Are your prints too big to sell. Is there an optimum size - what do you need to consider.

For selling fine art, photo and art prints, is there a 'best' size? Am I making prints too big to sell - it depends on who wants them.

Why I make big prints - when does it matter? Should you stick to smaller prints if you want to sell them.

One of my 'Business' of photography videos - there are many more in the business play list.

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[garybrindle]

A 4 are popular because the buyer will then duplicate the print for friends on a copier regardless of quality, larger print sizes make this impossible for most.

[dukeofurl]

This is fine work. I am amazed at how much excellent training/learning/tutorials about photography there are. I set out to learn photography online and I put together a course outline first then began building a directory to store what I have learned in the last 18 months. Printing is in my future and I am glad to have seen you on Tinhouse, another youtuber I follow along with Justin Mott, an assignment shooter in Vietnam. Each has given me insights into areas I could not afford a GOTO school for. At present I am using DXO pure RAW 4 and I was wondering if you have experience printing after using something like this for noise reduction and optical correction or Topaz Labs Gigapixel AI for upscaling ? Thanks. That Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-2600 sure would look good on my table if I get that far...

[robertpanick]

As usual in photography the answer is "It Depends" :)

Nice take on the subject and some interesting information to think about.

Unrelated, I'm currently using an Epson Stylus 1400, which generally produces good prints. Not bad considering I think the printer is close to 10 years old, and amazingly I can still get ink for it. I'd love to go to the Epson 18100 but it's not sold here in the US, but I have considered ordering one from Amazon UK. The 18100 would likely save me money in the long run, in savings from not having to buy print cartridges for the 1400. The other option is a P700 or possibly a P900, but my concern there is it will likely cost me more in the long run, and will I run into clogging issues if I only print once a month? I would like the larger color range of the P700/P900 and the P900 would allow me to do larger prints. Thank you for any suggestions.

[CharlesBonham-bhmt]

In a recent Art Fair in my community (Michigan ) I sold three 12 x 18 inch prints matted to 18 x 24 inches. I sold three 8 x 12 prints matted to 12 x 16, both standard frame sizes. The three larger ones were Landscapes, the three smaller ones work well with small subjects like butterflies or macro work. I also had several 16 x 24 inch prints matted to 22 x 30 and a few canvas prints 20 x 24 and 24 x 36 inches, while they got a lot attention and comments they did not sell.

[RogerHyam]

There are only so many empty walls out there to fill. You are really competing for real estate? Big prints also need to be viewed from father away so probably you could look at the target market and see what size houses they have and work back from there!

[windavis]

Hi Keith, love you channel it’s super helpful, can you help me why does canon pro print and layout. Only let me print at 240dpi? Why is this and please if you can help me. I’ve tried everything to get the 300 dpi and it is stuck at that. I’ve canon pro 300

[J.K.Barrik]

Hi Keith, I would be grateful for some advice please.

I'm in the process of publish my first cookbook, and I have obtained printed proof copies of my book from 5 different professional printing companies, including Amazon KDP.

The problem is, whilst the text comes out great, the photos don't look anywhere near as good as they do on my computer screen i.e., the pictures on my computer screen are very sharp and vivid, but the printed pictures in the books are shockingly poor as they're flat, dull, and nowhere near as sharp, and this is with all 5 copies from 5 different professional book printing companies.

The pictures were taken with a quality DSLR camera and as i said, are of very high clarity and definition, but the printed pictures don't look good - can you advise why that might be?

Thanks.

[WZ]

I've been a photography hobbyist since 1977, and I don't have a single print on my walls 😊 But I do concur, I like seeing large prints.. Perhaps one day, I'll find a wall-worthy photo in my archives, and print it.

