How much would you pay for photography prints?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve been taking photos for years, and finally decided this year to try my hand at selling them. Mostly I go to various craft shows, I also do the flea market every month, and I’m doing the County Fair.

The first two months I did alright; the last two not so much. Overall, after doing my taxes and adding in all my expenses (not including my time or camera/equipment) I pretty much broke even.

I spent a lot of time mulling over my prices, adding in expenses/supplies and talking to just about everyone around me before I settled in on my prices. But after the past two months, I’m getting frustrated at not being able to cover my costs and I’m considering dropping my prices. I want my stuff to be reasonable, affordable, but also profitable for me.

I also have a website where people can order prints only and they get printed through someone else. The stuff I’m selling at shows, I order through a local printer who I trust, and I mat everything myself.

My current prices on matted photos are:

4x6 print in 5x7 mat for $7, or 3 for $15
5x7 print in 8x10 mat for $15, or 2 for $25
8x10 print in 11x14 mat for $25, or 2 for $40
11x14 print in 16x20 mat for $35, or 2 for $60

I’ve thought about just dropping the ‘2 for’ specials and making that deal the price whether they buy 1 or 20. Though I think $12.50 on the 8x10, or even $12, is an odd price for a print.

So, what would you pay for a photography print? What do you think would be reasonable?

For reference, you can see my photography on my website to see the types of photos I take.

2

Actually, I can’t. Neither in IE nor in Firefox do I get a “good” webpage; IE says “finished but with errors in the page”, Firefox shows me several forms but no pictures…

That’s one thing to seriously look into.
I prefer buying prints matted, as you sell them, than framed, so for me that would be a positive. I’ve got three (I think they’re 8x10) I bought for 10$ each… in 1994! I think you may actually be too cheap. I haven’t been in the US for years, so I can’t really tell what current normal prices are.

3

I had no problem with the website using IE.

What changed in the results you’re seeing? ie, how many prints were you selling in the first two months vs the last two? Is it the same venue? The issue might be for some venue’s it’s the same customers each week - turnover may be low and therefore you’ve hit market saturation there unless you’re bringing new prints every week.

In short - more data please!

4

I have a friend who takes photographs and I wanted to buy some of her prints to hang on my wall. She sold me 12 8"x10" for $150 so that is $12.50 each. Less expensive than what you’re charging but

  • She’s my good friend
  • There was no matting
  • I was buying “in bulk” as it were
  • She prints herself using an inkjet printer

Her pics are a lot like yours. I like 'em!

5

Basically, the first month I sold twice my booth cost, the second month I made booth cost, and the third month I only made half of booth cost. In these instances, it’s the same venue. Though I do try to get new photos every month.

This week I’m doing the County Fair, a bit of a different venue, but still not really a craft show, where I think people are willing to spend more money. I had two people last night at the fair wanting something, but not wanting to pay the price I had. There’s another photographer there as well, and her prices were something like half of what mine were. Granted, she prints at home, and most of her photos were landscapes. But still, I couldn’t cover costs if I priced that low.

Also, I feel like an ass if I have lower prices for some events, and higher for others. To me, that just doesn’t seem right.

6

Hm. I don’t have a problem in either browser. What form exactly is it that you’re seeing? Do you have anything installed, like Noscript, that would be blocking parts of the site?

7

Okay, step 1. I don’t think your costs are too high.
Step 2 - Pricing by event does make sense. It’s not so much about being fair as recovering your costs and booths are not the same price at each event.
Step 3 - that said - don’t try and match a price that will cost you money.

I don’t think that you should lower your prices for the County Fair. There are always going to be people who can’t afford something however and for those keep cards or information sheets with your website information on them so they can buy online at the lower cost.

For the craft fair I would suggest talking to some of the other vendors. Maybe you’re in a typical seasonal dip - in that case don’t worry about it too much. If that’s not the case start thinking of ways that repeat customers will help you rather than hurt you. Offer an ordering system where they can request a particular photo in a particular size so you don’t have to keep everything at each show. Or some other creative ideas - use Dopers, look at all the great ideas Wombat got for his book store.

