Previous | Contents | Next

There are so many reasons why the printed image matters, but long term accessibility to your most treasured photos is surely a deal breaker.

Why printed images matter

Back in the ’90s I remember walking back to our trade show booth behind two people from a neighbouring stand.

They were into IT.

As they approached our booth I heard one say to the other, “I feel sorry for these guys. How long can they last in the modern world?”

It’s so long ago I feel like they must have been visionaries — how did they know what was going to happen in the modern world? But there you are — they’ve gone and we’re still here. More important, our products are still here.

Also, they were wrong.

Social photography is the business of capturing our memories and stories.

What’s the likelihood of Facebook, or Instagram, or DVDs, or thumb drives, or USB connections — or tapes, or Super 8 film — being around when our children and grandchildren want to know about us?

If history is any guide, not much. I’ve been using computers since before the IBM PC, and I have several generations of computer-stored memories, images, business records and documents I can no longer access.

Photographers are no longer selling their images on DVD, which is good because I have nothing to view DVDs with. No player and no DVD drive on my computer. Our music and movie DVDs live under the TV with the tapes we haven’t played since the VHS breathed its last.

DVDs were a tragedy for photography. And don’t you think the people who have responded by supplying their files on USB flash drives have missed the point?

There are so many reasons why the printed image matters, but long term accessibility to your most treasured photos is surely a deal breaker.

The Queensberry Rules

Forget about boxing, these are the Queensberry Rules for photographers.

1. When you hire a professional what you’re paying for is her time, skill and artistry, but outstanding presentation can add enormous value to the images.

2. Focusing on the presentation takes nothing away from the photography. It simply places it in a new context where it can be better valued and respected.

3. Presenting your work the same way as everyone else is better than not bothering at all, but it adds much less value.

4. Your presentation should be part of what makes you stand out in the marketplace.

Show me the money

There are three ways to profit from product sales.

1. You benefit from the sale of the products themselves.

2. They provide a way to generate add-on sales (eg more pages in an album, more images framed).

3. They help project your studio at the high end of the market, so it’s easier to justify higher prices overall, quite separate from the profit on the product itself.

This may seem simple but it’s not.

Studios often use products like books and albums in strategically different ways, and at different stages in their careers. For example some are prepared to take a hit on No. 1 in the interests of maximising No. 2 or No. 3.

And interestingly, many studios completely fail to recognise the opportunities that 2 and 3 offer.

Traveling salesmen

It’s interesting that portrait photographers sell products but many wedding photographers are strictly “shoot and share”.

I’ve said this already — I think I know why.

Portrait customers are volunteers, but a lot of brides and grooms are draftees. Hiring a photographer is just something they’re expected to do, and the less they spend on the photographer the more they can spend on important things like the flowers, the dress and the reception. (As someone said, “Don’t assume they don’t have the money. They’re just not spending it with you.”)

 If you think albums are a lot of work, too expensive and nobody wants them anyway, we completely get it, but here’s another way to think of them:

Your sample albums are silent salesmen. Your prospects may never have seen anything like them. Leave them alone with the albums while you make them a coffee. Don’t rush back. It’s a chance to impress them, and it introduces them to what you want to sell.

Your client albums are traveling salesmen! Just as wall art, folio boxes and so on are for portrait photographers. (I mean, what’s the point of that family portrait sitting, or having your golden retrievers photographed lolloping down the beach, if you don’t frame them?)

Every product you sell invites friends and family to say, “Wow, who did that, and how much did it cost?” Your customers will be proud to tell them, and now you have a pre-qualified prospect.

Besides, they aren’t a lot of work. Certainly Queensberry will do everything from colour correction to album design and drop-shipping if you want.

Profit Centres

In an effort to cut costs, photographers sometimes forget that it’s not how much their albums, prints and wall art costs that matters, but how much they’re worth.

Great presentation, like good design, is money in the bank. From a business point of view, the right question is, what value could your products add, and are you realising it?

The albums, frames and other products you offer are key parts of what makes you, and your clients, stand out from the crowd. Or not.

Which products?

We’ve lost count of the people who say their head spins when they look at the range of product we offer. “Where do I start?”

But if you go into a clothing store you don’t look at everything. What are you looking for? Beachwear? Sleepwear? A winter coat?

Same here. What works for wedding photography? Portrait photography? Boudoir? New borns? Pets? Fine Art? Schools? Teams?

“Tell us about yourself, what you do, what’s the problem you’re trying to solve.”

