How much to charge and what size???

Been photographing for a while, but I know little about printing my pics. Anyways, I have a client that wants to buy some of my work. I have a Nikon D40x that shoots at 10.2 megapixels. All the shots are at the highest resolution and they are all landscape shots. They will be displayed in a living room and I would say average viewing distance is roughly > 3 ft.

So with all that said and not wanting to sound like an amateur what are your suggestions for the following questions:

Max size to be printed? I know viewing distance matters, but any feedback would be helpful...

How much to charge for pics and printing? How much do photographer's typically charge just to use a pic and how much to print them (above actual cost)?

I have seen many different ways to print, such as canvas and different papers, etc... Any suggestions here. I was thinking of talking to the client about what type of print they want, but wondering if people know of some best practices here.

Thanks for the help!!!

. . . otherwise you remain in the unenviable position in which you've placed yourself. That is, being a photographer, retailer, designer, and psychic. Among other things.

How can you return to your client with a product if you have not spoken to that person about what it should be? This is why photographers who sell prints are very specific about what they provide and what they do not provide. They leave it up to the consumer to decide whether the described item fits their needs and what they want to do with it.

I would not just hand over a file and let the client have at it. Whatever print should come out of that process represents you, no matter who did it or how good/bad they were at it. You must provide the print.

While we're at it, are you able to print the images yourself? If not, are you comfortable handing over the file to a local lab or some online outfit to print them for you? If the answer to both of these questions is "no," you have to ask yourself how you proposed to fulfill the client's wishes.

As for the various media options for printing images, do you have any experience with any of them? Only you can decide how your image should be presented. This costs time and money. In advance of any sales, I have to add. My office is decorated with images printed all manner of ways on different kinds of media so that I could see what they look like with those choices. But afterwards, I was able to speak with some confidence about how certain images would look under various circumstances.

If you are at the beginning, still floundring around and not really ready or able to print images for sale, here's a way to start. Print a selected few 11x14 images at Costco. With luck, there is a Costco nearby. (I live out in the boondocks, and there are six within 12 miles.) Study the images for ways you might improve them, even if it's only to accomodate Costco's printing style. (By the way, I would choose lustre rather than glossy from the gitgo. Glossy is a PITA to handle.)

Print revised images as necessary and select the best three. Take them to your client and ask if these are what he had in mind. If not, you've learned something. If yes, you've also learned something. Mount the images in mats (plently of info on the web about this) and take them to your client. Charge $40 each and let the client pick out frames at the local Michaels, etc.

If you get paid, you'll discover that this venture has probably been a money-losing project. If you're lucky, it's been a less-than-minimum wage proposition. But, hey, it's a beginning!

By the way, only odd numbers of images. Two images on a wall will become irritating, if it doesn't start out that way. So sell 'em three. But at least one.

Hope this has helped some.

Mike

Mike gave some great advice so I 'd use that as a basis. As for size, 16x20" tops, I've seen some great shots taken with 10meg dslrs at arms length at that size but I assume they know what they are doing printing wise.
--
Growing old is not an option.... acting young is.

Thanks!

I'll head to Costco this weekend to test some of the prints at different sizes and see what comes out.

Yeah, talk to the client. But If I were you I wouldn't sell my artwork. I'll shoot for him but I will not sell my art. It's a remembrance
--

http://hpmultifunctionprintersinfo.blogspot.com/ ']Multifunction Printers Increase in Popularity[ url]

Aleena Hopkins said:

Yeah, talk to the client. But If I were you I wouldn't sell my artwork. I'll shoot for him but I will not sell my art. It's a remembrance

Click to expand...

What? Someone wants to make some money with photography and you say he shouldn't sell it?

--
Charlie Self



http://www.charlieselfonline.com

FYI I am retired person and belong to an Art Guild down here in East TN. We are allowed to exhibit up to three pieces of art, not to exceed 72" (W x H) each for up to three months at a time. I don't have clients for this type of sale so I charge 2 to 2/12 times the total cost plus $10/hr for my time. I have also sold to clients I always ask if the have a preferance as to matte color and frame type. Same costs would apply. BTW I have a 510 and HP b9180. I have sold up to 18" x "24 framed and matted(12x18) photo.
Good Luck, TomW(ret)
--
...a bad picture is like a missed putt, it's never your fault.

I would say you should have no problem printing up to 13x19 and I would charge $35-$45 printed on high end art paper.

I have a Canon 9000 MKII and it costs me about $3-$4 per print plus my time. If I sell it for $40 it helps pay for the $15,000 worth of gear I purchased last year.
Boy I got a lot of prints to sell.
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Rich
http://www.richbaum.smugmug.com

Well I am working with the client to get exactly what she wants and so far so good. Thanks to all for your advice.

However, this has definitely been an eye opening experience. I'm going to end up losing money on this project as it is costing way more to print/mat than I had expected. Oh well at least now I know. This is my first time.

I was planning on printing through an online store, like Mpix or something like that. Only issue is they do not mat the picture so I have to go someplace else for that. Does anyone know of an online store that does large prints and mats? Kind of wanted it to be done all at one time...

Any experience with Ritz printing. Personally, I am not a big fan of them, but maybe they are good at printing.