8

I think your prices are more than fair. Don’t undervalue your work. If I really, really, really like someone’s work, I’d pay up to about $500 for an 11"x14" print. This will most likely be from a well-established photographer. For somebody at, say, a coffeeshop or fair? Once again, if I’m really struck by the image, I could see paying up to around $150 for an 11"x14".

This is also assuming these prints are “editioned,” for example as a run of, say, 10-20 or so.

9

Actually, I did look over that thread yesterday and I’ve been considering making calendars for a while now, so I may look into that…not sure what other products would be marketable. And, after reading that thread, I thought it might not be a bad idea to contact local bookstores or other shops to see if they’d want to maybe sell some of my smaller prints, or hang some stuff on the walls. Not really sure how to go about that.

Also, I haven’t really figured out how to be…more of a salesman I guess. I don’t push my website unless someone asks about it, I don’t jump in and say I can order a different size of a print and have it the next month…I suppose those are skills I should work on as well. “Hey, I’ve got a website, too, where you can buy the just the print for cheaper, and if you’d like a different size of that, I can have it ready by next month.” ? You know, I can chat all day about just about anything, but when it comes to trying to talk about that sort of thing, I just clam up and don’t know what to say.

I’ve considered this before, but decided against doing limited edition prints. How much does this effect your opinion on the prices?

10

Your prices wouldn’t even cover the cost of my materials, nevermind the time/labor I spent on retouching, matting, and finishing.

When I’ve sold at galleries, matted 11x14s were sold for around $110-115 or thereabouts, and the gallery commission was 25%? of that. (The price was set by the gallery, so I’ve always used this as a baseline for determining value. I figure an art gallery has some idea what it’s doing.)

I also sold with a professional/artists’ photography club at an art fair last year. Through a series of strange miscommunications, they ended up setting a consistent price for each size of print instead of allowing each individual photographer to set their own prices, and set the price for 11x14s at $60. I was pissed, but could do nothing, since I had already agreed to the “one-price” deal, thinking that they were going to set the price at a more reasonable $100. I also stopped by a friend’s gallery who was also showing/selling at the same fair; the artists selling there had set their price at $95.

Matboard and archival photo paper are friggin expensive, and the way I figure it, my time and talent are also worth something. Even just the matting takes quite a while – it’s not difficult, but if you don’t work carefully you screw up the window size, or the cuts, or something, so it’s time-intensive. I’d never consider selling my work on the cheap like that. I’d be taking a loss with every sale; just not effin worth it.

11

For your price range, not much, if anything. I don’t expect a $25 8"x10" to be limited edition prints. Heck, if I get 8"x10" exhibition quality prints of my own work custom printed, it’s going to cost me a lot more than $25 (around $50 or so).

It’s only at about $150 and up that it becomes a consideration, and certainly at the $500+ level.

edit: I should add, my prices assume no matting.

12

Your work is very good and your prices are fair. It’s just that it’s hard to sell photography (especially in tough economic times). One thing you might consider is cards and/or postcards. People are a bit more willing to spend on something with a bit of utility.

And you should probably make up business cards with your website URL on them.

13

I have business cards with my logo, name, phone number, and website. I’m considering updating it to include my facebook page as that seems to be pretty popular these days.

Post cards are surprisingly expensive to make. My profit margin would be so small that I decided against doing them unless I can find them somewhere for cheaper. I’ve also considering doing coasters (I can’t find a set of 4 cheaper than $16 to make, and who’s going to pay more than $5 a coaster?), and I looked into doing mugs (cheapest I found to make was something like $7 I think), etc. Almost every product where I go “hey, that’s cool” it costs a fortune to make and I can’t justify charging what I’d have to charge to make a profit.

Although, I am looking into doing calendars.

For those who have commented about the prices being too low, my original prices were higher, but after talking to several people, I lowered them to be more in line with the economy. Originally, the price structure was going to be something like $10, $25, $35, and $50. One of my photographer friends gave me an especially hard time about my prices (but then copied my prices once I set them, too), and he even lectured me about my being an elitist because I wanted all of my stuff to be archival quality.

