Hi all,

I am hoping to get some much needed advice concerning an unexpected opportunity that has come up. It may help open the door to changing a daydream into a fact, lol.

I have been taking (and posting here at RR) macro/close-up photos of bugs for about 3 years and have considered it as a  hobby but I have always had the idea in the back of my mind, that it would sure be nice to find a way to make some extra money with this hobby. Maybe even enough to help offset the price of a camera upgrade, lol.

The kind comments which RR members have left on my postings have been very encouraging but I have always been somewhat doubtful if any of my work is really and truly good enough to have printed and exhibited or to (DARE I SAY IT?) even actually sell.  I - (as well as some of you, and my sincere thanks to those who comment on them )  -  like the way many of my images look on  my monitor at 50-60 dpi at full screen and with that  "computer glow",  but I have assumed that is a very different kettle of fish than how they would look printed on paper at 300 dpi, especially since I use a small 7MB pocket camera.  I feared that printed versions of the images would have to be rather small in order to stay crisp and vibrant.  To my amazement, that last  assumption was discredited yesterday, lol

I have recently been approached to submit 30 images that will be included in an upcoming art exhibition presented by a local Regional Arts Council.  This exhibition will feature myself and two other artists ( I think they work in other medium than film). It will run from Nov 11, '08 thru Jan 5, '09.

As a result of this offer but before accepting, I decided that my first priority would be to get a high resolution print of one of my images and see what I thought about the result so yesterday,  I had one of my Dragonfly images (10.8Mb @ 2605 x 2775) made into an 18 1/2" x 20" poster. I was amazed at how sharp and vibrant and noise free the resulting image was, lol. I would love to have all the exhibition images done this size.  Unfortunately,  this poster cost $27 and I cannot afford to multiply that by 30 for this show.

My next experiment produced great images that are way more affordable (in fact -  free, lol). I received an Epson 200R - 6 color - home printer, as a Christmas present 2 years ago but had never taken it out of the box, lol.  Yesterday I did. This Christmas gift also included about 400 sheets of very high quality photo paper and about 6 complete ink refills. I used the same Dragonfly image as the one for my poster experiment and the little home printer produced a very crisp vibrant clean image. Unfortunately, it cannot handle paper bigger than 8 1/2" by 11" and as I mentioned earlier,  to me that seems to be a rather small image for an exhibition. 

My next test will be to get an 11" x 14" print done somewhere. Based on the poster print results, I am sure the quality will be ok and I am pretty sure I will be visually satisfied with that size. The best price I have found for prints at this size is 10$ each. Still not cheap but  getting a lot more affordable. Hopefully, I can find a cheaper source. This brings me to my first real question - based on the type/genre of images I take, is there any consensus on what size print images would be appropriate or desirable for this exhibition?

After some basic research i also discovered that framing/matting is not inexpensive.  I now understand why  starving artists continue to starve - their work is never seen by many because they cannot afford to prepare their work for exhibition, lol.  I  do not really know much about this aspect of getting images ready for an exhibition.  The choices seem to basically  be - frames, front and back matting, back mounting with lamination or back mounting only.  Of course, the costs of each of these choices  will depend on image size and materials used. My working concept ( if affordable) is to center 11" x 14' images on 16" x 20" black foam board backings and laminate them ( I think can get the foam board and lamination done for free). So this brings us to my second direct question - is there a consensus on how I should mount my images for an amateur exhibition @ possible sales and is lamination good or evil, lol?

And finally, I am totally ignorant of how to price my images. I understand that in many ways, this is a subjective decision but there must be some ball park figure that is appropriate.  There is no cost involved with the exhibition space but the  Arts Council takes a 20% cut of the selling price for each sold image and the cost of preparing my images has to be considered .  Although I will be surprised if many (or any) sell, It would be nice to get as much as possible for those that do, lol.  At least that way I can defray some of the costs of doing this show even if I don't make a profit.  This brings me to my final direct question - Is there a consensus on ballpark pricing for printed photographic images that I should be aware of.

Of course, as is the case with most unexpected opportunities, there are deadlines!  I  need to  accept or decline the offer for this exhibit by Monday June 23, lol.  Even though the exhibit does not start for five months, they need to start the promotional campaign now and therefore need my decision now. 

My decision is yes and I will so inform them this coming Monday.  Due to the experiments I did yesterday,  I know I can afford to prepare high quality images for the show  by using my home printer to print 8 1/2" x 11" images. That is smaller than I want but hopefully not outrageously small. This size will also mean that mounting costs will be a lot cheaper than if I go for 11" x 14" images.

