Need help with pricing

Ivan the terrible

Hi there.

I am new to selling my photos (online and offline) and I am not quite sure on how to go about setting my prices. Right now I started with a 100% markup on top of the cost for Bay Photo prints in the smug mug pricing tool (and then made adjustments to round out prices and get a consistent price waterfall), but I have no clue whether I am underselling my work or whether I am asking for too much.

Also, I could use some guidance around pricing for downloads, and whether or not I should be selling for personal use (a friend told me not to do that because I would lose control over how my photos are displayed...).

I'd appreciate advise from people with experience at selling on smugmug. If you want to take a look at my pics, go to www.ivanmeljac.com and select the Iceland gallery (the only one enabled for sale right now).

Thanks!

Ivan

denisegoldberg

Ivan the terrible wrote: »

...select the Iceland gallery (the only one enabled for sale right now).

Are you aware that your photos are essentially available for free in that gallery since you have enabled Originals for viewing?

See ORIGINALS = a gateway to free photos, & right click protection is NOT PROTECTION.

--- Denise

Ivan the terrible

Need help with Pricing
I didn't know. Thanks Denise. I fixed it by allowing X2Large viewing only.

Ivan

Art Scott

Need to watermarked them .....it does not stop theft but it is an identifier if the exif gets stripped by the thief or if you do not save with exif attached.
What software are you processing in?? If Photoshop you can add all kids of data to your metadata, copyright statement (mine= ©2011 Arthur Scott, all rights reserved. ) Here is a link to the US copyright Office explaining this statement.

denisegoldberg

For your pricing question, you might want to look at the links in the Pricing section of the Photographer's Resources: Law, Marketing, Supplies, etc. sticky at the head of this forum.

--- Denise

Glort

Think of a price you'd be really happy to ge but don't think you would. Think of the price that would be the lowest you think it would be worth your while getting and you would not be happy with.
Average teh 2 numbers and there's your answer.

To me 100% markup is WAY to low.
I do well over 1000% on some of my prints and they are the best sellers.

Ivan the terrible

Thanks all for your feedback. Regarding pricing, this is apparently a difficult and apparently there's no easy answer. Just to get some ideas of what's out there I went to Art Wolfe's web site and checked out his pricing. For example, he sells his 16x20 prints for $450. That gives me an idea of what a famous, talented, and widely published photographer sells for.I'll try to work from that.
Thanks all for the feedback and the advices.
Ivan.

Andee

Often times on pricing the recommendation is to check out the prices of what the average folks around your area are charging. Or ones with similar talents. Sorry no price the same across the board. Much like fuel or food prices they very depending on where you live and what sort of place sells them. As well as the economy. You also need to figure if you want higher end clients or ones on a really tight budget. Some customers are looking for folks they can talk into lowering their prices so you want to get ones you can live with and stick to those. Not to say that down the road you can't run a special but you want to get the pricing set early so you do not get wishy washy on this and your current clients and future clients know what to expect and when they recommend you that your prices are the same as when they had you do their images. (Unless some major time has passed of course there is a spike in your print cost etc) Then figure in your expense and your skill level as well. Remember your time for post production and other expenses as your time is valuable so figure in all the small stuff so you are not working for fifty cent an hour by the end of the day. One thing you do not want to do is undersell your self to start with. Raising you prices soon after starting is not a good thing in my opinion. You want to get a fair prices and ones you can get customers with as well as live of of your profits. Try not to price in such a way that you will run yourself out of business real soon. I am not an expert on this but have heard a lot of good ideas. Take this with a grain of salt use what you want and disguard the rest. I love photography and I wish you all the best!

bbeck4x4

Pricing help
here is a website that will help with the ever present how much do I charge with some great included spreadsheets, he only has produced the first two videos, but more are on their way.

http://www.businessforphotography.com/plan/