How much to sell prints for?

<p >I'm looking for some advice on Fine Art print pricing. I just got 2 shots accepted into a physical Gallery exhibition and an Online exhibition and I need to choose pricing if patrons would like to purchase a copy of a print (print only, no matting or framing). Sizes would be 8x12 and 12x18 so looking for pricing ideas on both.<br>

On a side note, I'm also getting ready to set up pricing on my personal site as well but have not chosen pricing there either (prints only again, no matting or framing). I realize different folks use different pricing strategies but I'm trying to find a good place to start. The shots are also Fine Art shots running the gamut from Street Phtography and Candids to Wildlife and Architecture...etc. Wondering if you would use the same pricing as the photos in the physical gallery or something different?<br>

Thank you for ANY help you can provide!</p>

<p >Robb</p>

<p>Charge as much as you can justify the price. That means your marketing ability will set the price. I see some incredibly talented photographers that throw up an image, and do nothing to either justify it's measly price, or sell to customers. A website is not a terribly good sales tool by itself. I ran into a relatively well known photographer in the UK that had beautiful prints for sale at not much over cost. I was shocked.</p>

<p>Thanks Michael. Unfortunately, I'm in a time crunch with these so I'm really just looking more for generic price points to start out with.<br>

I had been planning on setting 8x12s at $25 and 12x18s at $60 (unframed, unmatted...just prints).<br>

Anyone have any thoughts on that pricing or recommendations?</p>

<p >Thanks!</p>

<p>I would recommend selling them matted, and charging more than what you've indicated.</p>

<p>We've gone through this very same thing in the past in our growth. We found out a couple of truths you need to know. Here they are:</p>

<ul>

<li>The less you charge in general the more complaints you'll get. The average photo client thinks in terms of $50 per print according to the PPA. </li>

<li>The easier you make it for the client to purchase prints the higher your lab will be so charge enough to more than cover your expenses plus whatever you'll have to pay to remake the photos the client does not like. The less you charge the less you are telling the client you, your education and your work are worth nothing, that's certainly not true. </li>

<li>The more you charge the less the client will order BUT the more you make for your pocket. </li>

</ul>

<p>Here's a good formula (though it is far from perfect)<br>

Hard Costs:<br>

Add your print and lab costs (8X10 $4.00 =$2.00 shipping =$6)<br>

Add what the remake will cost when the client complains ($6)<br>

How much is your time worth? ASk your lab what they charge to retouch one head (our lab says it takes about 4 minutes and they charge $6-30 for one head)<br>

Now our $4 8X10 has a selling price of $6+$6+15 or $27<br>

Nebulous Charges That Count:<br>

Add in your worth as the artist (can also be said that in your market area what is the wage you want to work for? OK say you feel the average wage you would work for is $15 per hour then think of the last assignment you had. How long did you work on it? How many prints or images did you turn out? Did you feel you were honestly compensated? (In our example say you shot a wedding, photoshopped 150 images and it took 3 hours soooo... 150 images divided by 180 minutes equals .83 minutes each <br>

Since you worked 3 hours and you feel you are worth $15 for each hour the total you need to get from the sale is $45 (3 * $15) you need to calculate how much each of those 180 images are worth to end up putting $15 per hour in your pocket. divide the $45 by the number of images and you get $45/180=.25<br>

<strong>Here's why so many small business people fail:</strong><br>

the amount you want to pay yourself is subject to FICA tax of 30% Plus FUTA tax of about 8% that goes to the feds CAUTION your state may have a income tax or a business inventory tax or who knows what tax you must deduct and pay(average benes are about 42%<br>

We're almost done. How do you plan to pay for that $1080 prime lens you're just dying own and to use? Let's say 10 weddings at $150 from your profit from each (or $1 per print)<br>

Sooo where do we stand now?<br>

Our $4 8X10 has a selling price of $27 as calculated above plus .25 hourly wage plus 1.00 equipment savings (or repair) plus the 42%of your wages in terms of per print (42%=$18.90 or if divided by 150 images in the wedding package it equals 12.6 cents each.<br>

