What is your cropping strategy?

jmphotocraft

When I shoot youth sports, generally I crop at 3:2 so that the photo presents itself well enough, and I try to leave enough room for people to order a 5:7 or 4:5 print without cutting off body parts. If people don't crop their own order (and 95% of my customers don't), I do it for them before approving the order for production.

Often enough, 3:2 is not the ideal crop, and people on forums will criticize that, but they are not thinking about selling different print sizes. Sometimes a 3:2 crop is ideal, and sometimes I can't resist cropping it tightly, which prevents ordering a 4:5. Then I just hope people order an 8x12", etc.

I've never tried cropping a whole gallery for a bigger print size like 8x10", preventing people from ordering 4x6"s. I'm afraid that would annoy people and prevent sales. The majority of my sports sales are 4x6".

What's your experience?

For example:

kdlanejr

I don't offer 4x6 prints, so I try to make sure that I crop sports photos to 5x7 across the board during processing. This is because I'm not trying to compete with mamarazzis. I much prefer to have reduced photo sales of higher priced 5x7's than to have a pricing structure for 4x6's that make money for the lab and smugmug, but amount pretty much to giving the image away for the photographer.

Lightroom does a very nice job with cropping a whole gallery.

For event photography that I want to sell 8x10's from, I unilaterally crop to 8x10. The key here is proper framing in camera. Same for bulk cropping to 5x7. If you don't get it framed properly in the camera you may end up with an unsuitable crop.

Just selling a print isn't enough. Selling a print at a price point that sustains my business is necessary.

jmphotocraft wrote: »

When I shoot youth sports, generally I crop at 3:2 so that the photo presents itself well enough, and I try to leave enough room for people to order a 5:7 or 4:5 print without cutting off body parts. If people don't crop their own order (and 95% of my customers don't), I do it for them before approving the order for production.

Often enough, 3:2 is not the ideal crop, and people on forums will criticize that, but they are not thinking about selling different print sizes. Sometimes a 3:2 crop is ideal, and sometimes I can't resist cropping it tightly, which prevents ordering a 4:5. Then I just hope people order an 8x12", etc.

I've never tried cropping a whole gallery for a bigger print size like 8x10", preventing people from ordering 4x6"s. I'm afraid that would annoy people and prevent sales. The majority of my sports sales are 4x6".

What's your experience?

For example:

jmphotocraft

kdlanejr wrote: »

I don't offer 4x6 prints, so I try to make sure that I crop sports photos to 5x7 across the board during processing. This is because I'm not trying to compete with mamarazzis. I much prefer to have reduced photo sales of higher priced 5x7's than to have a pricing structure for 4x6's that make money for the lab and smugmug, but amount pretty much to giving the image away for the photographer.

I hear you and I'm tempted to try that business model. However in 3 years of this I have sold so many 4x6"s, I have to wonder if enough of those sales would be converted to 5x7" or larger, or if too many parents would simply enjoy/use the photos online (watermark and all) and then not buy. I average about $20 per order. People have actually thanked me for offering affordable 4x6s ($2.95). They buy lots of them, including images that would not be worth printing any bigger - ancillary images that help tell the story, but that by themselves aren't enlargement-worthy.

For event photography that I want to sell 8x10's from, I unilaterally crop to 8x10.

Does that result in enough 8x10 sales?

kdlanejr

jmphotocraft wrote: »

I hear you and I'm tempted to try that business model. However in 3 years of this I have sold so many 4x6"s, I have to wonder if enough of those sales would be converted to 5x7" or larger, or if too many parents would simply enjoy/use the photos online (watermark and all) and then not buy. I average about $20 per order. People have actually thanked me for offering affordable 4x6s ($2.95). They buy lots of them, including images that would not be worth printing any bigger - ancillary images that help tell the story, but that by themselves aren't enlargement-worthy.

I usually don't see immediate sales from games at the beginning of the season. Parents, relatives, and friends seem to want to look through all the galleries later in the season to see if there is anything better.

