Pricing Your Work…….For You!

This has been a topic for many years in the photography community and recently I've found myself in a photography community group on social media. This group is made up of all kinds of photographers that covers all types of genres. It seems like everyone is trying to tell everyone else how to price their work. Some of these people are well established photographers and others are beginners just trying to get some traction.

I'll never tell you how to price your own work. I will give you and your potential buyers some insight so that they can be better informed about how several different photographers may price their work.

A higher price doesn't mean better quality - This is so important to know.

In the landscape photography community of established photographers there are a few pro labs that we mostly all use to have our work printed. I'd like to explain a little about how this all works from the photographers POV....

To simplify this, I'll use optical grade acrylic prints for this example since they are the highest cost to photographers.

I've compared the top 2 labs that most photographers use who have their work printed to sell and here is what I found -

Printer 1 for 32x48 Acrylic Face-Mount Print - Priced between $650 - $1109 depending on options.

Standard Paper - Metallic Paper

1/8th in Acrylic Gloss

Acrylic backer

Float Frame

Wire Hanger or cleat hanger

Printer 2 for 32x48 Acrylic Face-Mount Print - Priced between $691 - $892 depending on options.

Metallic Paper

1/4th in Acrylic Gloss

Acrylic backer

Float Frame

Wire Hanger or cleat hanger

Both offer free shipping in the USA and have a lifetime warranty on their products.

Essentially, you're getting the same product/quality & craftsmanship from each printer.

Some photographers get discounts from the printers based on how many orders they place in the previous year. Some get discounts if they promote the printer on their social media accounts and some because they've built working relationships with the printers. Therefore, the cost a photographer pays may vary from one to the other. Joe may get better prices on his prints than Stan. This allows Joe to potentially charge less than Stan charges while still making the same profit on the sale. Buyer 1 may look at Joe's price and see it's priced $300 less than Stan's price. Stan ends up making the sale even though his price is more because the buyer see's a higher price and just assumes that the higher price means better quality. That's not always true.

I had a buyer contact me becaused he loved one of my prints. He was very honest in saying that he had bought several prints from another photographer but that photographer didn't have a print of this subject that he wanted. The buyer also asked if I would use the same lab as the other photographer so that the finished image would look similar to his previous purchases... I was happy to do so. I was able to charge him less than his other purchases and he was extremely happy with the whole experience.

Every photographer has their whole lives going on around them. Each one has a very different set of circumstances that will ultimately determine the prices they charge.

A gallery owner will need to charge a lot more for their work to cover all their costs involved in running a gallery, especially if this is their only source of income.

Some photographers have worked their whole lives and made good money and now are enjoying photography in their retirement years. They are happy to just make a few dollars off a print sale because they don't need the money.

Another photographer may do all their work online and this helps keep overhead down. They may also have a spouse/partner that works too and that is another factor in determining prices.

As a photographer, only you can determine the best prices for your art. Ultimately, you'll decide a price based on what you feel you need to earn on that image at that size on that medium. Some photographers want to sell more work at a lesser price point and others want to sell fewer pieces at higher price points. There is no magic number. You need to price your work for you and only you.

As a buyer, there will be many things to consider. First will be the image itself. That's the obvious factor. If 2 photographers have very similar images that you like but are priced quite a bit differently even at the same size, then you may want to contact the photographers and inquire a bit more. It may come down to one photographer just wants to make more money on their print than the other one.

As I write this, I'm looking at one website of a photographer who's selling 40" Acrylic prints for $5000 + Shipping (for the one I'm looking at, this is the lower end of their work) Their circumstances are much different than mine in that I don't need to charge that much for a print that size. They run a few physical galleries and their overhead is much more than mine.

Without going down a rabbit hole of all the various scenerios, just keep in mind that your work has value to the right people. You will price and value your work for you. Don't get caught up in the pricing game. Also, please don't tell people what they should price their work at unless they specifically ask.

This goes for all types of print sales & licensing. Some companies have their own prices when they want to license your work and others will ask what your licesning fees are. This is where you get to decide your prices and if their fees match your values.

Thanks for reading.

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know your thougths on this!

Darren