it takes you a while or you get confused – I am always a text or email away!
