Numbering your work...

j photog

I have a piece I'm putting into an exhibit and I was wondering about numbering it. I hear this is good practice...to limit the printing of your work. Is this something you suggest? If so I have some questions about that:

How should the pricing work?
Does the first in the series cost more?
How do you know how many to stop at?
And do they all need to be the same size print every time?

gluwater

Don't know much about it but I thought this article was interesting.

Fine Art Limited Editions Print Disclosure Laws

j photog

gluwater wrote:

Don't know much about it but I thought this article was interesting.

Fine Art Limited Editions Print Disclosure Laws

hummm. nice but still not really what i was looking for. thanks for helping though.

Angelo

What method of printing are you planning on using?

Historically, the point of numbering prints was:

The artist created an original piece of art, I'll use a painting on canvas as an example, and wants to market it in a "mass" way.

The artist would essentially license the painting to a lithographer who would create a printing plate by either the traditional burn method, or the more expensive etching method.

The artist and lithographer would agree on the (arbitrary) number of prints in the series and the commission, per print, for the artist. The prints would be run on high quality presses and afterward the plates would be broken and discarded guaranteeing that the numbered series remained "limited".

Each print would be signed and numbered by the artist and presented for sale, usually by the lithographer.

Angelo

j photog wrote:

I have a piece I'm putting into an exhibit and I was wondering about numbering it. I hear this is good practice...to limit the printing of your work. Is this something you suggest? If so I have some questions about that:

How should the pricing work?
totally arbitrary
Does the first in the series cost more?
a marketing scheme. in "olden days" it was argued that the first print was of better quality than the last print so it should be priced higher. not really an issue today unless perhaps a single plate is being used to run thousands of copies
How do you know how many to stop at?
again, totally arbitrary. I own lithos numbered to 200 as well as 2500
And do they all need to be the same size print every time?
typically, yes.

.

j photog

hummm
Angelo:

I'm not quite that fancy yet. Im getting the pictured printed at a photo shop and then getting it framed. I thought I would sign it and put 1/20 and stop at 20. I'm really nieve at this.

Angelo

j photog wrote:

Angelo:

I'm not quite that fancy yet. Im getting the pictured printed at a photo shop and then getting it framed. I thought I would sign it and put 1/20 and stop at 20. I'm really nieve at this.

well my point is, unless there's a guarantee that there will never be any more than 20 prints made, EVER, than your pricing can suffer.

I might buy a print of someone's photography (and I have) becasue I like it but I would not be swayed to pay a higher collector's price by the promise of a "limited edition" if traditional lithography is not used. What guarantee would your patrons have that you won't decide to print 200 pieces next year? Get my point?

Sam

j photog wrote:

I have a piece I'm putting into an exhibit and I was wondering about numbering it. I hear this is good practice...to limit the printing of your work. Is this something you suggest? If so I have some questions about that:

How should the pricing work?
Does the first in the series cost more?
How do you know how many to stop at?
And do they all need to be the same size print every time?

I recommend you don't even think about limited editions. Today, artists with a name and following use limited editions for art considered investment art.
And yes they normally price each piece higher than open editions. Also, do you have a way to now and forever track the sale of each, and every print so you know when you have hit the maximum number? It would be real embarrassing to find out you have three 15/20 prints in circulation.

If you become famous and people are buying your prints faster than you can print them you may wish to reconsider this issue.

Sam

colourbox

If your market is collectors, then you have to play by collectors' rules, and might want to think about limited numbered editions. If not, then you probably shouldn't bother, it's kind of a chore, and the reasons for limiting editions are largely bogus and driven by a specific market that tries to apply rules that have more to do with creating artificial scarcity, rules made way back when the more prints you made, the worse the prints were because the printing plate wears out - not really applicable to photography, particularly digital photography. You should read this article that sums it all up pretty well (What Size is the Edition?, PDF) by Brooks Jensen, the editor of LensWork magazine.

You might consider open editions or the graduated pricing others have mentioned. I like the idea of graduated pricing that rises, it makes more sense in photography. Your later prints get better as you gain experience in processing and printing. Limited editions have it backwards, assigning higher value to earlier prints and possibly cutting off the edition before years of experience gives you the ability to create a much better print of that image.

Angelo

colourbox wrote:

(What Size is the Edition?, PDF)

Great find