Tag: pricing

The Business of Selling Your Photos

Jason5 Comments

As economic belts are cinched, and we start spending our dollars more carefully than ever before, I am getting email a lot from photographers asking “What should I be charging for this event?”, or “A client wants a digital negative, what’s a fair rate?”, and even, “How much is my work worth?”

Truth be told, the economics of photography sales are just as much a mystery to me, and I don’t have all the answers.  But I know a few things about where to start, and how to research.  First and foremost, is to know your market.  Are you working in NYC, or in Duluth MN?  Have you looked at other photographers’ websites?  What are they charging?  Are they start-ups or established companies?  What kinds of services do they offer?  What kinds of services do you offer?  Do you provide print fulfillment or is that out-sourced?  What is your overhead?  Cost of equipment?  Cost of training?  The whole 9 yards – it’s a lot to filter.  Well, here’s some software that can give you a leg up in that regard – FotoQuotePro.

This software is very well designed and offers you rates for a wide variety of publications, ranging from magazines, to journals, brochures, quarterly reports, and a plethora of other variations.  Quarter page prints, half page, full page, distribution of media, and many other factors are tallied in to help Fotoquote determine your rate.  Granted this may not help the startup in portrait work, but if you are looking to market your work toward commercial and stock sites – this is definitely the software for you.  And now, in a special offer here at the blog – I’ve been able to garner a 33% discount for some lucky listener.  That’s right…33%!!  It regularly goes for a price of $150, and the good folks over at Cradoc Foto Software have generously donated a discount code.  Rather than buy and install it myself, I would like to pass this savings on to some lucky reader of the blog.

So, here’s how the winner of the discount code will be chosen – post a comment here at the blog.  Say what you like about the software, why you could use it, or simply introduce yourself to the rest of the readership.  This particular post will take comments through the end of June, so you have about two and a half weeks to get something out there and get a chance to win the discount code.  In the meantime, head on over to Cradoc Foto Software and download a trial to see what the program is all about.  In the meantime, here’s a few screen shots from the demo version to show you what they have to offer…

Tab 1 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 1 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 2 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 2 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 3 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 3 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 4 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 4 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 5 of FotoQuote Pro
Tab 5 of FotoQuote Pro

Happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!  (Oh yeah, and don’t forget, you can also share your thoughts and suggestions for future hardware and software reviews that take place right here on the blog!  Let me know what you think as it’s the contributions of readers that make this such a fulfilling blog – who knows, there might be a giveaway in that too!)

Grab the Feed

The Weekender – Web stuff and some thoughts on CS4

Jason3 Comments

The last few days have been insanely busy with work and home obligations, so out of necessity I have not had time to devote to content for the blog.  My apologies for abandoning the readership temporarily, and without warning.  I’ll endeavor to give advance notice before that happens again.  So, with that out of the way, I thought today it might be useful to get a wrap-up of what I have been seeing and reading around the forums, blogs, and internet that’s photography-related.

  • Jeff Revell, who has become quite well-known for his photowalking blog made a few interesting posts recently.  In one of them, he did a reminder on updating your firmware.  Great idea Jeff – if you’re interested, I actually put together a post with all the Canon firmware updates as of a few weeks ago.  The other one was ab out the Epson Print Academy season for 2009 has been published.  I had been meaning to go to one of these for a while, and for a mere $150 think it is definitely worth the cost.  They’re coming to Denver and it’s a mere block or two from where I work so I will most assuredly be in attendance this go around.
  • Scott Kelby, master instructor of Photoshop, Lightroom and author of more books than I can count, is also bringing his tour through Denver some time in December.  Check out the schedule here if you want to see him live and in action at what he does best!
  • David Ziser has offered up a Digital Wakeup Call DVD worht $75 to some lucky participant if he gets 20 ideas on how to incorporate video into your selling packages for photography businesses.  Not a bad deal for 5 minutes of your time!
  • Don’t forget, I’ve expanded the poll here at CanonBlogger to go longer than the 1 week, so the numbers are a more accurate representation.  What features do you like about the curreng generation of camera bodies on the market?  What motivates you to buy?  Share your thoughts on the poll to the right.

Last, but not least, the hubub on most forums lately has been surrounding the release of CS4 and LR2’s latest updates.  The reason for all the hoopla comes every time there is a new release to the software, and it’s a cycle that likely will not end.  Rather than just pile on and vent, I thought for the second half of this double-feature wrap-up, I’d share some thoughts on why people are frustrated rather than just saying “people are frustrated”.  So, here’s a different perspective.

Software is not a tangible asset

Software is not like a camera body, or a car, or a television, it’s something that lives on your computer.  Thus, the value of it is not as easy to see.  We are very much a society that thrives on all our toys, and software just isn’t the same as having the latest body, or flash or television or car.  It’s not something we can touch and feel and show off to our friends.  It’s only on our computer.

Necessity

With software, we are sometimes obligated to upgrade.  I personally had to upgrade because CS2 did not offer a raw converter for the Canon 40D.  Sure, there’s the Adobe DNG converter for free, and I actually have incorporated that into my work flow for the Mac where I don’t have CS3, but that does present another step in the process of a work flow that I was previously happy to not have to deal with.  Anyway, the point here is that if you don’t upgrade your software, you will find yourself unable to maintain a stable and consistent work flow (since you re upgrading other gear all the time too).

Competitive Pricing

With other technologies, competition keeps prices under control.  Camera vendors like Canon, Nikon, Sony, and the rest all have to compete with one another for your business.  Adobe really has no competition in the market place.  Okay, sure, there’s Corel, and the GIMP, but come on, who are we kidding?  Adobe is the market when it comes to photo editing software.  All the others are simply “alternative programs”.  Without a competitor, Adobe can price things however they want, knowing that those of us who have already invested are pretty much committed to maintaining our work flow by keeping the software interface as consistent as we can.  To their credit, upgrades are cheaper than the full blown versions of the software, and there are often promotions and suc (educational pricing is the best way to go imho – take a community college class once every two years and you will save anywhere fro $300 to $700 on pricing for the CS products).

Release Schedule

Do we really need to upgrade our software and work flow every 18 months?  With cameras, (which are released on the same schedules for most SLRs), most people I know wait at least 2 generations before upgrading.  Another analogy that has been made here is to cars – anyone upgrade their car every two years?  What about televisions?  Do we really upgrade our televisions every 18 months?  Unlikely…and even if we do, is the old television still usable?  Often times, the older version is relegated to the basement or a childs bedroom, or even sold second hand.  Who buys outdated software?  No one that I know of…

So, there’s the second half of the weekend post.  What do you think?  Am I off base?  Is the software market competitive?  Do you think the pricing is fair and equitable?  What about the upgrade schedule?  Does 18 months sound about right?  Sound off in the comments!

Again, sorry for the lack of material over the last two days.  Hopefully this will make up for the lack of content on Thursday and Friday.  Now, since you’ve finished this, take that last sip of coffee, pack up your gear and go have fun shooting!  (In other words, Happy Shooting!)  We’ll see you back here again on Monday.