Im selling a photo to someone (come to think of it, they still have my 6x4 of it!) and quite frankly have no idea on what people percieve as reasonable pricing for a picture. Cost to me is about £45 for frame / mounting and £10 printing for on 12"x18" Im thinking around £80 but quite frankly I wouldnt pay £80 for a picture but some people are inclined other ways. Any advice on whats generally accepted as a profit margin?
If it's a commercial sale (as opposed to friends or family) I would say at least double your cost, or 110 GBP. 100% markup is pretty standard in retail.
Its an odd case, I wouldn't consider him a friend but my dad does work often for him so we know the guy quite well. Will probably go to £95 or something then, more than £100 is a bit of a mental barrier for some people. Cheers for the advice
A 12x8" print in the UK costs between 50p and £15. plus postage. A frame for this size can be between £10 and £100 or more. I suggest x2 to x3 the frame cost, and a £30 to £95 charge for the 8x12. As a commercial venture, your costs, time & creative talents all need to be reimbursed. And costs includes everything from you accountant, travel to framers, photoshop license etc. For your situation (18x12, entry level bespoke frame, and assuming amateur charging for first job, something like £195). But then you may sell it for £95, or even £365. With the right frame, and being an outlet like venture, you may charge £995 as a portrait. But then venture's formula account for 2 out of 3 sittings not buying, so the one that does has to pay for their session too. No right answer, but do come up with a formula and be consistent. If selling portraits don't charge 10 customers £95, and then put your prices up to £225, as the referrals from the first 10 will not be happy. Start with the price you mean to continue with. If you tell us a bit more about the situation it would be easier to guide you. BTW don't have 12x18 prices in my head, so went for 8x12. But similar formula would apply, putting the 18x12 at 50% to 100% more.
Theres not much more to the situation, I went to the framers yesterday and got quoted £55 for print (archival /w pigmented ink, I forgot exactly what paper they said, 310gsm) and frame. Travel costs were negligible, I spent more on the coffee I had down the road than getting there All it was is just some guy my dad knew is having a "arty room" in his new house and saw the picture laying by my printer and took to it. Theres nothing specifically pro going off, its not even that great a picture, theres bits of the photo that are distracting but thats just me being picky from a technicality point of view. He likes it as its just something he can relate to in an artistic composition. The main benefit from my perspective is the gallery (who are framing etc.) were quite interested in seeing some as its of a local place and I'm local (they sell local artists stuff there). Getting some feedback from somewhere that sells photographs / may want some to sell themselves is worth more than the profit from sale. The only other thing thats bugging me about it is my cameras resolution spread across such a wide space, is 10MP high enough to remain sharp at 12x18?
By the 'more to it' comment, I was referring to the amateur/commercial situation of how this came about, and you intentions etc. For the scenario you describe £95 seems very fair. As for the resolution bit, pros were asked on an edition of Vanity Fair a few years back, to spot the difference between the then new and current Canon 1d and 1ds across a two page double spread (approx 16x12"), some taken with a Canon 1d 4mp & some with the 1ds 11mp. They couldn't tell which was which. If the lens is good and the light right and the subject suitable it's very hard to tell the difference. Single person portraits are perhaps the hardest to tell the difference. City landscapes perhaps more obvious difference. Glass, focussing and light are perhaps bigger issues much of the time. For a 10mp you should be fine, provided well focussed, no camera shake, and good lighting. You'll want to resize image (resample) up and probably apply some USM (unsharp mask) to sharpen before printing.
Its a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II, not exactly known for being amazing quality but it was ISO 100 in good daylight, shouldn't be too bad really. I have always shrugged off resolution as being more of a e-peen thing but printing that large might have thrown up something. Cheers for the advice.
10mp makes size A3 (11.7x16.5") prints VERY comfortably if your printer knows what he's doing at all. Though I've not personally tried larger, that's simply a limitation of my printer (13x19" Canon Pixma Pro9000), not my pictures. That, and finding something I want to spend that much ink on! So no worries there!
