Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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Do you sell your pictures? (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by nukenate1@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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To those of you who sell your pictures online, what websites do you use and how do you decide how much a picture is worth?

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[–] CherchezLaVache@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I sell a handful of prints a year, mostly online, occasionally exhibited work. I'm not earning a lot from it but enough to fund my hobby I suppose. I don't really do any marketing, perhaps I should...

For pricing I just factor in material costs (I do my own printing), Etsy fees, income tax, shipping, etc and then just sort of search around to see what comparable work is going for... I don't mat or frame when I sell online, only when it's being exhibited. Otherwise the material and shipping costs would go up significantly.

I sell on Etsy, it's not worth the hassle to setup my own online store as it would require me to collect/remit sales tax, acquire the appropriate local permits, complicate my taxes and other paperwork... I don't sell enough to make it work and to stay above board. So I'm fine with Etsy taking a small cut...

[–] batsofburden@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Just looked at your flickr, your photos are beautiful. I'm surprised you only sell a handful of prints, it really must be down to not promoting your stuff effectively. You should definitely add calendars to your shop, your pics would make an excellent calendar.

[–] CherchezLaVache@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Thanks! I'm sure it does to some degree, I've just never been good at the marketing side of things. I like the idea of setting up a booth or something at an art fair, however when given the choice of how to spend a free weekend, sitting at a booth or going out hiking and taking photos, the latter option wins out, haha.

Offering a calendar might be an idea, I already make one for friends/family every year, I hadn't considered trying to sell extra copies. Perhaps I'll give that a go this year with calendar season coming soon.

[–] exitvisaco@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

I run an online shop on my own domain, but far and away the bulk of my sales (~90%) comes from sales made running a booth at art festivals.

Typically I use 3x COGS for pricing, though some of the fancier pieces get a similarly fancy markup.

[–] DrKoob@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

Try Picfair. www.picfair.com

[–] strangeweather415@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

I used to. I did web design and office/company photography for my clients way back in the mid 2000s, but these days my photography is for me. I like to see what I can do for myself and I only have myself as the critic and client.

[–] SneakyCaleb@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

I’m in art galleries and they sell once in awhile but most of the time I recently have been doing pay what you feel for my framed work. I use USA made frames and non glare glass so it’s quite expensive but I’m just happy people enjoy my photos.

[–] Over-Tonight-9929@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago

To be honest, for each photographer out here stating they sell some photos/prints, there's probably 50 others not selling anything at all (so to speak).

Selling photos/prints to randoms is really hard these days. Unless you have a big following that would buy stuff from you, or are very good at online marketing, you need to be lucky to sell something. The stock photography market is mostly dead and extremely saturated. There's so much available, tens of millions... Selling prints isn't what it used to be either. Most I know spend a lot of time culling, editing and putting up photos and gain nothing at all. Some have even turned to create prints with AI because that is slightly more popular than just regular photos.

When people ask me if they can sell photos I always tell them no, and to better focus on commissioned work. It's easier to make money that way.