Starting Photographer Prints Business

[figmented]

This is not a normal photo post, but it has to do with the business of photography, so i figured I would post it here because some of you might be interested.

Alright. So as of late, I have gotten a new printer that's capable of better then offset press quality prints, that's super fast and super affordable.

So I am starting a new business selling prints for photographers. Not just single photographic process prints, I mean 'prints' that a photographer can sell to make money, or use as marketing material.

At first i plan on launching with a core product of the following:

12pt gloss or matte paper (cardstock) - Professional better then press quality prints in these sizes:

4x6
5x7
8x10
8x12
11x14
12x18

Qty's of
25
50
75
100
150
200
250
500
750
1000
1250
1500
2000
2500
5000

I will also be offering postcard prints (4x6), business cards 2x3.5, minicards 3x1.5 (not solid on this size) and notecards w/ envelopes.

Once the core products are established, I plan on adding photo calenders, photo books (like blurb/mypublisher), photo stickers and other similar cool products.

So my question for you guys is input on this type of business model. Also would you guys be interested in this sort of thing at all?

Just to ballpark the cost of what a 12x18 full color, full bleed, on 12pt glossy paper, each one would run about 60 cents each.

So I will be able to offer these prints at an extremely affordable price compared to conventional photo process, and the quality on these prints are amazing w/ 1200dpi, 3.5 micron particle size, and at a blazing 70 12x18 prints per minute (on cardstock).

I'm looking for product ideas, company name ideas, domain name ideas, anything you guys could offer in terms of how I could make this really work great.

As I have found out, it's very rare to find a company selling great quality prints at this price and quanitity, which I beleive is why i think this business model can excel.

And here is the kicker. I will beable to offer UNIQUE impressions. Which means, say you want to order 100 12x18 prints. I can print each one a different image/photo at roughly the same cost (15% increase). This is usually unheard of, but capable with my equipment.

So what do you guys think? Please offer me any suggestions or comments you can, I need lots of input.

Also I need some people to use as test dummies, and do some at cost printing + shipping deals. http://www.genmay.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

I also bought this:
http://www.xrite.com/product_overview.aspx?ID=791 to help keep color consistency and quality great http://www.genmay.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

[michael_]

what sort of printers are you using?

sounds good, i picked up some prints today from a new prolab i am trialing and was very impressed, definately not cheap but the wuality is truely superb, i had them print on a variety of paper, Matte, Lusrte, Gloss, Metallic, Flex, and something else.

as far as your plan, have you researched the market? who are you competing against? can you make a profit at those small margins? will customers move to you over an already established print lab? does this detract from your photography business if you have one?

[LBaldwin]

I am sure that it will have it's niche, with fashion shooters who do promo head shot or comp cards. Post cards for mailing out to prospective clients rarely produce great results anymore. Mass mailing is a tough racket unless you add coupons or discoutns etc.

I zam somewhat skeptical as to the quality of the images you can do at that speed. I have a LF printer and the set up for an individual paper and image is very time consuming. I would think that your prints although good would not be in the same quality catagory, but I would love to see some of the samples. Also brochures, mini posters for school teams and such would be better markets than photographes. The one exception is shooters who sell post cards at the tourist areas in their local. Your pricing and marketing should be to them.

Also and I cannot stress this enough, get all transactions written in plain english contracts prior to fireing up the presses!!

Let us know when you get set up so we can see some samples. There are thousands of printers out there though...

Les

[figmented]

Well, My family owns a printing business that's been in business over 23 years. We just got a brand new Canon Imagepress 7000VP (roughly $450k). It's not a photo/chemical printer, but it's an incredible quality improvement compared to machines we've owned in the past, and what canon/hp/xerox had to offer. It's a brand new printer for Canon, and we are the FIRST to have one in Texas. (press release for us in the Dallas Morning News soon to come)

This is not a large format printer, it's a digital press similar to the ones used by blurb, mypublisher, and asuka for their better then offset quality photo books. This machine is very good and a lot better quality then you would expect. But I'm limited in size to 13x19 or 12x18 full bleed.

I'm currently researching the market, hence why i proposed this business idea. But I already have the equipment, so might as well put it to use? :)

I'm going for profit making minded photographers, low price, high quantity and quality.

The machine should be setup today for me to make some test runs for myself, then I'm going to want to do a few free tests for people (plus shipping cost) to see how they like it.

More info to come so stay tuned to this thread if it interests you.
I also plan on offering large format giclee' prints in the future.