[ronboe]

A side comment/observation after checking out a gallery up in Minnesota off Lake Superior. He had LARGE prints (measured in feet or meters - not cm or inches). Two customers come to mind (never mind the prices): commercial folks and very well off people as they will have homes/buildings with rooms and walls large enough to display such prints. So, to some degree, the size you will sell will depend upon the market you are trying to reach. Well healed people simply have more wall space available. Us folks on beer and kool-aid budgets - not so much. In fact buying a print then trying to find a reasonably priced frame to put it in could strain the budget. :)

[fransschmitz]

One day back in 2006 I was in New York and had a hotel on the 71th street just around the corner of Broadway. So for 5 days in a row I went down broadway walking up to Times Square and for 5 days I was dazzled by the fact that about half way down I would see this massive picture of this top-sporter in a trainings suite standing there in front of me. I still have pictures of it, and as I counted later, the image was about 40 stores hig, imagine that!
Thats where I found my love for large printing found acknowledged, downtown Broadway/Times Square New York. I had done some large printing made in a printers-shop, from as much as 2, 40 cm by 12 meters and sold it for backdrop purposes at various clients but never ever anything came close to that one I saw over there. But I must agree with you Keith, there is nothing more beautiful than a large print in the size of an A0 ore something like that. Thank you for another great video Keith!

[sword-and-shield]

Great points, I think image content and the consumers interest in that content can matter greatly, and can vary wildly, as well. Most consumers these days know the capabilities to change print size are possible, so I say print the size that you think the content needs to be to draw in and make them want a "print" first. So image content specifics will always make this a variable. Once you have the consumer interest, the size is just a negotiation after the fact, if at all from what it already is. Thx for the vid.

[brainrussell]

Thanks for your thoughts/experiences. I'm going for a different tact... the "field of dreams" shoot it and they will come. The idea is to create a very unique, one of a kind photo of a very specific subject or genre, and then to seek out very specific collectors to direct market to. Said marketing to include a photo of the piece displayed on a wall, next to a person for scale... and yes, bigger is absolutely better! The rights of the piece will transfer to the buyer and they will have rights to print copies should they wish. Wall space is rarely an issue for these specific buyers, and the idea of owning the "sole" original iteration only adds to its uniqueness. The caveat is that said pieces must be VERY distinctive and captivating.

[verdedoodleduck]

Thank you - not terribly surprising but it is good to hear more confirmation. I have always assumed the smaller prints would do well but haven't been sure whether the bigger prints (and what size) would be worth producing. I think in my market smaller is better but I'm glad my printer can do the 13"w. I'm still not sure of the economy of printing my own works in larger quantities.

[TarrelScot]

I think a lot depends on the selling environment. I sell at local markets and art fairs, and normally have one or two large pieces on display, as much for attention-grabbing as anything else. They rarely sell, but smaller (16x12 and 10x8) mounted prints and cards do well. But last year I took a week’s rent on a ‘pop up shop’ in my local town and ran a self promoted exhibition. I had several large 36” x 24” framed canvasses on display and they all sold. Interestingly, they were abstract landscapes (mostly ICM) which rarely sell as small prints.

[Richardincancale]

As you say - depends on the market… but I’d say there’s a significant difference between commercial and domestic environments - clearly the former can use big images in their vestibule or board rooms etc. For domestic A4 to A3 images, plus the mount which adds almost another size step. In exhibitions where entry is by jury you have a better chance with smaller images (say A4) as they can get more images in their exhibition than taking a chance on an A0. Similarly for galleries - they can get more on their walls with many small images.

[Tubeytime]

Hey Keith, this is my kind of video as I want to get into printing my digital art! Few questions for you:

- When people say "A# paper", do they sometimes mean "in the range of A#" or is it always strict?
- When you hold prints and it looks like you're creasing the paper (1:22) are you actually damaging the print or is it mostly harmless? I'm paranoid lol.
- Does most of the material cost of a print come from the paper or the ink? As I understand, it's like 90:10 paper to ink.
- Finally, I'd love to hear your thoughts on storing prints, with considerations to humidity, acidity, rolling or laying flat, shelf life and so on.

You're a legend, keep it up!