timcorridan Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 do you have any shooting strategies for maximizing reprint sales? do you have a mental list of what sells? have you tracked what sells? made an actual list of shots that are tops in sales? how far do some studios go with this? any other shooting/buissness strategies for this? any shots, other than the obvious ones, you have luck with. perhaps that suprise you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacy Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 The big sellers (from online proofing) for us are usually family photos, photos of babies at the wedding, grandparents, smiling B&G photos...but it seems like every wedding has one image that sells pretty big that I would not have expected.<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthewkane Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Nice shot... is that the second flash going off in the background? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacy Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Thanks Matt- no the light in the back was a spotlight the reception venue was using. I love it when they have those! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry schaefer - chicago, Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Tim I myself wonder how much of this may have to do with online fulfillment services like Mpix, Pictage, Smugmug etc. The concept is good and logical and efficient. Sign on and hey look at me pounding that Seagrams and 7 at Heather and Jason's wedding. Is looking at the photo online enough for a lot of people? I am starting to think that it is. And people are forgeting and losing their tactile faculties in this respect. Back in the days of pass the proofs there was the weight of the proof book or holding a stack of proofs. There was far more richness to holding a print and I think that may have helped close the deal. Today when you beam out 800 images on Pctage its "Wow man thats me hugging the bride" "What!" "$18.00 for a 4 X 6" no wayyy!" Prints are .19 cents everywhere. I'll borrow Heather's disk. I have not single handedly shot a wedding yet and I think I could tell you in 5 minutes which bride will want a disk and which will want a 900.00 album. Brisk reprints are based on wealth or strong ethnic custom and tradition. Contemporary middle class are the super discriminating price shoppers. They are the no pics, I'll take the disk segment. They know more about the .19 cent print than anyone Thats what I see from here. still nobody should be blamed for not wanting to be carved for ten bucks or more for a 4 X 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry schaefer - chicago, Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Stacy Dont take this the wrong way. Many of us have seen your work and I would say you have let far better shots than that fall to the floor. You never know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picturesque Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 I don't have strategies for maximizing reprint sales other than to cover the basics every time. Then do more creative stuff. What sells, and what will always sell, are the basic shots--the ones Stacy mentioned. The ones we photographers don't like to do. The antithesis of the winning prints at wedding and event photographers conventions. Although, if you are talking about selling to the couple and for their album, that is different story, maybe. The mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles and grandparents are always going to order the ones of their family members, usually smiling at the camera. A few times, I've been surprised at an order for one of the more creative shots, but those have been ordered by the couple for their album or a large print, and they aren't always the same ones or kinds of shots. Maybe the one that surprises me is a basic shot. I do it only because it is a basic shot, but it gets ordered more than I would think. It's the one of the couple sitting at the head table holding their toasting glasses together, with heads together, smiling at the camera. Very cheesy, and I hate it, but it gets ordered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stacy Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Larry- that made me laugh! I didn't pitch this one (even with the exreme blow out and cut off arm) because I liked her expression- kind of bored but peaceful. I was really surprised when it kept surfacing in the reprint orders though- and it made the album too. Something about it that the family likes I guess :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry schaefer - chicago, Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 And remember one thing Nadine that cliche shot at the table while everyone is dancining is the best shot of themselves they will have anyone take for a long time. I think the spectrun of clasification of wedding photography is rather broad before before it even hits at being art. But there is a clientel or demographic that appreciates a more artful rendering outside of the mass market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discpad Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Stacy: I'll bet that look was "Gee, I got knocked up, and now I'm marrying this schmuck just so that Junior has a daddy..." And the family knows this, too; and are glad he's NOT in the photo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picturesque Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Dan, that's kind of a low and completely unnecessary comment. I'd be e-mailing Mary Ball, the moderator, to get her to take that comment off the thread, if I were you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timcorridan Posted February 27, 2006 Author Share Posted February 27, 2006 yeah, where did that come from dan? she does look a little tired. getting married is the hardest work, more so than all the venders put together. stacy, the image has wonderful style, but i too am suprised to hear it was the #1, due to the look on her face, that could be interpeted as sad, tired, ect... i'm suprised no one mentioned children as being big on reprints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurenm Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Tim, I was hoping to see more responses here. I would think children and elderly would be big. I agree with what Larry said as far as prices of reprints. I know myself, there were some nice pictures of my sister and I but I wasn't excited enough to spend $10 a print to get them and I had months to look at them online and my sister has them, so I sort of just let it go. I guess though the question is, that its a fact that people do buy reprints, so when they do, which are the top sellers? And to the seasoned pros on here, "have reprint sales gone down over the past few years with more uncle Bob's at the weddings? Sometimes I've had to elbow my way through the crowd to get shots and yes, friends and family's shots won't be as good, but they are probably the same or exact shots we got and much cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picturesque Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Lauren, to answer your question, yes. That's why schemes based on profits from reprints just won't work anymore. You have to price yourself on your talent and time, not on reprints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laurenm Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Thanks Nadine. I just figured this out after a season of second shooting and thinking certain shots would sell especially large family group shots, but realize as we were posing and taking the pictures, so were 30 other guests behind us with decent cameras. So now I guess the question of Tim's is till open, "which photos sell" Or, does it matter really if theri aren't many reprint sales? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry schaefer - chicago, Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I think the cursory glance online douses the sale more often than makes one. It needs to be such a dead on right place at the right time shot of the grand kids to break close the deal on a print. Watch your television do you ever see a scene other than news where you get 2-3 seconds of an image? Video is all fast cut teaser editing that allows no time for assimilation or appreciation. Another thought, I think scrapbooking may be hving an impact on album sales. If photogs have access to downloadable material for albums and coffee table books it must exist for those crafty gals that aspire to being - Martha Stuarts. They can beat the big album price by picking all that stuff that looks like wrapping paper and make a heartsy/goosey wedding scrapbook. They can do a lot by pulling off a disk. Then you have the Studios or clinics that job out 40 photogs per weekend and they hold the bride ransom for 1000-1500 bucks in order to "earn" their proof books. And for another 250-300 on top of the 1500 you get the big album of 10 photos . . .rriiiight the back of each two sided matte is empty. The Uncles are heroes because they dont have a scheme, or some shell game to impose. The question is how do you get it all back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david_schilling___chicago_ Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Tim, I think you started a really worthwhile thread that unfortunately has gotten off track. I went thru a studio training program for a very old, established, profitable studio. The reprint preps began with the photographers initial call to the bride when he identified all the key people and brainstormed all the possible groupings for the backdrop and elsewhere. The company ran a bonus program so that the photographer would benifit directly from higher reprint sales....family groups, kids, and grandparents are always good. Shots of family/friends with the B/G sell well. Shoot me an email if you want to talk more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timcorridan Posted February 28, 2006 Author Share Posted February 28, 2006 thx everyone. tomorrow i leave for disneyland, then come home and lay a 22'x13' hardwood floor in the front room. (soon it will be MY play room) thx david. thx again everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olaf_siebert___zagreb__cro Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 As Lauren said, you should be paid for shooting the wedding. This is what I did as well. In the beginning I did not bother to sell even reprints, too much work and everybody knows that you can buy prints for 0,19$. But this year I started a small experiment, I'd lower my reprint prices (the sellingprice is now 3x the price I pay) and from my last wedding I sold for 15% of the total weddingvalue on extra prints... so by keeping the price low, I sold much more... Sometimes things are surprising... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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