But please, any ideas, thoughts, products, naming conventions, any ideas you have at all on the subject, I am all ears.

photographerprints.com (http://www.photographerprints.com) coming soon. :)

This is my printer.
http://slantphoto.com/photos/blog/imagepress7000.jpg

[michael_]

now thats a big printer :)

[figmented]

Yeah, basically my dad came to me asking for ways of creating new business opportunities with our new printer, and of course as a photographer, I had tons of ideas. With my passion of photography and knowledge of the print industry, I think i can truly offer an awesome product at an affordable cost while still maintaining great quality that us as photographers rely on.

I've done so much research as a photographer trying to find the best products to use for my own photography purposes. So I'm very knowledgeable in this area, not only as a client needing these services, but also a a printer providing them.

I also have a totally awesome web designer that will be working with me in this venture (volocreative.com (http://volocreative.com)), so I really think that this will be a great business venture.

You should see this thing in our office, it's 23 feet long. lol. We've spent over $6000 on just getting equip for electricity to power this beast. I really can't wait to get this going.

[DanC922]

Wow, this sounds great. That's incredibly cheap for prints. Selling any company stock yet? :p

[plattepro]

Amazing! I think you should look into marketing to artists as well.

[figmented]

So no one sent me any prints to test today, So i printed a few of my own test prints.

All i can say is, DAMN this printer is incredible. Such sharp, great detail, great colors, man, im excited.

The 22 prints you see on the floor cost me about $4, and I will sell it for around $15 retail or so. You cant tell me this is not a great price with great quality. They are 11x14's printed on 12x18 paper. I don't have 'good' quality 13x19 paper to print 12x18 full bleeds yet, we just got the printer and all we carry is 12x18.

I'm also at the shop, so i dont have all my cool lightroom shiznit for editing photos. (i dont feeling like spending any time on them anyways)

Here are a few photos i took today just messing around. (ran $5000 in jobs today on this machine, and it just got online at 4pm)

Some postcards and posters we made testing the new printer.
http://slantphoto.smugmug.com/photos/192525471-L.jpg

zoomed in with my 10-22 (lol zoomed in) high detail in the rubber of the ball, can even see the black text texture moving an opposite grain direction. (looks almost 3d, but the prints are completely flat and smooth w/ no visible or feelable texture) 1200x1200 dpi for the win
http://slantphoto.smugmug.com/photos/192525443-L.jpg

money baby! :)
http://slantphoto.smugmug.com/photos/192525508-L.jpg

new black and white printer we got today too (115 11x17's a minute, holy crap its so fast it COUGHS the prints out lol)
http://slantphoto.smugmug.com/photos/192525628-L.jpg

$40k crappy c2d computer. man do they overcharge for ****.
http://slantphoto.smugmug.com/photos/192525649-L.jpg

test prints on the floor in front of the new printer
http://slantphoto.smugmug.com/photos/192525755-L.jpg

more pictar
http://slantphoto.smugmug.com/photos/192525796-L.jpg

12x18 and 8x12 are going to be my main focused print sizes. I plan on having next day turn around w/ whatever speed shipping u wanna buy.

[figmented]

Amazing! I think you should look into marketing to artists as well.

Yeah, when i get a new set of large format printers (probably epson 9800's, i have a 60 inch mutoh solvent printer, but its not photo quality) I will start to offer fine art prints in all sorts of sizes.

i will definitely try to market to artists, but it's a little different because most artists don't have the scanning capability to send good enough quality digital files to be printed. But it could be a possibility in the future. I'm not going to be turning down artists that want prints.

Thanks for everyone's comments, I'm excited about this venture, and you guys are making it better for me.

I'm still looking for ideas on products i can offer that are simple to create with this sort of printing ability.

Some sites that i like that have some neat products are moo.com, zazzle.com, and shineboxprint.com. I really want to have a solid core product, and keep it as simple and quality controllable as possible.

[LBaldwin]

Yup, I have a W6400 that is giving me fit right now, I asked it for a test print and it ran 50' of paper off into the floor and then cut it off the roll.... Oh well.

Looks like a real cool printer do you have ftp set up ? As far as LF printers the new HP's with built in spectro in them are the bomb.

Les

[figmented]

Yeah i dont know what printer to go with when the time comes ill have to do some research. I've always thought the epson prints to be better quality then hp/canon/roland (my personal opinion), but i get really good deals on canon equipment and the built in spectrometer on the hps are inviting :) heh.. but i do have my own standalone spectro.