Am I good to charge prints?

Hello guys!

I have been doing photography for a while, and this was just my hobby, not a profession. Commercial photography is possible in my city only if you are a wedding photographer, and I am not.

So, I came to the idea that some photos can be printed and sold. On the other hand, my relatives say that photos are too dark and sad, nobody will hang it to the wall. Also, there is no good lab around, so for the prints I should buy a good printer.

Thus, I'm standing at the crossoads. What do you think, is it good idea? You can check out my flickr page:

https://www.flickr.com​/photos/151415700@N07/

Any your advices are highly appreciated.

Dmitry

Buy a quality photo printer, one that allows you to refill the cartridges and reset them yourself, buy some quality ink, watch for the Canon buy 1 get 4 deals and buy their paper at that time, and then get something like the color munki to create a printer profile.

If you do this, your prints will rival anything online, and will be less expensive. If you miss any one of these steps, then you will likely continue to have print color/tone issues, your prints will cost you quite a bit of money, and you will make much less on the prints.

My costs for prints are about 25c per 5x7, 75c per 8x10, and 1.50 per 13x19.

Hello TeamSpeed!

Thanks for advice. Do you sell your prints via mail? The letter should cost more than print, I suppose.

This video might be good food for thoughts: Thomas Heaton: Why Would Anybody Buy a Printer?

You certainly have an eye and a voice as the art world calls it. Not sure who your customers are, but I'm out in the rural midwest, so on a coast those images are probably more likely to sell.
The question is how well do you know how to market, and promote yourself? What venues do you have to try and set up a booth and sell or are their artist communities you can try to get into?

You may want to also check out online sales, like Fine Art America, and red bubble, Etsy... but all of those, you need to have a place and base to market your images to.

ksbal wrote in post #18806492
You certainly have an eye and a voice as the art world calls it. Not sure who your customers are, but I'm out in the rural midwest, so on a coast those images are probably more likely to sell.
The question is how well do you know how to market, and promote yourself? What venues do you have to try and set up a booth and sell or are their artist communities you can try to get into?

Actually, I did not think about printing previously. But some people periodically ask me to send them a print. Thus, I decided, it may worth to sell some prints via internet. An send it via mail.

Then yes, if you have people asking for your images, in print, I'd go with a lab myself, many labs will send directly to the customer, but you'll need to order prints and see if you are comfortable with the quality and reproduction. I wouldn't sell anything on regular paper, only heavier linen or art heavy weight. - an ask a min of 3 times the cost to you. at least in the states there are a ton of online photo labs that do good quality. - but it depends on your volume, if you are selling a bunch, the printer is probably the way to go.

Congrats, you have a great port.

I can't answer your question since I am not a pro and don't sell any pictures.
However, you have a unique / artistic style which I believe should have a market for. If I were you, I would try online selling to a market that is interested in the 'artistic / abstract' form of photography.

Edit ...
I believe you are.

Pomo wrote in post #18806472
Am I good to charge prints?

Pomo wrote in post #18806480
Hello TeamSpeed!

Thanks for advice. Do you sell your prints via mail? The letter should cost more than print, I suppose.

No, but I have the material and print my own shipping at home should I need to. The cardboard mailers will cost a bit plus postage, so definitely include that in your analysis. I price my prints just under what somebody might pay to go online and pick them up, and if I would ship them, I would add several dollars to the price, but that is fairly constant for 1 - x prints in a single bundle.

Sibil wrote in post #18806505
I can't answer your question since I am not a pro and don't sell any pictures.
However, you have a unique / artistic style which I believe should have a market for. If I were you, I would try online selling to a market that is interested in the 'artistic / abstract' form of photography.

Edit ...
I believe you are.

Thank you Sibil.

TeamSpeed wrote in post #18806507
No, but I have the material and print my own shipping at home should I need to. The cardboard mailers will cost a bit plus postage, so definitely include that in your analysis. I price my prints just under what somebody might pay to go online and pick them up, and if I would ship them, I would add several dollars to the price, but that is fairly constant for 1 - x prints in a single bundle.

Ok, I got what you mean.

Pomo - the type of work you are doing and the type of work TeamSpeed is doing is totally for different types of audiences. Your work lends itself as more pure art, then event, nature, or sports. As mentioned by ksbal, to really get the true value from what you have created, you should be printing on fine art grade papers. If you are printing yourself, look at papers like Hahnemühle Photo Rag Paper - or like papers. Many up the upper end papers are available is sampler sets so you can play with or see the differences in how they render.

Here is a link to one BH Photo sells - but most sell something like it.

https://www.bhphotovid​eo.com …eart_textured_s​ample.html

A good high end photo shop should also have sample books of images printed on the various types of paper. You can not print something that is "art" on traditional over the counter papers. Then you also need to add in the cost for a good wide carriage straight path printer. I have two wide format Canon printers... Epson puts out some good options too.

All that said, if you really want to make a go of it, there are lots of labs that will ship your work for you. You can actually create a relationship with them, and they will manually process your images, make sure the printers are calibrated, and your computer is calibrated to their printers, and make recommendations for you. You can have them ship direct, or to you first. A quality print should come in a tube as well.

Don't sell yourself short. You can create an international following with the right marketing. Your stuff is absolutely worth giving it a go...

Croasdail wrote in post #18806879
Pomo - the type of work you are doing and the type of work TeamSpeed is doing is totally for different types of audiences. Your work lends itself as more pure art, then event, nature, or sports. As mentioned by ksbal, to really get the true value from what you have created, you should be printing on fine art grade papers. If you are printing yourself, look at papers like Hahnemühle Photo Rag Paper - or like papers. Many up the upper end papers are available is sampler sets so you can play with or see the differences in how they render.

Here is a link to one BH Photo sells - but most sell something like it.

https://www.bhphotovid​eo.com …eart_textured_s​ample.html

A good high end photo shop should also have sample books of images printed on the various types of paper. You can not print something that is "art" on traditional over the counter papers. Then you also need to add in the cost for a good wide carriage straight path printer. I have two wide format Canon printers... Epson puts out some good options too.

All that said, if you really want to make a go of it, there are lots of labs that will ship your work for you. You can actually create a relationship with them, and they will manually process your images, make sure the printers are calibrated, and your computer is calibrated to their printers, and make recommendations for you. You can have them ship direct, or to you first. A quality print should come in a tube as well.

Don't sell yourself short. You can create an international following with the right marketing. Your stuff is absolutely worth giving it a go...

Thanks for your comment Croasdail!

I'm thinking to buy Epson Surecolor P800 and to try papers like Epson Fine Art Paper, Hahnemühle Photo Rag.

There are good photo commerce websites that make selling prints and digital files extremely easy, in an integrated fashion. You can put your work online and customers order straight off the site with payment and order fulfilment (prints or files) made really simple.

I did this for a while a few years ago, using an Australian provider called Fotomerchant. Check them out, not with a view to using them (they're set up for Australian business) but to familiarize yourself with the model. If you like the idea, I'm sure there are American equivalents.

I found the whole thing pretty painless and my clients loved the ease of ordering.

I'll check it out. Thanks for your advice, Spencerphoto!