Large Batch Processing vs. Fewer by Hand (Max Sales$)

[S.Horton]

Still learning -- Very interested to know how you handle your business in sports photography, if you don't mind sounding off about it.

I think I see two paths to sales overall, and by sales I mean an overall gross sales number, regardless of print order volume by type.

Option 1:
- Large batch processing
- Edit, crop, batch to JPG, post, wait
- Sales look mixed; many 4x6, few 8x10

Option 2:
- Much more selective culling, only the best-of-the-best
- Edit, crop, batch to PSD
- Hand-adjust every PSD, color correct, dodge/burn, remove trashcans...
- Post to JPG
- Sales look more biased to 8x10

I sell 8x10 for ~US$ 19, or almost 20 times what a 4x6 sells for.

As we move ahead, can you recc. option 2 over 1, or some other mix?

[tim]

You sell a 6x4 for $2? How do you make any money? The cost of the print is as good as zero, it's the time and equipment that costs.

[S.Horton]

Volume. :p

As an (old) financial analyst, my best guess is that I'd have to charge a bare minimum (effectively) of $65/hr/shooter in fees plus prints to break-even.

Profit would only come from direct paid engagements; shooting stuff speculatively would lose money quickly. This phase is pure marketing; all expense.

The upshot of this post is a question about quality vs. quantity.

When we post quantity, we sell many 4x6. When we post quality, we seem to sell more 8x10 at higher total sales.

Do you see that as well?

[tim]

I don't shoot sports, I just wondered who was crazy enough to sell their time for what sounds like slave wages. Between shooting time, processing time, printing time, and equipment I don't know how/why people do it.

[S.Horton]

Because they can.

[cdifoto]

When we post quantity, we sell many 4x6. When we post quality, we seem to sell more 8x10 at higher total sales.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Post only quality.

[S.Horton]

Price bears less upon quality.

Any biz/econ students around? Elasticity of demand? Thought not. But, just in case......

PS - I didn't know you were down in PA at all.

[cdifoto]

PS - I didn't know you were down in PA at all.

Yeah I'm in Shippensburg.

[frankgindc]

Yo Sam,
I liked your pics at Smugmug -- and I used to wash dishes at the King George! Small world. Anyway, I'm not a pro photographer but I've done a couple of friends weddings (as an adjunct photographer) and concerts and such and I'm amazed that people don't order more prints at all. Not tooting my own horn so much as looking at how I order/don't order pics myself, as I love the pics from my own wedding and the photographer (a local sports photog) did a great job, but I didn't order much except a mondo book (which we got around to ordering 8 month after the wedding), and I seldom print my own stuff. I just think people are tending to view more online and are not getting around to ordering the prints. The online viewing seems to bring the new discovery, for which we used to pay $10 a roll for a crap shoot.

Anyway, so I start to wonder would the option of doing packages start to make sense -- sort of a mix of high quality and snapshots or photobooks that people order ahead of time -- especially when packages and sold to a HS sports team or such (e.g., some high quality 8x10s for the trophy case, 4x6s for the team, etc.). There's something about that "package" dynamic that seems to get people (myself included) off the ball and ordering the pictures they like.

Not sure if that makes any sense but, hey, I'm an ex dishwasher.

Frank

[tim]

Preselling and packages are two sales techniques i've heard off. Before a wedding/event you can offer parents/grandparents 25% off for pre-ordering, or offer packages before or after the wedding. Apparently it can help.

[S.Horton]

Small world.

People browse online and don't buy, for a while.

Later, this is basically how it goes, in youth sports:
- They try with their camera
- They go to wal-mart/CVS.........
- They're disappointed
- They buy a 4x6
- They buy multiple 8x10
- They ask for a private shoot (focus player)
- I make money

Now there's a real plan here, and it is simply to retire doing this. So far, we simply turn down the weddings.

Basically, if someone can't make a decent living as a photog in my area it is because they don't know how to do marketing and sales. Yet.

You gotta look at it this way -- give away the razor, make money on the blades. Meat-and-potatoes money (not fine art) in this biz is in shooting fees for specific engagements and post-processing. To get that, you must be known. To get known, you have to, plain and simple, show up and do solid work. Great work? Not really, just 'good enough'. ;)

I'm still learning, but more on the business side of this than uber-photog. I'll never be as good as a seasoned pro; same as if a pro photog started doing Business Intelligence consulting today. I've forgotten more than they'll ever know. Could they make money anyway? Sure. Would I care if a prospect selected them over me? No, because that prospect could not understand the difference, so they're not a client.

Turn that around.

A real local pro never cares what I'm doing. Ever. S/he knows that anyone hiring me doesn't know why s/he costs more. So, they lost nothing.

That's why I don't really understand reactions to other people's prices. It simply doesn't matter, and it cannot be controlled.

[S.Horton]

Incendiary device warning.

The people making money in sports photography are shooting video in my area. Big bucks. Sell the DVD coupons at the gate outbound, it arrives without any editing. Stupid fast money.