The Digital Tech and Processing Costs

When the photography world turned from film to digital a lot of thing started to vanish, like all the great labs. However, when anything goes away something new takes it place, and one of those new careers is the digital tech. Much of the work the lab did is now taken care of by the digital tech. In the days when film was king I could take 100 rolls of 220 format film to the lab and do a "clip test" on a select few rolls. I'd clip ten rolls from the bunch and look at the test in an hour. After viewing the test clips I'd then decide how to process the entire job based off those clips. The entire job would be complete in three hours and I would then pick up my film and start to make selects of my favorite images to send to my client.

Today the process of processing files is very different from processing film . The tech is an essential part of the assignment and if you are not using a digital tech YOU are the digital tech going through all the images and processing the files. Don't give this service away and never let your clients think this is a free service. The real work starts after the job when you have to edit images via Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One Pro or Aperture. Editing transparency film was a much faster process and in many ways more enjoyable, but digital is a big part of our lives and the standard for many photographers today. If you spend hours editing, tweaking and processing your files please make sure you are charging for you time or you will soon be out of business.

I am so grateful for my digital tech's and all the hard work they do to make my life easier! To all my tech's, assistants and interns. Thank you!