As far as sizing, I haven’t wanted to carry anything larger than my 16x20 mat for two reasons: 1. The cost of printing, and 2. the likelihood of something getting bent or otherwise damaged taking them to events. These sizes are always available upon request, and I’d even be willing to do local deliveries for an additional fee, though again, I have no idea how to advertise that kind of thing. I did experiment with bringing framed items, but honestly, once the ones I have sell, I will not do it again. Three frames ended up breaking at my last show and it’s just not worth the likelihood of an accident to bring them.

I’ve been doing photography since I was a kid, but doing shows and pushing my work is something I’m completely new to and I keep fighting with myself over what my stuff is worth, what people will pay, and what’s really worth the effort. I’d like to give myself a full year of trying (and I just started in May) before giving up or changing too many things around, but I’m not sure what to expect, what else to try, what’s normal, etc.

14

I think your prices are way to low. I honestly don’t see how you cover expenses.

15

Your work is very good. Your prices are too low. WAY too low. People use price to convey perceived value. Also it’s a bad idea to price per venue. If someone who has bought your stuff in the past sees it cheaper, they will be pissed and your rep will take a hit. If raising your prices puts you out of the market at craft fairs start looking for a better place to sell your stuff.

Regarding the LE prints, I think it adds a lot of value (but as noted above, not at the prices you are selling for). I would easily pay $150-200 for a good LE print.

16

I’m going to give you my opinion and keep in mind that this is based on my own eccentricities. :stuck_out_tongue: Your work is gorgeous but you seem to have somehow tapped into my every fear in creating your work. Creepy birds? Check. Bees? Check. Clustered holes? Check. Hell, you even have non-clustered hole pictures that give the appearance of clustered holes (in some of the patterns on flowers/leaves and in the old timey keyboard photos.) What’s next, pictures of people having blood drawn? :eek::smiley:

I honestly would not be comfortable flipping through your pictures to find one to purchase because every other picture is something I find creepy or frightening. If you have these on display I would at least keep the clustered hole pictures off to the side or down where they won’t get much notice. Lots and lots of people have trypophobia and may not be able to handle being around those pictures for too long. I think the bird thing is exacerbated by the fact that so many of your animal pictures are birds so it isn’t just one but a dozen various owls, eagles, and pelicans without many tigers, bunnies, or other less bird-y animals to balance them out. I would say raise your prices and expand your subject matter and you should be just fine.

17

Can you give a few examples? I’m not entirely sure what you mean. Most of the urban stuff is off to the side a bit, and I try to showcase the nature photos most, though so far my eagle photos are the most popular. Of my own tastes, I like my urban stuff best, but I recognize it’s not going to be the most popular.

Point taken. I have a trip to the Zoo planned as soon as the weather cools down a bit. So as far as animals go, that should improve. Just yesterday someone was asking for dolphin photos. Sometimes it feels like people are looking for super specific things and it’s hard to cater to everyone.

18

Buying mats in bulk saves me a ton of money. The last mat order I did was somewhere around 400 mats. Also, ordering in bulk where I get my mats also gets me free shipping, which saves me about $80-$100, even though it takes a good week or so to get them.

Also, I use a local printing place whose prices I have found compare to the online places I’ve looked up. They also offer free shipping or I can pick it up. They gave me a tour of their printers and facilities, too, so I trust their quality.

As far as my equipment, my time, the software I have, etc., yes, I’m not quite sure how I’m re-cooping my costs yet either. Frankly, I’m not. But…if I sold all of my inventory at the current prices I have, I could cover the cost of supplies, booth costs, and probably still buy myself a new supply of prints/mats, and a decent camera lens.

But at this point, I’m not selling enough to be able to justify raising prices at all. While I’m not super keen on having varying prices based on the venue, I could see having certain sales if an event doesn’t seem to be doing as well.

It’s also entirely possible I could be more selective about the shows I do.

19

These are a few that I felttriggered a bit of trypophobia. This one was the worst of them but the others all have a vague creepy feeling to them if you have that intense dislike of clustered holes.

Like I said, you’ve got great stuff and a lot of obvious talent but you have inadvertently picked up a couple of themes that can inspire fear or distaste in some people so a bit wider subject matter would help offset that for people who have those kinds of issues.

20

People buy art because they like it. $5 profit is not going to change that. Either reduce your costs or raise your price.