Orders range from one print to multiple prints. Most orders are for ~$35.00, with a number of orders breaking the $150 dollar mark and one breaking the $200 mark. I can't say I'm doing it right or my phone would be ringing off the hook constantly.

This season I'm going to be printing the seniors posters. As a result, I'm concentrating on shooting everyone on the field while trying to get good action shots at the same time.

jmphotocraft wrote: »

Does that result in enough 8x10 sales?

Not really, but I should caveat that with the reason why. Most of the events I sell photos from are events that I provide printing on location. This usually results in good sales of 5x7's. I don't offer 4x6's at events either. I could change that if I end up with an insistent client, but most are quite happy to have a larger photo delivered within minutes of shooting at my current price point.

The photo you posted in this thread and the photos you posted in the other thread discussing this look quite good. I'd recommend a minimum price per 4x6 of $8, with a discount for multiple image purchases. Something like 1 for 8, 2 for ~$15, 3 for ~$21, 4 for ~$26, or something similar. In addition, you can always give discount coupons to repeat customers. My minimum price recommedation is well over your current price and you may not be able to get there quickly, but I think it is something you should think about.

Remember, you're not selling the printed paper. You're selling your time and talent plus recouping investment in equipment, training, insurance, computer purchase/upgrades, software, etc. The list goes on.

jmphotocraft

Thanks. $8 for a 4x6" is tempting, but like you say I don't think I'll be able to jump to that in one leap. However this year I was not able to shoot little league because I had to coach two teams. The pro they hired to replace me is a full time guy with employees and all, and he charged $7 for a 4x6". Well the league wasn't that impressed with him and I've heard they want me back. So my customers have been primed to accept a higher price. If I do it, I will certainly raise my 4x6" price. I was thinking $4.95? $5.95? I agree my photos are spectacular and easily worth $8 but I don't think I could jump from $2.95 to $7.95. Also I think the town would appreciate some relief from the $7 level.

kdlanejr

The parents would probably be more forgiving of $4.95 than $5.95, but it's really up to you. If you're not collecting and remitting sales tax for your state, you need to take a look at that. Perhaps $4.95 plus tax.

Not knowing exactly why the league wasn't impressed with him, I really can't speak to what you should be doing (vs. the pro they weren't impressed with)

Sometimes having employees shooting for you helps you spread your self around for more market share, but it also can spread you too thin. Finding employees that all shoot high quality sports images is not an easy thing to do. There are a lot of button pushers out there that fancy themselves sports photographers.

I'd also recommend you ask the league for the T&I contract. That is one thing that can grow for you as your work gets better known. It's also better than shooting on spec.

mercphoto

I'll echo raising the single print price for a 4x6 and throwing in a volume discount. If they only want 1 or 2 prints they pay higher, but if they order many, like 5 or 10, they get a nice discount. And if 4x6 is your big seller then I'd keep cropping 3:2 so that those 4x6's fulfill with little to no extra effort on your part, and only need your extra attention when ordering those 4:5 ratio prints.

Or, perhaps a better solution, only offer 3:2 ratio prints. (I'd still consider a 5x7 a 3:2 print, its close enough). So, sell 8x12s but not 8x10. Sell 12x18. etc.

My idea with event photography (which admittedly was two years ago last I was able to do any) is to keep my work load as low as possible. There just isn't enough money in the game to put too much work in the sales and fulfillment part of it. And speaking of, I'll also echo the remark to frame the picture as best as possible when you click that shutter so that cropping is quick and easy (i.e. a default crop down the middle would work most the time).

jmphotocraft

Thanks Bill.

mercphoto wrote: »

Or, perhaps a better solution, only offer 3:2 ratio prints. (I'd still consider a 5x7 a 3:2 print, its close enough). So, sell 8x12s but not 8x10. Sell 12x18. etc.

Only problem with that is that 8x12" frames are impossible to find locally in any color but black.

mercphoto

That's true, Jack, and a delima. I never really had too much a problem, as the car racing crowd either bought CD's or they bought metal prints. I'm not sure I sold more than 3 paper prints all of 2010!