Yes I agree, when it comes to custom matteing and custom framing I find it's better to leave that up to the customer. Even if I print myself, find a great price for a matte and get an Arron Brothers stock frame it will run $40 plus it takes a lot of time to print and frame.

I find it best to just print the photos and let them frame it or send it to a custom framer.
To frame something right can cost well over $100 just for the frame and matte.

Good luck.
--
Rich
http://www.richbaum.smugmug.com

Mounting, framing and matting should be up to the customer, not you. If you approach it this way you'll either never make any money, or have to charge so much for a 'wall ready' print you'll scare people away with sticker shock.

Let the customer decide how much to spend finishing the print, which can range from $100 to $1,000 with fancy wood frames.

Mpix is a fine source for enlargements. They use a LightJet or similiar RA-4 based digital printer, and it's extremely forgiving technology for enlargements. Most of the posts above assume a large format ink-jet type printers and I need to stress again that most commercial labs don't use ink-jets .

IMHO, no bigger than 18x24, although it really depends on the subject matter.

I am not framing anything. I simply planned to offer the print and mat as one item for sale. And even that was more than what I thought it would be.

I will give Mpix a call and see what they can do.

One more question - I noticed that when I printed 8x10, parts of my pics were cutoff. I guess they print at 100% crop and don't shrink to fit. Is this something that I have to worry about when printing larger sizes as well? I would not think so, but figured I would ask anyways.

aclimatize said:

One more question - I noticed that when I printed 8x10, parts of my pics were cutoff. I guess they print at 100% crop and don't shrink to fit.

Click to expand...

No, 10"x8" is a different proportion rectangle, width:height, than your full camera image. If sending a print to your own printer or to an external service, image shape will always be an issue.

10x8 is a 4:5 ratio, 16x12 is a 4:3 ratio, your camera takes 3:2 natively, some take 4:3 or 16:9. These are incompatible aspect ratios: you cannot make one fit another by blowing it up and down.

If the printing involves leaving an even white border all round, then this alters the effective aspect ratio further.

So something has to give: either leaving different sized white borders horizontally and vertically, or else cropping off bits of image. If the image is going to be matted (window mounted card) then the window should be cut to suit the printed image itself , which will often necessarily be smaller in one direction than a whole sheet of standard printing paper, because of the incompatible shapes.

Your image , and its needs (either the original shape the camera took, or whatever other shape you decide it should be creatively cropped to for best effect) should IMO determine what gets printed onto paper; your image should not IMO be hacked down just to fit onto some paper manufacturer's off-the-shelf product.

In practice this means either matting, or positioning the image within generous white space at a standard size (to fit a standard frame), or else trimming borders off the finished print to suit.

RP

aclimatize said:

I am not framing anything. I simply planned to offer the print and mat as one item for sale. And even that was more than what I thought it would be.

I will give Mpix a call and see what they can do.

One more question - I noticed that when I printed 8x10, parts of my pics were cutoff. I guess they print at 100% crop and don't shrink to fit. Is this something that I have to worry about when printing larger sizes as well? I would not think so, but figured I would ask anyways.

Click to expand...

I would forget about ratios and size your prints specifically for stock mat sizes - 8x10, 11x14, 13x19, 16x20, (8x12 may be available also), as custom mats add another layer of expense. These sizes are NOT the mat opening, though - which is usually 1/2" smaller in each dimension. The crucial thing is that you must crop the photo yourself to keep control of what's cut from your image. Since all the above sizes have different aspect ratios, they will vary in the amount of the original file shown if the image is cropped to just fills the mat opening, with the 13x19 losing the least of the usual 3:2 ratio DSLR image.

So use your crop tool sized to mat cutout size plus, say, an extra 0.2" wiggle room - eg 12.7x18.7" for a 13x19 mat - to mimimize photo coverage under the edges, and crop the photo yourself while specifying a resolution of 300 ppi in the crop dialog.

Be sure to preserve the full resolution original edited file and use "save as" to save and rename your various sizes separately for re-printing - eg "xyz-13x19.tif".
Pete

Just in case someone reads this...

Thanks for all the advice, it really helped. I sold the pictures to the client and wanted to give you all a little feedback. She was very happy with the results, which was nice.

Personally, the price you charge is up to you, but one thing I didn't realize is how expensive it is to print. She requested 16x20's, which roughly is almost $20 to print. She was a good friend so I quoted her $30, but in hindsight I would have charged more. When you consider all the costs associated from taking the picture to handing to the client, there is a lot of work. Somewhere in the range of $50+ I think is more appropriate. And I think that is still pretty cheap.

It was suggested that I matt the pics for the client. I did not. I agree it is the more professional thing to do, but again it adds more cost. Plus, my feeling is that people can handle this when they get the pics framed. We talked about it and that was the clients feeling as well. Not sure if others offer this, but you have 25 characters of free text that can be added for free to the back of the print. I put my name in there...seems like a nice little extra.

I have a 10MP camera and printed a personal pic at 20-x20. It came out super clear, so my feeling is that I can go bigger. Probably not a lot bigger, but at least now I have an idea when customers ask me how big the pictures can be printed.

I used Mpix for the printing. I was pretty happy with them. They package the pictures really well. It took me almost 5 minutes to actually open the package to see the results. And made for a very easy way to hand to the customer since they don't print anything on the boxes...

Hope this helps someone else like the way you all have helped me!!!

-A