Selling pictures from a sporting event.

HyperSniper · Sep 28, 2007

I got permission to go take some photos at a high school volleyball game, (rather informal permission, it's only around 25 people I'm dealing with) and so I took about 200 shots, and narrowed it down to around 50 salable photographs, and they have expressed an interest in buying them. However, I'm not sure what would be the best way to go about selling them.

I know a lot of the players, and most of them would like a CD of the photographs. However I know that they could very easily just buy one and make a bunch of copies. If I sold CDs I think that a reasonable price would be $10 dollars.

I would like to sell prints from a website, however I don't know of any good free ones I could use right off hand.

What do you guys think is the best way to go about selling my photographs to the players and their parents?

HyperSniper · Sep 29, 2007

Ok so I got an E-mail from the coach asking for a price for a CD of the pictures. What do I tell him? Since I don't really feel these pictures are that great of quality I think that I'll just let all the pictures go for 25 bucks....

DeadEye · Sep 29, 2007

HyperSniper said:
Ok so I got an E-mail from the coach asking for a price for a CD of the pictures. What do I tell him? Since I don't really feel these pictures are that great of quality I think that I'll just let all the pictures go for 25 bucks....

I would watermark them very small at about 50% opacity in a border and give that CD away. About 800 pixel so they look good on screen and email. Sell prints 8x10 to those that want them.

LaFoto · Sep 29, 2007

I had that same idea: I even watermarked my pics sold on CDs to ballett dancing girls fairly largely (but not across) at a very low opacity (20 or 15 %), and I made them small (700px wide). So they can order a small print (with the watermark on it), but any enlargements would need to go through you and you can charge extra. And some 50 photos that size on a CD should go away for 15 dollars, would be my guess in dollars.

MikeR · Oct 3, 2007

I sell sport photos.
Check out Exposure Manager, It's not free but suits what you want to do on line. It will cost you about $85, however they have a 15 day free trial.
I refuse to sell CD's but if I were to , I would charge about $45.00 Remember that when you sell a CD of high res images, It is unlikely they will order prints and they will copy it.

bestpics · Oct 10, 2007

A CD with pictures you took at a game for $10. What are you working for about 10 cents an hour. A give away price would be 45 to 50 dollars. A lot of young inexperienced photographers think.... that if I am reall cheap I will get a lot of work. It does not always work that way, and even if you do get a lot of work you won't make enough money to live on. Unless you can live on 5,000 a year or less.

When you are too cheap customers will think (know) you don't know what you are doing, and you will cheapen yourself and your trade. Of course the inexperienced do not have a clue about their own value as a photographer. Those who do not will be out of business in the blink of an eye.

Jamie McCoy Photography · Oct 10, 2007

Most people see a photographer selling their works really cheap, and think
"They must not be good".

A key to pricing your works is think, "What am I worth?",
As a photographer that is really what we are doing.

Mike Jordan · Oct 10, 2007

Goodness gracious...don't start telling her to charge commercial rates for her CD's. There is nothing wrong with starting out low. This is a "High School" game after all and Lara (from the indications of her message) is not a Professional Sports photographer yet.

By charging more than they want to pay, you could be putting a road block into what could turn into a very good future side income. It sounds like you have your foot in the door... if you want to do this kind of photography. You can use this oppurtunity to be allowed to shoot more games, which lets you practice more, which gets your name known by parents, who if they like your work, will buy more. If you get your name known amoung the kids, you could have an opening to doing senior and other school pictures.

For right now, I would cover my costs but I wouldn't be concerned with making a lot of extra money. If your work is good or improves, you will be able to start raising your prices later... or you might be able to do other photography work where you can charge more (like portraits) and it will be better to keep this kind of stuff as cheap or even free to the school.

Mike

AprilRamone · Oct 10, 2007

Or she might get stuck having to charge such low rates because that's what they'll be used to and will be upset if she later decides to charge more for them.
I'm not saying she should go charge an arm and a leg, but I definitely wouldn't recommend just covering your costs! Make some profit!

Mike Jordan · Oct 10, 2007

The statement that people will get mad if you raise your rates later on is probably about the biggest falicy passed on to new photographers. People might not want to pay the higher price next time, but that just means that by raising your prices you move into a different group of buyers. This is assuming that the work is worth the price of course. There are always going to be people that will buy as cheap as they can. Just as there are those that don't mind paying for quality. But at least here in the US, we are ingrained with the idea that prices go up on EVERYTHING each year. That doesn't mean they won't grumble or they won't look for someone cheaper, but that's just the way it is.

But saying that people will get mad and never buy again if someone raises their price is really just a urban legen that has been passed around by high priced photographers to try and keep the young competition from cutting into their sales. Someone that is good or at least worth the cost, won't have any trouble raising their prices as often as they want. There will be people that will pay it.

Mike

HyperSniper · Oct 19, 2007

Jeez, I'm not a she. I'm defiantly a he. Just because my sig is of Lara Croft, it doesn't mean I'm a girl myself.

Well, you guys are probably going to hate me for this, but I let the CD's go for 10 dollars a piece. Since I know most of the people, I pretty much trusted them not to screw me over and start copying CDs for each other. So in the end I made $60, which will buy me lunch for a while.

...and the coach found a guy with a lot better equipment than me to take pictures at the games. He's got $2000's in strobes and a full frame DSLR. So I'm pretty much out of the job for them right now.

Oh well. It was $60 I didn't expect to have.

nossie · Oct 19, 2007

Well you could have sold him 25 discs for $250. Also I'd protest about the work going to the other photographer by saying "I looked after your pocket and now you're giving the work to someone else?!"

Don't be bullied off the job and take the money you earned.

HyperSniper · Oct 19, 2007

This was a learning experience from me.

Word got around that I'm going with a camera, and this was a job I didn't expect to have. A girl came up to me in the middle of calculus and asked me if I could do it. I did not exactly know how react. The next time this happens, I make sure that I lay down the law in the beginning what's going to happen, and make sure everyone involved understands what's going on.