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by Brian Stirling on Sat Dec 21, 2013 1:20 pm
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I'd like to know from the folks that have been selling prints for more than a few years if you've seen a change in the ratio of smaller to larger prints being purchased.  My suspicion is that with new, high resolution laptops and tablets, the market for 8 x 10 prints would be less than it was before the availability of high resolution display devices.

Also, are you getting more requests for digital versions of you prints?

The reason I'm asking is ... if you were looking to put together a printing capability for selling prints would you be a little more inclined to go with a bigger printer because of softening of demand for smaller prints? 


Brian
 

by E.J. Peiker on Sat Dec 21, 2013 1:53 pm
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In my opinion, and this may just be my business, print sales have dropped dramatically in the last 10 years unless you are out there at art shows on weekends sitting at a table selling them, something I would not even consider at this point in my life.  Maybe I need to sign up with some third party art service...

As for size, by far my most common sizes that I sell are 5x7 and 8x10 or 8x12.
 

by Trev on Sat Dec 21, 2013 4:52 pm
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Size varies I only go up to 21 on the longest edge. My sales of prints have gone up. (you cant hang an ipad on your living room wall) :)
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by Steve Cirone on Sun Dec 22, 2013 4:11 am
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Our local band of photo gypsies have mostly switched to using Apple TV to show their images on their big flat screens in their living rooms. At our parties, the big screen is rolling by itself in the background. We all have printers and projectors, just rarely seem to use them.

For image sharing, most of us have switched to flickr, smugmug, and the like. We often image share over lunch, accessing those sites remotely on mobile devices.

Amazing how fast mobile devices have taken over photography! I still have one buddy who prints and shows at the art shows in Laguna Beach California. But he uses this activity to build his email list and advertise his Africa Photo Tours. It is not about print sales.
 
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by Brian Stirling on Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:16 pm
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Is anyone selling images in digital form?  If so, what kind of resolution?  I would think that most of the people that would buy a image file would be looking to display on a tablet, computer or HDTV so going much higher than about 8MP wouldn't seem necessary.

But, if the print business is going away how do we receive compensation for our work?

It seems the big names in large format printers have been late with new models -- is my impression that they're late with new models accurate?  If so, why would they be holding off releasing new models?


Brian
 

by E.J. Peiker on Sun Dec 22, 2013 1:56 pm
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Brian Stirling wrote:But, if the print business is going away how do we receive compensation for our work?
Print sales was never a significant component of my sales even though I do sell them, just on a declining frequency.  Publications, advertising, workshops, and commissioned photos are well over 95% of my business with the first three taking about 30% each.
 

by DarkSide on Wed Jan 22, 2014 11:50 am
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I think there will always be print. I'm all about technology, etc., but like it's said above, you can't hang an iPad on your wall; and digital frames are junk.

Classy folks will always want nice prints on their walls, be them portraits, landscapes, or whatnot.
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by John Guastella on Wed Jan 22, 2014 2:39 pm
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Classy folks...
Waiting for the definition, so I can locate them and sell them some prints.

John
 

by Royce Howland on Wed Jan 22, 2014 6:39 pm
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I know people doing well selling prints; they market their work actively. I have not actively promoted my own work in the past, but I'm starting to. Sales are slowly increasing as a result. But I don't have time to exhibit at general art & craft shows, and don't wish to deal with elitist high-end galleries. And for online presence, I don't wish to be one of "those guys" shrilly hawking my wares with every single blog or social media post. :) So that provides a natural limit on the outlets for my work until I can get into the right kind of bricks & mortar display operation.

I know some photographers doing well selling digital files, but normally this is only for commercial scenarios, including a few still doing stock photo licensing; or digital copies of event photos like weddings. The numbers doing well selling digital files is declining I feel; many are selling them but not doing financially as well at it as before because of price erosion. The ones who are doing well at it are, again, masters at actively marketing themselves into customer bases that value their work. Most generic buyers don't seem to want to pay much (or anything!) for files these days. I don't know anybody selling digital files as artworks.

I do believe there has been an upward trend in the average size of prints being sold, from talking to other "fine art" photographers and looking at the work being sold in my region. Specifics will depend on each artist: how they make, price & package their work; how they market it; and to what sorts of audiences.

If I was going to bring a large format print capability in house, I would probably concentrate on a 44" size printer to have flexibility in size. But there's a ton of investment, learning, maintenance, etc. involved in that decision. Even though I have more than enough know-how to do it, I've chosen to stay focused on 17" desktop models for my in-house printing. I outsource anything larger to either my online print-on-demand service or to a local master printer for my special edition work.

As to recent updates for the large format printers, there's a combination of things affecting this.
  • Canon has been updating the iPF series of large format series pretty frequently. Their x400 series is relatively new and doesn't much need to be updated from what I can tell. I spent a bunch of time working with the monster iPF9400 recently and I really like what I saw with it. The smaller iPF6400/6450 and iPF8400 share the same abilities.
  • The Epson x900 series is a bit older and there are some potential head issues based on certain reports I've read, though the issues may not necessarily be wide-spread. In general terms, though, the Epson x900's also don't seem to lack for much. You can find small things where Epson or Canon have advantages over each other, but both companies current models produce amazing results.
  • HP is a different story -- their models haven't been updated in a long time since the company has been having some trouble and seems to have largely withdrawn from the general inkjet printing market, focusing more on corporate or commercial sales.
  • Having said the above, we're still trying to come out of a global financial meltdown, and this affects both product producers and consumers.
  • The existing models are highly capable and nobody is screaming for them to do things they can't already do. Except for the perennial head clogging issue with Epson which would require a radical re-design to address, and Epson has shown no signs of being willing to address that issue.
  • Large format models tend to be pretty robustly built and don't fall apart or need to be replaced as quickly as consumer models. But as a trade-off, they do require a more costly level of maintenance to keep running smoothly since they aren't intended to be "disposable" units thrown out & replaced every 12 months.
  • I don't know about market numbers for large format models but it's a niche type of product. If existing models are anywhere near saturation among the people who would buy them, then the immediate sales return from producing new models would be minimal compared to the R&D cost to produce something really substantially upgraded.
Royce Howland
 

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