Then we can help.

Portraiture

Portrait photography covers a wide field (you might say!) but two questions are clarifying:

Are you selling one photo or several? One photo points to a canvas or frame, so start there. Several photos may point to a wall art grouping or a folio box.

Are the photos “public” or “private”? A family shoot with everybody looking their best may point to something for the wall, a boudoir shoot to a folio box or a beautiful wrap-around book that reflects its intimacy.

What about the ultimate family shoot — a “day in the life”? A shoot that shows everyone at work and play. In different groups and individually. On the beach with the dogs. Playing cards, the violin or the fool. At home, in the city or out on the farm. I’d want an album as part of the deal simply because of the breadth of content.

And going back in the clothing store metaphor, you don’t try on all the winter coats. Something catches your eye, so you try it on to see how it fits, and how it looks on you.

Same with frames. Don’t choose what everyone else is. Pick what suits your work and appeals to you. So you can sell it with confidence. 

Fine art

If your speciality is landscape, travel, or fine art photography your goal is to sell images to buyers who appreciate them as art but had no part in their creation. The people in the viewfinder aren’t paying the bills. Practically speaking you’re selling decor for people’s homes and offices.

Queensberry gets involved with fine art photographers mainly through the Print Shop platform (in Workspace) and our wall art products — canvases, frames (printed and assembled), and loose prints for custom framing.

But reliable high quality printing is only one issue. The other is workflow. How do you make the sale, collect payment and deliver the finished art? You could use Print Shop as your sales platform, in which case we can handle everything for you. Or you could handle the sales process yourself and simply order wholesale.

Either way we can ship to your studio or direct to your customer. Drop-shipping seems like an important issue to me! Suppose a couple from Houston Texas are tempted by a New Zealand landscape photographer’s beautiful panorama of that braided river in the Southern Alps? They can catch a non-stop flight back home, but what about their art? Drop shipping solves that problem.

This may not be as big a challenge as when a younger Heather and Ian bought a crockery set in Vietnam and lugged it all round that country for the rest of their trip.

People knowing they can ship their purchase home removes a major barrier to the sale.

Selling to a crowd

Group photography (schools, teams, galas, graduations etc) is another case where you shoot the pictures before you make the sale. But unlike fine art photographers you need to sell to a crowd. Literally. You need affordable prices, a great workflow and lots of sales.

Efficient systems are essential so your customers can find their individual photos and order and pay hassle-free. You need them to get a lot of moderately priced work out the door at a profit!

Often that means you need to be part of a franchise that provides all that infrastructure. But Workspace offers that as well. Affordable loose prints; individual log-ins online; personal, sibling and group images; multi sheets (multiple copies of an image on one print); and the chance to offer your customers tempting upgrades. We can deliver to the individual customer or in bulk to an organisation (eg a school). All accomplished with specialised functionality in Workspace.

Just a really expensive book

People don’t buy albums the way they might a cheap photo book of their holiday in Spain.

Longevity, style, quality and pride all play a role in making albums much more than souvenirs.

Longevity is about the enduring nature of the design and imagery, and how they will stand up in years to come.

Style is about your art and craft. We see tens of thousands of albums – enough to know that most successful photographers have a signature look to their imagery and design. That look brings respect to those who recognise it (as they might an art piece or a fine wine) and to those who own it.

Quality is about the elements involved in the creation of the book. The page layouts, the image editing, the materials, the printing, the binding, the presentation, the attention to detail.

And then there is pride. Their pride in family and the celebration you’ve documented for them. Your own pride, passionately expressed, in your photographs and albums, the stories they tell, their look and feel.

Leave all that unexpressed and you may be left with just a really expensive book.

Greatest hits

Every now and then we see a sample album with images from several weddings in it. We call them “Greatest Hits” albums.

Even after discounts a sample album can be a big investment, especially when you’re starting out — we know that — but the Greatest Hits sample album is not generally a very good idea for at least three reasons.

1. It’s not what your clients will be buying, so it’s hard for them to relate to. A bit of a puzzle.

2. Even worse, it’s not convincing evidence that you’re up to the job. They’ll be thinking, couldn’t she find enough good images from one wedding?

3. What an album does is tell a story – of their day, their event. And that disappears completely in a Greatest Hits album.

You’ll get much more bangs for your buck if your new sample puts in their hands what you want them to buy.

Your most compelling images deserve a frame. Your most compelling image collections deserve an album.

NEXT