Priced artsy digital downloads? Good idea??

peestandingup

So, im a blooming semi-pro photographer & am just about to put my new DSLR to work. I dont really do event stuff & I usually concentrate on contemporary art images, so im getting some stuff together for local art exibits. I definitely wanna offer everything I have & show at these exibits on my website for print purchases.

Now the big question is, should I also offer those shots as a paid digital download for people using Paypal buttons like some fellow smugmuggers are already doing? Or, do you all think this will "cheapen" things a bit & make things look a little low class?? Because people who buy this sorta stuff want to feel like its a one of a kind, know what I mean? But in that logic, I shouldnt offer prints of these images online either, but that defeats the purpose of showing them on Smugmug. Also, if I offer downloads, the full-sized image will be out in the wild & this opens up a whole new can of worms for copying & such.

Im torn between this because one of the things I really dug from the beginning was the ability for people to download the originals from my site. So, I wanna make things easy for people & give them choices, but I dont want people to abuse that either with my art. I wish there were such a thing a DRM (Digital Rights Management) for photos.

What do you all think I should do?

Shay Stephens

I think you are over-thinking this. Choose one direction to go in. If you want to limit the prints (or whatever) to make the availability low and the prices high, then do that. If you want to sell many copies to many people, then do that. But I don't think you can really do both.

And unless you are amazingly good right out of the gate, you should probably work on just getting yourself noticed and visible and improving your art at this stage.

peestandingup

Shay Stephens wrote:

I think you are over-thinking this. Choose one direction to go in. If you want to limit the prints (or whatever) to make the availability low and the prices high, then do that. If you want to sell many copies to many people, then do that. But I don't think you can really do both.

And unless you are amazingly good right out of the gate, you should probably work on just getting yourself noticed and visible and improving your art at this stage.

Yeah, im thinking its probably not the direction I wanna go in. Its like you said, you can't do both. I think if I did try to do both, neither would be successful. I dont see someone paying a high price for a framed print at an exhibit when they could just see that my site has the downloads for super cheap.

Plus, once someone has that original file size, I have lost control over it. So, someone might try to print it out on a crappy printer & the quality would be terrible, so that would probably have a negative effect on my work. But, I do think there is definitely a place for paid digital downloads, like event photography would be perfect for this. Weddings, ball games, etc. Plus, im just really into going to actual art showings & physically touching & seeing the exhibits. I dont think that will ever die for people.