Tonight I seem to be a little out of sorts. Class didn’t go very well. I seemed to be struggling with some moves but they are great moves that the teacher is teaching us so it’s all good and worth persisting.
I don’t know if it’s just tiredness, not having worked out for two weeks, valentines day, stressing about money and replacing the car or a combination of all of the above. Fingers crossed a good night’s sleep will help as well as a workout in the morning.
Now for the question. I’m thinking of selling some prints of my photography through the blog but struggling to determine a price. Any tips from artists or art/photography consumers would be greatly appreciated!
You could ask yourself these questions and go from there.
How hard was it to set up the shot?
Would the same shot be possible again?
Did you have to pay for the model or site of shot.
Will the print be signed?
Will the print be in numbered release, or single print?
How well known am I?
Where will I sell my print? (If you sell at a store or gallery, they will surly want a share of the sale.)
You could also ponder the if you prefer to be exclusive, like Neiman Marcus and sell high priced items to a few, or like Walmart, and sell a whole lot of low priced items to many.
I have found that $250- is a good starter price for a work. If the cost of a high quality print bites into that a lot (It may be around $75…no?)then add that on and tell the customer that it’s the lab fee and offer to give them the lab receipt as evidence.
Brenton….just wishing you well. I find for myself that when there are a lot of “little things” (though…replacing a car is not little”) it is the sum that “wears me down.” I guess it is because, even though each is relatively minor and should be able to be dealt with it is the number of distractions and their impact upon the ability to focus that gets to me. You have a lot of good things going on and a lot of good friends: you’ll be right.
Good luck with the photos…if you ever manage to “piggy back” off Pedro Virgil and get shots of NRL players…I’m a buyer!!
The best piece of advice I ever got about pricing artwork: Price it for what it would take for you to part with it. Forget the “market.” Your work is a little piece of you. What are you willing to take to have it leave your possession? Granted, it’s a little different for photos that can be printed ad infinitum, but theoretically you’ve limited your number for those to sell. I think the advice still applies, just somewhat modified. Now balance that against how eager you are to make a sale/ make a name for yourself/ etc. Good luck.
Considering your current needs, it may get down to a question of time. If you create a great piece of artwork and ask a fair price for it, you may have to wait awhile for the right buyer to come along. That can take weeks or even months to happen depending on a number of variables.
The other option is to create art for the masses. A good example is a company called Fat Head. They specialize in life size photographic images of well known people and a few other things. This is artwork. But, it is created to appeal to a large group of people and it sells relatively quickly. I think they are sold for about a hundred dollars apiece with a smaller profit margin. But, they sell many of them. The Fat Head people practically created a market for their product.
So, you have to decide what is more important to you, individuality or marketability. Of course…, come to think about it…., some of your work might be pretty darned appealing if it were printed life size. Good Luck be with you.