Pricing Photos

grandpawrichard · Feb 7, 2011

Greetings!

I am new to this forum and I have a question about selling my photos.

I have been contacted by a Lady that is working for an agency of some kind. Here is what she says: "I saw some images you did of an old tractor. I would like to talk to you about purchasing these images for a client for their interior."

She posted her email address and phone number and requested that I contact her.

My question is: What do you think the going prices are for images? I haven't sold any photos for about 16 years now, so I am not really considered as a Professional Photographer (especially in my mind!)

I don't want to ask too much for the photos, but at the same time I don't want to go too cheap and be branded as an easy mark! I also want to protect my rights to the photos. I sure would appreciate your input.

Dick

Formatted · Feb 7, 2011

How large is the print going to be, is probably the first question you need to ask. Then we can talk about pricing.

HikinMike · Feb 7, 2011

Are you selling the prints or the files? For prints I use a formula: $0.42 x area of the print. My 8 x 12 sells for $40, a 12 x 18 sells for $90 etc.

KmH · Feb 7, 2011

She didn't really provide enough information Dick.

You're going to have to decide to respond to her query and ask some questions.

My pricing would differ if the lady's client is a business rather than a residence.

grandpawrichard · Feb 7, 2011

Thank you everyone for your posts and assistance! It's nice to know that there are still people out there to help a person out!

To start off let me give you a little back round:

Last summer I took a bunch of photos of an old tractor and posted them on several different sites. When I took the photo and did my editing I was using Raw on the camera and I saved the original photo as a PSD file format with a resolution of 300 pixel/inch. Then I also saved it as a JPEG and TIFF format to cover all the bases.

Last night, while going through all the forums I belong to I found a post by a Lady that runs a Design Group that does store layout and design. She asked me to contact her today about her purchasing a One Time Only usage of that tractor photo for a store that she was decorating.

I emailed her today to find out what she needed for size on the photo. She informed me that she needed an Ultra High Resolution Photo of 150 pixel/inch format that she could have printed out. The Print size will be 5' high! WOW!

I had forgotten that I save my photos at the highest resolution I can, so I called Canon USA to find out if my 40D photos could be printed out that large. Canon could not give me a definite answer because they have never done a photo from a 40D that large. I was beside myself, but I was determined to contact some Professional Photographers to find out.

I finally got in touch with the right person! He told me that if I had saved the photo to the highest resolution that I could then by all means I could have the photo printed that Large!

That is when the light bulb (a well used 5 watt light bulb) went off in my head!

I pulled up the original photo in Photoshop and checked out my settings. I found that when I originally saved the photo I had saved it at 300 pixel/inch, so the file size is 16,200 pixels high by 12,165 pixels wide with a pixel dimension of 563.8m. This file is HUGE, and the Print size of of it at the present is 40.55 inches high by 54" wide. So there should be Zero Problem for her printer to enlarge the photo to the 5 foot height!

I tried cropping a section of the photo and then resizing it, then cropping some more and re-cropping it. I went out 7 times before the photo became fuzzy and pixelated!

So, it looks like I may have the photo sold. The First Photo I have sold in 26 years; ever since I got out of doing Weddings and selling wildlife photos!

By the way, I finally got to talk to a Professional Photographer and tell him about what she wanted. He said for a One Time Useage of a Photo File he would charge between $35 and $75 dollars. So I contacted the Lady by email and told her a Professional Photographer said to Charge $75, but I was willing to drop the price to $50. I'm waiting to find out what she says!

Dick

grandpawrichard · Feb 7, 2011

Here is the photo the Lady wants to print out:

Sorry about that! I need more posts before I can post the photo.

Dick

HikinMike · Feb 7, 2011

grandpawrichard said:
Here is the photo the Lady wants to print out:

Sorry about that! I need more posts before I can post the photo.

Dick

Not so. You use the

grandpawrichard · Feb 7, 2011

HikinMike said:
grandpawrichard said:

Here is the photo the Lady wants to print out:

Sorry about that! I need more posts before I can post the photo.

Dick

Click to expand...

Not so. You use the tags to post your picture, provided it's already uploaded on another photo-sharing site (Flickr, your own website etc)[/QUOTE]

I tried that Mike and the screen came up telling me I needed 5 or more posts before I could post a photo or link. :(

On the bright side, I only need one or two more posts! :)

Dick

tirediron · Feb 7, 2011

:addpics:

mjhoward · Feb 7, 2011

grandpawrichard said:
I tried that Mike and the screen came up telling me I needed 5 or more posts before I could post a photo or link.

On the bright side, I only need one or two more posts!

Dick

just make two quick replies to your own thread... aaaaaaand done

HikinMike · Feb 7, 2011

mjhoward said:
just make two quick replies to your own thread... aaaaaaand done

...or comment on somebody else's thread/picture.

grandpawrichard · Feb 7, 2011

Let's try re-posting the photo:

Old_Tractor_in_Sepia_best_1_Large_Original_High_Res_copy_3888_for_internet_copy.jpg

Dick

KmH · Feb 8, 2011

grandpawrichard said:
So I contacted the Lady by email and told her a Professional Photographer said to Charge $75, but I was willing to drop the price to $50. I'm waiting to find out what she says!

Dick

Did the pro photographer you consulted do commercial work?

Having told her you were willing to drop the price to $50, gives her the opportunity to start negotiating with you from $50.

Do you know how to write a use licencse so she can't consider a one time use to mean she can have one print run of 1000 of your photos done?

FoggyLens · Feb 8, 2011

Very very cool!! Congrats! Always makes you feel good when someone wants to hang your work..

grandpawrichard · Feb 8, 2011

KmH said:
grandpawrichard said:

So I contacted the Lady by email and told her a Professional Photographer said to Charge $75, but I was willing to drop the price to $50. I'm waiting to find out what she says!

Dick

Click to expand...

Did the pro photographer you consulted do commercial work?

Having told her you were willing to drop the price to $50, gives her the opportunity to start negotiating with you from $50.

Do you know how to write a use licencse so she can't consider a one time use to mean she can have one print run of 1000 of your photos done?

KmH,
I have that all covered!

I just got off the phone with her and she was more than happy with the $50 price.

The One time use is for a 5 foot tall print for a store she is designing and only for one wall.
A friend that is a Professional Photographer is sending me an Iron clad agreement that he had a Lawyer create for his business for her to sign and send back to me with the payment before she gets the file.
She also wants to keep me as a contact for her other jobs and use more of my photos because my prices are fair and reasonable, so it is a win/win situation for me!

Dick