Example Pricing Exercise

Lesson 88 from: Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Brooke Shaden

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Lesson Info

88. Example Pricing Exercise

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Example Pricing Exercise

We're going to talk about pricing right now in terms of what you guys are doing. Surprise! (laughing) Should've warned you. I just wanna take a quick moment to see if anyone is starting to form an idea of pricing that you might wanna go with for your work. So, first things first, does anyone have sizes in your mind of a couple sizes that you think you're feeling pretty good about that you would want to put out there? 20 and 30. 20 and 30. So, why 20 and 30 inches? Or if you're doing 30 inches. 20 by 30. 20, 20 by Oh, 20 by 30? Okay good. See, I'm in squares, so I hear one number and I think that's the whole thing. 20 by 30, only size that you wanna offer? It's the first size I thought of, but I, Okay. Can go bigger and I guess smaller by a bit, yeah. Okay. Bigger and smaller. So, let's start with your 20 by 30 size since you feel good about that. And I agree cause my best selling size is 20 inches, so it's probably a good range. And people kinda feel like... It's...

like when you go to Starbucks, and you have the options between the names that I can never remember. What are the names of the, Starbucks It's never small Right, it's never small, right? And so you're standing there in line at Starbucks and you're like, "Oh I don't want it to be too little, "and I don't want it to be too big", so you get the one in the middle and this is very much like that. People think "Oh well the small one is really small, "but the big one's way to big and too expensive, "so I'll get the one in the middle.", so I think 20 by 30 is a really good size. And if you're going to have your 20 by 30, what edition do you think you would do for that? If you were going to edition your work? How many prints, or? How many prints, at that size, would you wanna offer? Just as a starting point? 10. 10. 10. Very good, great starting point. Okay, so 20 by 30 an edition of 10, and you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but on average how much would you say a single image of yours costs to produce? If you just had to say, in terms of everything, like travel to get to the places, cause I know you do a lot of photographs all over the world, so there's probably a lot of costs involved in getting to those places, so if you just had to say an average price of what you would spend to be able to produce that image. What would you say? Wow that's a tough one. I know. And you'll have to do the counting later, but just totally general range. Well if it'd be something close to home, it's almost nothing, Almost nothing. But then again, you've got the camera equipment and lenses, so, you know, Exactly. it is another thing to take into consideration. Okay so let's do this, let's say that your 20 by 30 print cost you $60 to produce. And let's just say that you're gonna factor in another $40 for you equipment and that'll be something that you recoup over time, so it's $100 for your print. Then if you multiply that by 10 that's $1,000. Yeah, we did the math! Okay so that's good, so we've got $1, as your starting point, so maybe if you sell in a gallery, and you're marking it up 50%, you'll sell for $2,000. Now we have to consider where are you in your career. So do you feel like you're emerging as an artist, you're mid-career you've done some selling, you know kinda what you're doing now, or you've been doing this and you're a complete pro. I'd say emerging. Okay, and there are lots and lots of people who say emerging to mid-career artist, and all that kind of stuff, so we'll say starting. So maybe we'll keep it at $2,000 then and that's the price that you would sell your medium sized print for in a gallery and you would make $1,000 of that back. I think that sounds very reasonable for a 20 by 30 inch print, it's pretty big right, that'll be like this wide, maybe yeay tall or so, that's a good chunk of print. So I would say that's a really good place to start for your pricing, and now you have your mid-point so now you can go okay well if it's bigger I'll do this price, if it's smaller I'll do this price, and it's all relative to that one price point. Okay, any other victims, or you feel good about that? I saw Tori, kinda like, (squeak). I'll try. Okay so what sizes are you thinking? I'm thinking three sizes, I think a 16 inch long edge, and then a 40, 42, somewhere in there, large, Okay, good. and then maybe like a six inch or an eight inch little one. Interesting, yeah! I like that, okay so, really small, medium size, and large. We're gonna call yours extra small, medium and large. I like that. (laughs) And that's really good because the more you can space them out the more buyers aren't gonna be confused by all the sizes in between. Which was my mistake, so, I very much think that's a good idea. So you've got three sizes, are you thinking any editions for those? I haven't decided, but if I were probably maybe five for the largest and maybe 10 for the medium and I'm sort of thinking of doing unlimited for the small. Okay. Which would be a different paper, and a more mass-produced... Interesting, okay that's a really interesting topic because there will be a group of artists who say "Never do that because that devalues "the other sizes of your prints.", and a whole other group that says, "No, it's a totally different thing, "you can sell them however you want.", and the truth is you can sell them however you want. So that's a really interesting thing. And of course the prices would have to be quite different, on those Correct. So what about your open edition, what size do you think would be appropriate for something like that? It would be the smallest size. The smallest size, Yeah. Okay, the smallest size, six inches you said? Six or eight, yeah somewhere in there. Six or eight inches. Something small so, would you want it to be on a mass-produced paper? Or something like a postcard or something like... The printer in me say no, but, Right? Knowing how pricing works, maybe, yeah. Okay, this is really interesting, I've never actually considered this before. So if you had to put a price on that, what would you say? $80? $80, okay, good. So I like that Just outta thin air. And I like how you said bucks too because that makes it feel better. So $80, so if we have $80 on your small print, then what kind of a jump would you see having to happen, from your small to your next size up? So in my mind, it would be a large jump, because it would be on fine art, matte paper, museum quality, like a much higher print. A different thing altogether, so It would be. The 16, maybe, I think I'd start around $400, and then probably go up from there. That sounds pretty good to me. Yeah. I would, I would say, since it's 16 on the long edge, right, I think that that sounds really good, keeping it under the $1,000 mark to start. And it's definitely something that given only two limited edition sizes, you can definitely push it way higher once you start rolling with those prints. So I would say keeping it around $400 would be good, and then since you have a really big size jump, then I would definitely say don't make that under $1, because that's such a big size jump, that I would definitely say push that a lot further. What would you think for that? My initial reaction would be around maybe the $1,500 mark. Something around there, or even a little bit higher for that just because that's a very large print, the 40, 42 you said, 42 inches on the long side, so given such a large print, I would definitely say $1,500 to $2,000 mark maybe. But it depends of course, on the market that you're in right now, and that's always really tricky. Yeah, I think that, about $1,000 increase to start would be good for that jump in size. This is good, we got two of you done, and I'll talk to you guys later. But yeah, thank you guys for sharing. I know that it's nerve-wracking to talk about pricing and everything like that. And it doesn't feel good to do ever. It's really difficult to figure out pricing, to figure out sizing, to figure out editions and there's a lot to think about. So with this segment talking about pricing and editioning, we have a workbook that will take you through this process of how to find editions, how to find your sizes, how to find your prices, how to find your paper, and all of that fun stuff, and it is really daunting so I just wanna take a second to say that I get it. I know that it's so much information, and it's really confusing cause you don't wanna make the wrong choice and of course, we have this tendency as artists to feel like imposters and to feel like our work isn't worth that much money or whatever it may be, and I know that it's really hard to just settle on a price, and it feels terrible, but it's also really good and empowering to just do that. To set your price, know your worth, have done the math on it, figure out exactly the road that you wanna travel as an artist because these decisions will completely inform how you're able to progress as an artist in the future. Which sounds like another really daunting statement. But it's good, I think that it should be something that we take really seriously, that we spend a lot of time thinking about, and just lay a good foundation for what comes next. Because if you don't you might find yourself in a ton of different terrible situations later. But if we just know it right now, we'll be much better off.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Guided Daydream & Writing Exercises Workbook (Lessons 1-11)

