What determines the price of your photos? Hello everyone, I am curious of how to price my photos. I've taken into account of the cost of Photo media and ink, but how do I put a price...

T.H.

Hello everyone, I am curious of how to price my photos. I've taken into account of the cost of Photo media and ink, but how do I put a price tag on what the photo is worth? Do I go by how long it took me to get the photo, or what extent I went to for the shot? A few years ago I sold two photos for $800.00 Matted and framed. But that was an offer from the customer. I did not set the price. So if you sell your work, Please help me out with any suggestions on how to do this. Thank You.

Chefneil

Me too

Szalajj Loc: Salem, NH

When I tried to sell my jewelry, my formula was cost × 4 +10%.

When I took some of my photographs in on consignment I quickly guestimated my costs, and added in a little bit for profit, to let the shop know what I needed to get for them. They thought that they were reasonably priced.

This was my first attempt at consignment, and unfortunately none of the 6 matted shots sold, even after being displayed for 18 months. I have to go back and retrieve them the next time that I'm free on a Saturday morning! They don't open early enough for me to hit them before my regularly scheduled commitment.

I need to try to get them framed, strung to hang, and into a higher priced market area, such as the Newburyport area!

freddusel Loc: Nashville

I sell my carbon transfer prints for $600.00 & $800.00. The smaller are transferred to 12 x 16 paper and are presented on 16 x 20 museum rag board. The larger are transferred to 16 x 20 paper and are mounted on 20 x 24 boards.

Photographer Jim Loc: Rio Vista, CA

I usually price at 4 x cost. Depending on an images popularity I may adjust the price either up or down. I offer a discount on small matted prints (8x10 mat size and 11x14 mat size) for multiple purchases of three or more, putting the price at 3 x cost.

T.H.

I want to say, Thank you to everyone for your help and advice. I really appreciate it.

T.H.

cthahn

You can set the price anywhere you want. Look at what other photographers are doing, start high, you can always come down, but difficult to go up. If they don't sell, you have to figure out why. No one can tell you what to charge for a photograph.

tracs101 Loc: Huntington NY

Consider the income level of the area or neighborhood where the photographs will be sold, especially if they are displayed in a gallery. Supermarket bottled water sold by the case of 24 bottles is $7.00 for the entire case, but if sold at a Baseball game it is $5.50 a bottle.

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

tracs101 wrote:

Consider the income level of the area or neighborhood where the photographs will be sold, especially if they are displayed in a gallery. Supermarket bottled water sold by the case of 24 bottles is $7.00 for the entire case, but if sold at a Baseball game it is $5.50 a bottle.

dalematt Loc: Goderich, Ontario, Canada

A few years ago, I looked into this. Most of my findings, if a formula/price was given, was $1 per square inch. So, an 8 x 10 (80 square inches) would be $80. Knowing my community, I knew that this was way too high. Instead, I set the prices to be in the range of half that formula. In 2 years, I have made enough to now purchase 1/2 a new camera.

I am now considering setting a price (probably $40) for a download so that the purchaser can choose whatever size s/he wants. I have only done that once and the guy was very happy with that. I know that he got a large canvas print made, but he had a local price deal where he lived that I could not match without a loss.

hrblaine

When I was shooting dance at Ohio State in the '70s, I sold 8x10s to the student dancers for a buck, which is what they cost me to have them printed at a local camera store. When a small professional company came in from NYC to give a concert, I shot them too. They couldn't believe that I only charged them $1.00; they said that they paid $50.00 in NYC for pictures of that quality. Believe me, I sold them a LOT of pictures! They even set up an extra rehearsal so I could shoot more. I didn't make any money but they sure made my day! Also week, month and year! And apparently "life" as I still think about it as this proves. <g>

fetzler Loc: North West PA

Certainly the cost of the materials and time. The rest is Chutzpah.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

dalematt wrote:

A few years ago, I looked into this. Most of my f... (show quote)

Half a new camera...that could be $50 to $50,000. Quite a range in that metric...LOL.

Best,
Todd Ferguson

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

T.H. wrote:

Hello everyone, I am curious of how to price my photos. I've taken into account of the cost of Photo media and ink, but how do I put a price tag on what the photo is worth? Do I go by how long it took me to get the photo, or what extent I went to for the shot? A few years ago I sold two photos for $800.00 Matted and framed. But that was an offer from the customer. I did not set the price. So if you sell your work, Please help me out with any suggestions on how to do this. Thank You.

I value my time at $100/hour, so however many hours it takes me to do something multiplied by $100 is how much I charge. With that said, though, I have been making a significant amount of money from my photography for 10 years now, so I know pretty much how long it is going to take me to do something. Thus I can provide quotes. If it takes a little less, no problem. If it takes longer, no problem. It all evens out in the long run.

OddJobber Loc: Portland, OR

Szalajj wrote:

They don't open early enough for me to hit them before my regularly scheduled commitment.

How regularly are you committed? Do they let you out at night or only on weekends?