Mike Hamilton wrote: > My past experience has told me that 8x10 or smaller prints are easier > or more desireable for people to hang on their walls because it does > not dominate the whole wall. > > My prints were mostly 8x10, with 3- 5x7 and one 11x14. > > What is your experience with regard to this?
Depends on the image, the venue, and the audience. I used to participate in a local artist co-op around the holidays, where we would lease a storefront and turn it into an art gallery for a month. I had photo note cards with 6x4 inch photos on them, 5x7's, 8x10's and 11x14's. I did this for 4 years, about 1,000 of the cards sold - lots of them were put into frames. (People would come back and tell me about framing the cards, or even come back to the store to show me how the card looked in a frame.) At $3 a pop, the cards were more or less a waste of time from a business perspective, though. The 5x7's were the least popular - I was aiming at the impulse buyers and priced them at about $20 - a handful sold each year. The 8x10's, matted to 11x14, were the best - 35 to 50 would go the door at $35 a shot. The 11 x 14's (matted to 16 x 20) were not far behind, but when I nudged the price up from $45 to $50 I saw a big drop off in sales. These were single matted, glycine bagged prints - no frames. For exhibits, it depends. I did a collaborative exhibit with some friends who own a frame shop where I provided the prints and they did the framing - quite elaborate framing at that. We did a mix of huge prints - about half a dozen 24 x 30 inch landscapes and a mix about 30 12 x 15 to 10x10 prints. That's the print size - the framed sizes were more on the order of 32 x 40 for the large prints, and 24 x 18 for the mid sized. We had a great opening reception and next day follow up, with 3 of the huge pieces (each priced in the $1,000 neighborhood) selling, and a good number of the mediums and smalls going. But the economics of it basically worked out that we recouped the investment in materials in the first few days, made a small profit on the sales over the next few weeks, and now jointly own a bunch of nicely framed but 'old stock' images. The real profit from the venture was the fun in doing it (don't think there's a ferengi rule that covers that.) In other shows, I've had the best luck with 16x20 inch framed shots, priced at $125. Hell- it's Kalamazoo, not NYC. People do sometime take the attitude that "I could print a photo that size". A friend of mine makes avant guard steel furniture, powder coated in outrageous bright colors. People pick up her pieces, look at the wields, and say "I could make something like this." Being a somewhat "in your face type" her response is often "Yeah - so are you saying you THOUGHT of something that looks like this or just that you could assemble it if you had instructions?" Bitchy works for her. But she has a point - it's not the technical execution (though I personally love executing technique) it's the vision, the energy. I'd take a 5x7 of Derrière la Gare Saint-Lazare in a heartbeat, but probably pass on every 5x7 in every Walmart in every country in the world. Lastly - subject matter and format go hand in hand. This shot: http://www.markcassino.com/galleries/lighthouses/0204l01.htm took first place in Harbour LIghts' l;ighthouse photography contest, and as a note card sells like hotcakes in the winter. But I doubt that I've sold more than 2 16x20 prints of it. No one wants a violent cold shot on their wall. Good image for a magazine and great image to send on a card to your friends in Hawaii, coupled with a note about how cold Michigan is! - MCC -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Mark Cassino Photography Kalamazoo, Michigan www.markcassino.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