Creating an Original Narrative Workbook (Lessons 12-18)

Finding Your Target Audience Workbook (Lessons 19-27)

Planning Your Series Workbook (Lessons 28-34)

Set Design Workbook (Lessons 35-41)

Compositing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 42-49)

Editing Workflow Checklist (Lessons 50-55)

Location Scouting Workbook (Lessons 56-60)

Stock Image Downloads for Practice (Lessons 61-72)

Organizing Your Portfolio Workbook (Lessons 77-81)

Pricing & Editioning Your Work Workbook (Lessons 82-89)

Writing Contracts & Licensing Images Workbook (Lessons 90-98)

Gallery Best Practices (Lessons 99-106)

Pitch Package Workbook (Lessons 107-111)

Writing Your Brand Workbook (Lessons 112-117)

Marketing Workbook (Lessons 118-122)

Social Media Workbook (Lessons 123-127)

Printing Methods Checklist (Lessons 128-133)

Self Critique Workbook (Lessons 134-137)

Bonus Materials Guide

Syllabus

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Brooke Shaden

Brooke explores the darkness and light in people, and her work looks at that juxtaposition. As a self-portrait artist, she photographs herself and becomes the characters of dreams inspired by a childhood of intense imagination and fear.

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topics covered in this class

Fine Art Digital Photography

Ratings and Reviews

April S.