If I can find some good deals and helpful people between now and October, maybe it will be possible to go with the bigger sizes but at least I know I will have the bare basics covered.

Thanks again  to those who comment kindly on my postings and thanks in advance for any who offer advice and/or comment on this post.

Lee

Not sure if this is of any help to you Lee, but I get my photos printed at a place called Copyworks here. They print my photos larger then I can on my printer at home for only $6 au. I went to them and told them that I would be bringing a lot of photos to them for printing and asked for a discount rate on them, which they happily agreed to do. As for frames to fit the larger prints, shop around, we have some great $2 stores here that have excellent frames cheaper then but exactly the same as the department stores or photographic stores.
Hope all goes well for your exhibition, best of luck....go for it!
Sue

To start with: your photographs are really great and I'm very happy you get the chance to show them.

To save on money, you could, for example, print on your home-printer and put severa of one subject (one specific bug for example) in one frame. This saves on frames and on having to let print. Because it's macro, people will come closer to look at the details, so the size is not a problem, and the frames are not too small.
If you also show the large poster you have had printed, people can see the quality of a larger print so, in case they are interested in buying, they can safely order a larger size.
I guess I'd offer the option to buy a print at several sizes.

A second idea would eventually be to get some kind of sponsorisation. Seen what you do with that 7MB pocket camera, it's a great advertisement if you tell people which camera you use, and it will certainly lead to people buying the same one (or a newer model). Th company could sponsor you a bit on this.
Same goes for prints etc. Tell people it's for an exhibition organised by the arts council. They might give you a price reduction if you mention their company.

As for prices: I don't know about prices in the States, but I do know that if you are too cheap, people don't "believe" you. If you're too expensive, they will see you as pretetntious because you're too kind a person to boast your way to (fake) intergalactic stardom.

There are sites of people who sell pics, and it might be a good idea to browse the net a bit.
But never ever think about asking the real cost and then adding some. That never works. See, you don't sell an object: you sell a dream, an inspiration, a source of wonder.

I'll muse on this, and add more if I can thinks of something.

o, also look into the prices of sending works to people. It's handy to know. Usually this is done unframed as the glass could break.

Once again: superb news!

I found a rather very good photographer:

http://www.tomaskaspar.com/Fine%20Art/index.html

When you browse to the pages of the individual works, you find the option to buy works at different print sizes.
Worth checking.

Hello,

I can understand what our going through, my first (and only to date) exhibition was a nightmare in some ways but also very liberating. 

I think that it is important that with such an opportunity that you do everything to the highest standard that you can afford.  It would be better to submit far less than your maximum prints rather than detract from your excellent work with lower quality printing and mounting.  In the end quality always counts and first impressions are important.

I found that 10x8 or 12x8 images worked well although I did have a few much larger and some smaller, I find that print size really depends on the image.  Some are just better or work better as an image at different sizes.

As to framing, I mounted and framed my prints with art card and the results were not only cheaper than frames but looked good and were consistent.  You can probably have that done professionally without to much additional expense but try one first and see how you feel about it.  After all you need to be happy with the results.

When I priced my prints I costed the raw materials (printing, framing and my own preparation time at a reasonable rate) and then added what I felt was a fare percentage for profit.

I hope this has been of some help and I wish you the very best!

Great images.  I never could get a lady bug to sit still for me. :) 

Just to throw out another print option, I use pictureframes.com.  My latest is one of my digital bear images and it's an 8x10 print with a 1 inch border on digital paper at a cost of $7.20 per picture.   With the sleeve and backing I figure I have almost $9 in one print on the shelf to sell.   My husband said digital bears would never sell, that people wanted real bear images.  (although he declined my request for a new lens so that I could)  Sold one the first day I put them out.  :)   
That site is good for editions but takes too long for single prints. 

Hey Lee,
Congrats on the opportunity to show ur stuff. I have no real advice on cost savings but the quality of your photography (imho) is good enough for a showing. Mark had good advice about first impressions.
I would like to see your 30 choices ;-)
best of luck
don

Lee,
also don't underestimate the importance of permanent (or long lasting) pigment ink. Most normal inks (those that come with an average home printer) will only keep their colors intact for a couple of years in partial sunlight or just a little longer in normal light conditions. Especially if you succeed in selling a number of prints, you would surely want them to last for 10, 20, 30 or more years. There are inks and printers that can give you that quality... Make some inquiries about those printers and long lasting inks. I bet you'll feel more at ease after sale... ;o)