These people may be elder artists, peers, curators, gallerists, patrons or others who have an interest in art and its promotion. Photographers who have worked for other artists or formed crit groups with peers said they benefited from the advice and shared information. Others applied for and landed artists residencies where they could meet other artists, or sought mentors by reaching out to artists they admired. Early in his career, Shea contacted Brian Ulrich for advice.
Directors of non-profits recommend researching what the gallery or competition has honored before, and knowing what other photographers have done on the topic you are addressing. A photographer has to make sure their digital submission is a good representation of their work. In , art dealer and consultant Sasha Wolf and gallery owner Michael Foley sat down for a conversation about the business model of the brick-and-mortar gallery, and the new ways that potential buyers are finding artists.
Their conversation, which took place a few months after Wolf closed her gallery after ten years and began selling art privately, was moderated by gallerist David Dixon, and organized by Stropheus, a collective of art law and business professionals which specializes in serving the arts community. Wolf cited a number of reasons for giving up her space. It started to feel not good, like I was putting up too many shows that were not fully baked.
Foley also notes that art fairs and online marketplaces are now more common. Right now it seems like they all simultaneously occur, but the question is, five or ten years down the road, what is going to rise to the top?
The Growing Market for Fine-Art Videos Technological developments are helping collectors get comfortable with the idea of purchasing video-based art. Buying video works no longer means committing to the installation of a bulky television or finding the space for a projector; video art and multimedia can now be displayed seamlessly on slim monitors hung cleanly on a wall.
Beautiful landscapes , iconic cityscapes , famous places , abstract , fine art , wildlife or nature photography. These are some of the types of photos that tend to sell well. Go onto print sites and see what sort of imagery they have. Some may even have reviews or star rating systems. You should also check what the average photography rates are on these sites that are selling prints.
Try to figure out if there is any pattern to it and how it fits into your photography. If you are a wildlife photographer look at what sort of wildlife photos sell and for how much. Once you are ready to begin, you need to detach yourself from your photography and think like a photo editor. A photo might have taken you a whole lot of planning, persistence and determination. Only choose photos that you feel are likely to sell and at a good price.
Remember, you want to make money from your prints. This editing process also involves making sure that the photos are technically perfect. That means they are sharp unless not intended to be for artistic reasons , correctly focused and free of any dust or debris spots.
This is where things get interesting. There are so many options these days in how you can print your work. There are a variety of papers , sizes, finishes, even materials like metal and frames.
Each one will come with a different cost. Before deciding on how much to sell your prints for, you need to figure out what your costs will be. This is the basis for any business. Work out your costs, then add in your profit margin.
It might be tempting to use the cheapest option. Think that the cost of goods just refers to the cost of the prints you sell? Think again. If you want to price for success in the photography business, you need to factor in both materials and time. As defined on Investopedia , the cost of goods consists of; the direct costs attributable to the production of the goods sold by a company… including the cost of the materials used in creating the good along with the direct labor costs used to produce the good.
This means that you need to factor in your time and labor on top of your material costs. Calculating material costs is simple, but figuring out your time can be a little more challenging.
You need to account for all the time that goes into a client session, from the first phone call to the moment they receive their products. A typical workflow will look something like this:. Estimate the average amount of time you spend on each of these pieces of the puzzle.
This fee covers your time and creative talent as a photographer. By determining the amount of time you usually spend per shoot as discussed in the previous paragraph , you can establish a base session fee. First, determine how much you want to make per hour. A simple way to calculate this is to divide your desired salary by the number of weeks you plan to work and the number of hours you will work each week.
But to make this approach advantageous, you have to price your prints like an artist and not as a quick commercial win. This is just in case you decide to branch out or even mix up your business models. You may choose to sell a bunch of your images in large quantities while also submitting your best one for the fine art market. You may have the best images, but if you print them on dodgy paper to save money, your client base is going to dry up. Think about what images people enjoy displaying and how your genre can fill that space on the wall.
Take a look at what price points those sites and other photographers are charging at. Put your pride away and even get the advice of a seasoned professional. I get it; your photos are your expression of how you see the world. But when it comes to selling prints, what you like may not be what people are looking for.
Another helpful tip is to set up your e-commerce platform with the ability to track what gets attention. When people come to your site, the analytical tools will record what people view, click on and what they purchase. If a print is not selling well, consider removing it and replacing it with something in the same vein as those that are selling well.
Another critical consideration is the quality of the actual image. Regardless of selling one or a thousand copies of the print, the time spent in post-processing is just as valuable as time spent in the field taking the shot.
When setting up and running any business, one of the founding principles to apply is managing costs. When it comes to printing photos, one of the highest costs to consider is paper stock and printing services. A gallery will not touch that print, nor will you ever have a client return for another one.
Before you can expect to price your prints, you must work out the balance between cost, quality, and quantity. Ask them to print out some of your pictures in different quality paper and with varying standards of print. You should also consider how much a large format printer costs , and whether investing in one would be more economical for you than ordering from an online print service each time. Having settled on those critical points, you need to bring it all together.
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