What to Charge?

[vkbarefoot]

I did a site for an artist. I used the images that he gave me. I reduced them from 300dpi to 72dpi and from (average) 1800ppi to 650ppi.

He loved the site and paid me promptly.

Not all of the images that he gave me were good images. Some were a bit blurry, etc. I did a lot of clean-up on the original low quality images. Many of the images had a lot of fine detail that were lost in the resampling process.

When I reduced the image size I, of course, lost detail. On some of the images I included a separate "Detail 1", etc., for the visitor to get a better look at the detail.

He has now come back and wants the images to be clearer with more detail showing. I can do this with various filters. (Not each image goes through the same process to sharpen and clear up so I cannot batch it.) But saving the detail can only be taken so far. I have thoroughly researched this and after all is said and done, when you reduce the size of an image you lose pixels and that's that.

We are talking about approximately 75 images that will take me approximately 5 to 15 minutes to resample and sharpen. I then have to introduce the images into the pages on the site and make new pages for 3 details for each image. That will double the time involved.

My question is this ..... since I did not resample the images to bring out the greatest detail to begin with, do I do all this work for free or do I charge him? I will charge him for the detail images and pages but that is only about 25% of the work.

Keep in mind, he liked the images to begin with, it was only months later that he wants them sharpened.

Thanks ... any input would be wonderful .... viki

My question

[djr33]

It really depends on your relationship.

If the first transaction is now complete and you have no obligation to do this, then I don't see why he shouldn't pay you the same amount he'd pay someone else if you are currently unavailable.
If this is a continuation, albeit delayed, then I'd expect you should do it as a continuation of the price, in that you either do it for free or do it for what this would have cost in the first place.

If he was happy to begin with, then that implies it was not a mistake you did, so I'd say this is additional. But I'd give him a deal anyway.

[vkbarefoot]

I have a continuing relationship with all my artists insomuch as they take down old work and put up new work. They change their statements and cv's, also. In that regard I am never really "done" with their sites. All my artist's site's more or less are continuing works in progress.

But, I always charge for any additional work I do after the site is initially designed and populated with their images. Usually I change per each image that I add to their site. But I have never come across this situation where the client wants all the images "remastered" as it were.

I also spent many hours on research to see if there was something out there or some process that I didn't know about that I could have applied to his original images. I ask questions in forums, downloaded and tried different software, but, when you reduce the image you lose pixels and that doesn't change.

I am wondering that if he wanted the images changed so much should he have not made that part of the original agreement? I did what he ask when I designed and populated his site. We worked together, on the phone, quite a bit. He had a lot of input as to how he wanted the site to look. Wasn't that the time to insist on manipulating the images?

[thetestingsite]

Wasn't that the time to insist on manipulating the images?

It was, and thus you should charge the client. I wouldn't say full price of what it cost the client to create the site in the first place, but instead whatever maintenance fees and new fees you want to tack on. Usually, whenever i charge a client, I give 2 months free support (this includes changes to content and whatnot) that is included in the price, then charge separate fees whenever the client makes changes after those two months.

Hope this helps.

[vkbarefoot]

Thank you ..... that seems right.

I have a similar policy. If it doesn't take me more than 30 minutes to make a change I don't charge at all .... like a phone number or and email address for instance. And I give them all the time they need to find mistakes or make logical, small changes as part of the price.

Thanks for your input you guys .... thank you