 Dylan Straub |
Displaying Pictures for Sale I would like to sell my work at my parents' jewelry shop. I would like to know how best to display my images. I could frame them and hang them on the wall with my father's paintings. Someone also suggested I sell them unframed. So what do you suggest?
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Jeffrey R. Whitmoyer |
Since it is a jewelry shop and is an upmarket area, I would hang framed works, being careful of frame selection. You could make price tags the size of business cards which note that the print is also available matted and unframed, and has your contact info on it. That way you are showing high end work, but also giving your customers an option to select their own frames. The unframed images could possibly be stored on site, eliminating the possibility of someone rethinking their purchase. I have been using black frames and white mats for all of my work, but I am thinking that keeping it simple doesn't always translate well to the customer. There are so many different theories regarding frame and mat types it is hard to know what will work best for you. Jeff
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Dylan Straub |
Jeff,thanks for your input. Since most of my subject matter is flowers and landscapes I was thinking of black matting to make the images pop. Is a black metal frame and a black mat too over the top? I guess I'll have to figure that out for myself. I like your idea with the business cards and I sure do appreciate your advice. Thanks much.
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- Fax Sinclair Contact Fax Sinclair Fax Sinclair's Gallery |
Always stick with white mats. Colored or black mats will kill your sales. I have found this to be true over years of trying.
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Jeffrey R. Whitmoyer |
I would stick with white mats almost exclusively. There may be the rare occasion where a colored mat would work well. If you want some variation, I'd suggest making it in the frame style/color. For my flower work I use the black/white combo, often using a black background for the actual flower shot. That combination generally pops. Jeff
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Dylan Straub |
Thanks everyone for your input on this issue. I think that I will go with the black background for the flower shot and white for the mat.
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Dylan Straub |
I'm also considering the size of my pictures and would like to know what everyone thinks. I shoot in the highest quality setting (fine ultra fine, etc.) and think most of my images would stand up to at least 8x10 or 10x10. Should I go bigger?
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- Fax Sinclair Contact Fax Sinclair Fax Sinclair's Gallery |
Bigger is better - unless it puts your price point above your buyers. (A good way to figure price is three times what you spent on materials.) Many times if you hit "print with preview" the printer will extrapolate up to a bigger size without much loss of clarity. And there are programs to "size-up." In PS, if you took a pic and made it twice as big, it would look terrible, but if you increase it only ten percent at a time, it will look fine. And only do this to duplicates, never your original.
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Jeffrey R. Whitmoyer |
Since you're going into a jewelry shop, I would think that bigger is better, too, for a hopefully upscale client base. Don't undersell yourself or price yourself out of the market. Remember that you need to become famous first and theoretically the money will follow. I'm dealing with pricing issues right now for the art and craft shows I've been doing and am looking at tailoring the work on display towards the type of crowd expected. Art shows would include higher end larger images whereas craft shows would include smaller images and some of the knick-knack kind of things that sell at those events. The big thing is to find a way to move the merchandise at a reasonable profit. Jeff
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Dylan Straub |
Thanks for the help. I think I'll start with the lower end of medium format and we'll see how that goes over with the locals.
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