Now our added value print is up to: $28.37 at least. Remember you just added about an hour to fill our those forms for the state that your client is paying you to do. By the way that 150 image weddings minimum cost is now 150*$28.37=$4,255.50 (no album or book yet)<br>

If your client stiffs you and walks without paying or if you do not receive at least enough to cover your expenses up front you That means you need to get a reservation fee (NEVER NEVER collect a deposit -- Deposits are refundable Reservation Fees are not.<br>

Obviously this works for portrait sales but not weddings. You see how 10 8X10's and 24 5X7 and 116 4X5's in an album would not cost that much but it is still 150 images.<br>

WATCH the taxes and repair/growth charges - they are manditory. Make sure your client is aware of what you're doing and ALWAYS quote a date of delivery that is rediculously long and deliver very early<br>

We charge $100 for an 8X10 or smaller portrait to family portraits, For High School Seniors depending on how much the package they are thinking about an 8X10 we reduce our standard fee of $100 for an 8X10 to $25 and up to $45 (in a package they are 20% less). We've covered most if not all our expenses in the calculation above with a $400 order. For babies our 8X10 alone is $100 but that gives us an opportunity to "talk them into" a package for $139 of 1 8X10 and 2-5X7 and 8 wallets. Everybody thinks the up selling is difficult all the client wants to know is how can I get a better deal? They come in for the 8X10 and are sticker shocked at the $100 which opens the door to sell a $139 package thus increasing the profit a little and selling them more. We put our AlaCarte price right next to our package price so when they add up an 8X10 and 2-5X7's would cost $300 but they can buy them for $139 they jump at the chance. We originally plan for each of our clients to buy a certain package and price around that package so it is the best buy and obvious choice. If we sell a certain number of those packages each month we can keep our doors open.<br>

In todays digital lab environment it does not matter if your 1-8X10 and 2-5X7 are from the same image or from 2 or 3 different images.<br>

Hope this helps.</p>

<p><strong>Oh one more thing</strong> call a few competitors and annonimously ask them how much for an 8X10 for a family portrait, and a baby portrait that will give you the necessary range, Keep your conversation short, if they won't give it to you and insist you havr to come in say thanks, I really must go, I'll call back later. It is vitslly important you have a rough idea what your competitors charge, your client does and won't forget. Highly important DO NOT BASE YOUR CHARGES ON YOUR COMPETITORS CHARGES. His operation has different costs than yours.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I'm about to start selling some of my prints at a local farmer's market. For the first one, I'm sticking to only 5x7 mainly because money is real tight, and I could produce more. Whichever prints sell the best, I'll print on 8x10 also, maybe a couple 11x14 just in case. I'm matting the 5x7 to 8x10 with the mid range mats, acid-free but not conservation/museum quality, and they will be mounted to the backing board using photo corners. I have settled on pricing them at $15 dollars each, and the 8x10's will probably be at about $30 each. It took a lot of consideration and weighing out the pros and cons of different prices, but I settled at that price because the crowd will mainly be tourists and I want to stay within a price that won't be too much for someone on vacation. Plus, as someone here on photo.net put it in one of my posts about this subject, it's a lot easier to raise my prices than lower them and make past customers feel like they got burned.</p>

<p>The lady that ran the photoshop that developed my photos for years took my first print as a 8x10 monochrom sepia output on good photo paper, put it on her "gallery wall", and sold it for $175. two rolls of 120 later, she'd sold 11 prints more, for higher amounts. don't devalue your photographic art..... find cheap but nice used frames at salvation army type locations, a $1 frame ups the price $20.... then double the intended price, make a sign as that for "regular price" with a "50% off " thing on it.... people like sales.....<br>

sell big and opulent prints for high amounts, next to them have 8x10's for $49 on sale from $99....<br>

oh: solarize and mess up with all the colors on purpose, the prints will sell more and for more, its "higher" art.....</p>

I don't know if AL is making a comment or venting about his|her obversation on what is|was on sale (in the later portion of the reply).