Asked for Prints - what should I charge?

SileNceR

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Hey all,

I know similar questions have been asked before but i've just been asked by a local business to supply 20-30 prints approx A4 size for display on the walls of his office (he wants local area/historical buildings etc, some of which I have already captured)

My question is thus:

How much should I charge for existing work (on top of printing costs, which I would have done professionally by a local lab)

How much should I charge for "commissioned" peices whereby I am asked to photograph structure "A" and therefore have to go out of my way to do so?

If anyone else has done this and is keen to give some advice please do so as I have no idea where to begin. The prospective client has stated he will structure how many he gets around my pricing, for example he will get a whole batch if cheap and if not will pay for smaller batches - but I don't really know what his idea of "Cheap" and "Expensive" really is.

I guess a lot of artwork that is of local things tends to sell in this size or above for quite high prices (from what i've seen, AU$100+), should I perhaps aim at say cost of printing +$20AUD per image (depending on the scale difference obviously) or am I way off the mark?

Any suggestions would be great.


Regards,

Clinton
 
REPRINTS: Do the maths on cost as exactly as you can, and add a mark up of 100%. You should always know as closely as you can your costs.

Commissions should be negotiated Before accepting the assignment.
 
It is different for each photographer, depends on the equipment you use and everything, I do allot of track work so i have to drive the 1 hour out of town to the track, spend the whole day there and so on, the most resent print i did was an A1 poster done on high quality photopaper, I charged 3x what i paid for the print so i made 200% on it, if that gives you an idea.....
 
I make about 100-150% profit. To put it into perspective, if it costs me five dollars to print, I charge 10 dollars. After a certain price point though, you have to scale back the profit margin.
 
i've just been asked by a local business to supply 20-30 prints approx A4 size for display on the walls of his office (he wants local area/historical buildings etc, some of which I have already captured)

Are you going to matte and frame them? How are they going to be hung or presented?
 
Well, for starters, I would be careful about using a black matboard. It's usually not archival, which means it might fade (very quickly) and it might bleed onto your prints (never a good thing.) If you can, stick to the white or use something like museum board. You might want to avoid glass if you ever plan on shipping the work (use a high grade Plexiglas instead.)

I don't know your market well enough to be able to give you a price point (it looks like you are in Australia, yes? I've not done shows there) but I can tell you what I'd do. I would look around at some galleries, restaurants, anyplace that currently has some art or photography up and get a rough idea of what 8x10s are going for in your area. Use that as a starting point, but adjust for reputation (have you done shows before? Has the person you're pricing?) Also, adjust up or down, depending on things like quantity and how badly you want the show, costs of printing, etc.

For example, I have 4 shows running now. One of them is in Austin (where I live) and I know the market well, so I priced the prints lower, to increase sales. Another show is in New Orleans and, while the market is good there, I want to move into that region a bit more, so I kept my prices reasonable (don't want to price myself out of the market before I'm in it.) I'm currently negotiating with a gallery in LA and, since the market is better there, I'm going to raise the prices (a bit.) Same work, different markets, different prices.

Pricing stuff can be an art itself, but I'd start by looking at what's out there, what your competition is doing, and then adjusting based on a few factors (cost, how badly you want it, reputation, etc.)

Hope that helps.
 
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