I tuned in for most of Brooke's lessons in this course and watched some of them more than once as they were rebroadcast. First I want to say that Brooke is a very good instructor. Her easy-going, friendly, down-to-earth, somewhat quirky manner cannot be mistaken for unprofessional. She is very prepared, she speaks well (not a bunch of hemming and hawing), she is thoughtful, she is thorough, she is very relatable and at ease, and she is definitely professional in her presentation. I really thought when I first tuned in that it would mostly be background noise while I was at work, sound to keep me company. Not because I didn't like Brooke but I really didn't think I was into fine art photography nor did I think I cared about the business side of things much. Not now anyhow. I was really wrong. Brooke sparked a deep interest in me to delve into fine art photography, to consider creating images for myself, from my imagination. In fact, I realized that this was something I'd been thinking about for a couple of years though I hadn't put a name to it (the idea of creating pre-conceived images based on my own creative goals). I gleaned many little treasures from her about image sizes, working with printers, different types of paper, selling, interacting with galleries, and so much more. I may not need all of what she taught right now because I'm definitely headed in another direction at the moment, but she planted ideas and information in my head that I know will be useful at some point. Things I may not have thought of on my own, but that seed is in my head now so when the time comes, I'll know. I'd really like to buy her course but at the moment, with the holidays right around the corner, it's not in my personal budget. I'm grateful to have caught the live and rebroadcast lessons though, and her course is on my list to own. I think it's a great reference to be consulted over and over again, not watched once and forgotten. Kudos Brooke for really putting together an excellent course.

Angel Ricci

When the title says comprehensive, it means comprehensive! I loved every part of this course. It's inspirational, motivating, and insightful towards creating art work. Even if you are not necessarily considering a fine art specialty, the concepts discussed in this course are applicable to many areas! I find this super useful as a videographer and photographer and look to apply all of these exercises and concepts for my personal and business work moving forward. It is lengthy, but you will not regret a single minute. Brooke Shaden is an amazing artist and educator. I recommend keeping up with her work, presentations, and any future courses that may come in the future.

Ron Landis

I'm retired now, but spent decades in the people and training business. Brooke is extraordinary! Even though this course is extremely well organized and she's left nothing unattended, she moves through it with friendly conversational manners and without a sense of it being stilted. It's as though we are all her friends, not students, as she shares her heart and passion with us. What a joy it is to listen to her. And what a clear, unambiguous command of her subject. Wow! She explains it with such ease using explanations and techniques that won't overwhelm artists just starting their portfolio or the Photoshop-squeamish among us; but despite its simplicity her resulting art is breathtaking and beyond original. I wish more of my professors at school were as engaging. This was by far my best buy at Creative Live yet.

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Example Pricing Exercise

Example Pricing Exercise

Lesson Info

88. Example Pricing Exercise

Lessons

Class Introduction

Storytelling & Ideas

Universal Symbols in Stories

Create Interactive Characters

The Story is in The Details

Giving Your Audience Feelings

Guided Daydream Exercise

Elements of Imagery

The Death Scenario

Associations with Objects

Three Writing Exercises

Connection Through Art

Break Through Imposter Syndrome

Layering Inspiration

Creating an Original Narrative

Analyze an Image

Translate Emotion into Images

Finding Parts in Images

Finding Your Target Audience

Where Do You Want Your Images to Live?

Create a Series That Targets Your Audience

Formatting Your Work

Additional Materials to Attract Clients

Which Social Media Platforms Will be Useful?

How to Make Money from Your Target Audience

Circle of Focus

The Pillars of Branding

Planning Your Photoshoot

Choose Every Element for The Series

Write a Descriptive Paragraph

Sketch Your Ideas

Choose Your Gear

How to Utilize Costumes, Props & Locations

What Tells a Story in a Series?

Set Design Overview

Color Theory

Lighting for the Scene

Props, Wardrobe & Time Period for Set Design

Locations

Subject Within the Scene

Set Design Arrangement

Fine Art Compositing

Plan The Composite Before Shooting

Checklist for Composite Shooting

Analyze Composite Mistakes

Shoot: Black Backdrop for White Clothing

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Color Clothing

Shoot: Black Backdrop for Accessories

Shoot: Miniature Scene

Editing Workflow Overview

Add Fabric to Make a Big Dress

Edit Details of Images

Add Smoke & Texture

Blend Multiple Images Into One Composite

Put Subject Into a Miniature Scenario

Location Scouting & Test Photoshoot

Self Portrait Test Shoots

Shoot for Edit

Shoot Extra Stock Images

Practice the Shoot

Introduction to Shooting Photo Series

Shoot: Vine Image

Shoot: Sand Image

Shoot: End Table Image

Shoot: Bed Image

Shoot: Wall Paper Image

Shoot: Chair Image

Shoot: Mirror Image

Shoot: Moss Image

Shoot: Tree Image

Shoot: Fish Tank Image

Shoot: Feather Image

View Photo Series for Cohesion & Advanced Compositing

Edit Multiple Images to Show Cohesion