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I was looking for some advice on the best approach when it comes to pricing my photography.

I am looking to sell my prints, I have a range of them in 16 x 12 and they will all come framed against a white mount and wooden frame. The prints also tend to focus on landscape photography in and around London.

I have done some research and I have seen prints ranging from £50 - £2000 so obviously there are a lot of possibilites when it comes to pricing. Can someone explain the key factors that should be considered when coming up with a price? I was thinking around the £150 mark but I am unsure whether or not this is over pricing.

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    Very difficult question and unfortunately impossible to answer. The value in art is how much people will pay for it. – Itai Jan 4 '13 at 3:09
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    Whatever you do, don't start by calculating the actual cost of the physical print and framing. That's not what you're selling — it's just the packaging. – mattdm Jan 6 '13 at 5:15
  • Many ways to price work - as a minimum think about 3x material and framing costs – Tim Nov 2 '13 at 18:34
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This is somewhat covered in this question. But it comes down to your prints are worth whatever people will pay for them. You can calculate a minimum price based upon your material costs and an amount you feel your time is worth, but this is really just the floor below which you are losing money.

So some key factors that will influence price:

  • Audience: Are you selling online, at a university street fair, or in a gallery, likely you will have three different groups of people with different ideas of the value of art.
  • Your Reputation. If your name is Ansel Adams, you can get more money for the same print.
  • Your Sales skills. Your ability to explain why this print is worth $X will go along way in determining the market value.
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The biggest factors affecting price will be your skill and how much people like your work. Name might count for something, but if you can produce the kinds of images that Ansel Adams made, you can charge a lot more than if you can't. It can of course be difficult to figure that out, but you can try:

  • Ask. Post some photos online and try to get some feedback.

  • Try. Talk to local galleries and see if you can get a few of your prints displayed. Galleries may also be able to suggest pricing that'd work for their customers. You might also try coffee shops and restaurants -- some may be happy to hang your work for a while.

  • Adapt. Once you've made a few sales (or you've tried without success) you can always raise or lower prices. Sometimes things actually sell better at higher prices -- customers often determine the value of something by looking at the price.

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It's a million £ question! and it applies to so many industries in life. Question is, how much people value your work, and the only real way to find out is to ask!

Try visiting shops that sell local artists work, this could give you a good first grounding, but also selling them online at a low price, then each time you get a sale or two, raise the price, until no one buys your products.

It's all about impression to. You can make a product that is no better than your competition, but if you make your product/packaging look more sophisticated, and posh, the wealthy people will pay more for it, purely for status and bragging rights.

Only you can really answer your own question directly.

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