Putting a price on your work

[Janie]

Tell me, what sort of formula do you use to price your work, if you happen to sell it? I sometimes laugh when I see a blurry picture of a branch in a simple matte for $150 as I did yesterday. It makes me wonder how people come up with their prices! I'm a believer in keeping pictures affordable since you can then sell even more of your work, then get more popular and achieve a growing demand. And with ink jet printers and matting at home, I keep my costs down to only $7 per 11x14 framed picture! And since I registered as a business, I get to get my photography stuff tax free as well as take write offs on a lot of it! ;-) I guess I look at my work as something I enjoy and take a more creative approach to it, rather than kill it with trying to be totally technical, which kills a lot of pictures for me.

So, how'd you come up with your $150 branch shot? lol Everyone has one, right?!

[Sebastian]

Well, from my experience whether cheap or expensive I sell the same amount. If people don't like it, they simply won't buy it no matter how low the price. But if they really want it they will dish out over a hundred bucks with minimal hesitation. So that's probably why you see many poor shots that cost so much. The sellers must believe that they aren't losing any business, but are making more per sale.

It does vary wildly based on subject matter and area though, so one guy's experience will be comlpetely different from yours. Feel out your market, see what it will bear. That's about anything anyone can tell you. Call around, see how much others charge. make your pricing relative to theirs. If you think your work is better, charge more. If you think their work is better, charge less.

Good luck and keep it up.