Determining Print Prices?

lilmomma

I am getting ready to upgrade to Pro and I have some jobs lined up where they will be ordering prints online. I will want to set my own prices but was wondering how others go about pricing their prints? I don't know where to begin really, I don't want to just pick a number for the hell of it.

What are some of your prices for standard sizes and how did you determine them?

4x6, 5x7, 8x10 etc?

run_kmc

I think you're going to get several different answers on this, (and they will all be correct, really) and you're probably going to have to tweak and tweak as you go along, but I start with a dollar amount I'd like to make, and I have a guesstimate as to how many/which prints I'm going to sell. I then price accordingly.

You're going to have to pull prices out of the air at first, but you'll develop a feel for it. The best advice I can give for your initial prices is once you've set them, go back and raise them all a dollar or two, because you priced them too low.

Sam

Obviously you know everyone has to set their own prices. That said look at prices set by other photographers for the same type of photography you are offering to get an idea of the high and low price points.

You do have to consider your geographical location as well.

One point I would encourage you to think about is that the value is the image, not the print size.

While post processing for a 40X60 would be substantially more detailed than a 4X6 you still have all the basic post processing steps to do for the small print.

If you try to sell 4X6 for say $2.00 I think you will find your putting in more time than it's worth, and if you then try and raise your prices to say $10.00 your current clients will resent, and resist the increase. Try to determine what you think is a price that is acceptable within your current market, and that will provide a real profit for you.

Just some random thoughts.

Sam

angevin1

lilmomma wrote:

I am getting ready to upgrade to Pro and I have some jobs lined up where they will be ordering prints online. I will want to set my own prices but was wondering how others go about pricing their prints? I don't know where to begin really, I don't want to just pick a number for the hell of it.

What are some of your prices for standard sizes and how did you determine them?

4x6, 5x7, 8x10 etc?

As advised by run_kmc, yer gonna get a bunch of differing opinions.

I price my "art" differently than my portraits, straight off. I wasn't paid to create my art, so it stands to reason, I need to get paid when I sell it.

For my portraits, I prefer to get paid up front for the work I do, and then have no real concern as to whether they purchase one or forty-one photos.

Wiren

simple pricing
The site gives you the option to set at x% on top of cost or to a certain dollar amount over cost for your whole portfolio.

One thing I used that I was given advice about is to take the cost of the print, say..... $1 my cost x 5, so a total of $5 for that one print, if it costs you $10, price is $50 and so on. I used this and then brought the price down to the nearest $10 mark if it ended in an odd figure to keep the prices looking easy and nice.

but many different answers ranging from simple like mine to the "what do you feel your art is worth....?

Good luck.

Lee

bendruckerphoto

You can take a look at my price list and see if it gives you any ideas. I already have packages set up and print credits included. As I've said, only SmugMug knows whether I will be selling my fall prints through SmugMug or ExposureManager. If packages and coupons are released within the next month or so, it will be SmugMug.

lilmomma

thank you all for the replies! I posted yesterday morning and had meetings all day today and yesterday, didn't have a chance to come back to this...

your advice is always appreciated, and I think I'll look around at what others do and go from there.