Free event follow up - Is this a reasonable price for a print?

[Living Daylight]

A while back I did a free event photographer gig as a favour to my mom and hoped I would get some print sales. Just recently someone called and asked to buy a framed print.

The pic is of the client's employees standing around an award they won for technological innovation, taken at the awards ceremony.

It is an 10x6 panoramic so it will need a custom frame, the cost of which at Costco is $36, the print itself will be about $2-$3, so we will say $40 for this. I will add a markup of 25% so say $10

I have put the price for my personal contribution at $100, which I think is reasonable considering that this is the only pic of them at the awards ceremony and it will more than cover my gear/time, etc.

It is my first print that I am selling, so I wanted some feedback first. Is a price of $150 reasonable for a print of this nature? Or am I way off base? Like I said I have no experience here so feedback would be nice.

[JacobPhoto]

The print is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. $150 for a framed print of winning an award that no other photographer caught sounds like a reasonable price (although 10x6 seems a bit small ?)

[Living Daylight]

10x6 was the size she asked for. Actually she said that she wanted an 8x10, but it is not a standard size so I suggested we just make it 10x6. Think I should suggest larger?

[jacuff]

Panorama stitched from multiple shots or panorama cropped from a single shot?

[Living Daylight]

Cropped from a single shot. The res of the cropped shot is 3888*2592. So if I go 10x6.6 it will be 389 DPI; or if we go 12x8 it would be 324. I remember reading that 300 is the minimum for a print. Is this correct?

[Living Daylight]

Also, would you suggest selling them just the print without the frame? In this case I would charge $100.

[jacuff]

3888 x 2592 is an aspect ratio of 3:2, the full resolution of your camera without any cropping. A 5:3 aspect ratio is what you said you want to sell, which should have a resolution of 3888x2333.

In this case it looks like you are way overvaluing your time into one print sale. Since it is from one file, you ought to be able to sell an 8x10, the size the the customer originally wanted, before you convinced them that 6x10 is a more standard size than 8x10. I'm all for up-selling and getting proper compensation, but don't be too surprised when they hear your price for it and change their mind.

[steelsun]

What about putting the 6x10 in an 8x10 frame, you only have to get a custom matt, which is alot cheaper than a custom frame.

[Living Daylight]

The reason I cropped it is because I feel it looks much better this way. Do you think I should uncrop it to sell?

Also, they didn't ask for an 8x10 and get convinced otherwise. I edited a few shots from the event, put up low res versions on picasa for them to view. She chose this one.

As for the res, you are correct; I misread the data on Lightroom. It is in fact 3676x1518, so an 10x6 will be the limit.

[Living Daylight]

I thought about that. I think it might look odd with the extra space on top, without the extra space on the sides.

What about putting the 6x10 in an 8x10 frame, you only have to get a custom matt, which is alot cheaper than a custom frame.

[bjyoder]

I thought about that. I think it might look odd with the extra space on top, without the extra space on the sides.

Very true. You would need at least an 11x14 frame, probably a 12x18.

[jacuff]

Actually she said that she wanted an 8x10, but it is not a standard size so I suggested we just make it 10x6.

Also, they didn't ask for an 8x10 and get convinced otherwise. I edited a few shots from the event, put up low res versions on picasa for them to view. She chose this one.

As for the res, you are correct; I misread the data on Lightroom. It is in fact 3676x1518, so an 10x6 will be the limit.

I bolded what made me think she originally wanted an 8x10, even though she may have seen it as a 10x6. She's most likely cluesless on aspect ratios, but really you don't see too many small sized 5:3 prints... those are usually for larger posters.

BTW: Prints 8x10 and smaller are usually printed at 300dpi since they will often be viewed closer (in an album, wallet, etc) and larger prints can get away with being printed at lower dpi values because the viewing distance is usually larger. A 20x12 print @ 150dpi hanging on the wall will probably look better than a 10x6 print @ 300 dpi hanging on the wall. Both would require the same number of pixels.

[Living Daylight]

My original wording was wrong. Her exact words were "If it were standard I would want 8x10." Sorry for the confusing wording.

[Living Daylight]

What if I just offer her the print without the frame and let her worry about it? Would that be OK too?

[HappySnapper90]

My original wording was wrong. Her exact words were "If it were standard I would want 8x10." Sorry for the confusing wording.

why not show the whole image to us and we can tell you if it'll be fine at 8x10? Resize the image and post of course. It really does not sound like you've done much printing before, is that right?

[Living Daylight]

why not show the whole image to us and we can tell you if it'll be fine at 8x10? Resize the image and post of course. It really does not sound like you've done much printing before, is that right?


Good thinking. I just tried it and even without cropping at all making it 8x10 will cut out half of two people.

And yes, this is the first pic I am printing to sell.

[HappySnapper90]

Ok, so it's a wider view. Why not an 8"x12" print and frame? That's the same aspect ratio as your original photos, provided you're shooting with non-olympus dSLR. 8"x12" frames and semi-common as well as a print size from photo labs.

[Living Daylight]

Ok, so it's a wider view. Why not an 8"x12" print and frame? That's the same aspect ratio as your original photos, provided you're shooting with non-olympus dSLR. 8"x12" frames and semi-common as well as a print size from photo labs.

This might work. I am going to upload to picasa and let her decide. She just emailed me and said she was very price-sensitive so I will drop my price as well.