The number of photos I hand over to the client is almost completely based off of the amount they're looking to spend. Some people think that when they pay for a photographer, they're paying for the time, and not the photos. To me, the photos are the actual product, and what the client is paying for. I have people all the time contact me and expect to receive every single one of the photos I take during the session, but I rarely agree to that. Not only does that really hurt the value of my work, but it also means the amount of work I do for different clients can potentially vary significantly. If I charge two different clients the same amount, but I happen to take 25 photos with one session and 100 with the other, I get paid the same amount to edit four times as many photos. Not to mention that really isn't fair to the client who paid me and only got 25 photos. Some photographers charge their clients for their time, and not the photos. Usually, the photographer doesn't include any photos with the session, and then the client has to pay for either prints or the rights to the photos. Sometimes the client is aware of this before hiring them, but, in most cases, they aren't. I'm not really a huge fan of this approach, because I feel like it's somewhat dishonest to hide that information from the client. 

But that's not the point of this post. 

The main reason for this post is because there have been a few times when I've been negotiating with clients, and I say it will cost $X for Y photos, and they think that I'm only going to take Y photos. 

No.

When I say it will cost $X for Y photos, I mean Y is the amount of edited photos that you will receive. I'm not only going to take Y photos and hope that every single photo I take is tack-sharp and turns out exactly how I envisioned. I'll take however many photos I think it'll take to make sure that I can hand over however many photos we agree on before the client signs the contract. Some people don't care either way, but some people feel it's a huge deal if they pay me $X and they think I'm only pushing the shutter button five times.

One last thing. You don't need hundreds of photos from a session. Unless it's an all day thing, no one needs more than 20 photos, at most probably. Who wants to go through hundreds of, or even 50, photos from an hour long session? I find it hard to believe that there aren't at least a handful of photos in there that look pretty much the same. I think it's lazy for photographers to hand over that many photos. The photos professional photographers give to their clients should be like a highlight reel, and only feature the best photos from the session, with very little photos that are, essentially, duplicates. If there are two photos that look pretty much the same and you can't pick between the two, tough. Either let the client choose, or you have to make the choice. 

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