Fine Art Photography: The Complete Guide

Lesson Info

How to Choose Editions

So editions this is where things start to get fun because you get to really mold your process now and how you're going to offer your prints and exactly what your business will be like. I think it's really exciting at least. Hopefully you do too So you can have open editions or limited edition prints And this is just a choice that you'll make. So an open edition will be more affordable in general whereas a limited edition will be more expensive. And hopefully that's pretty obvious as to why, if you have an open edition meaning you can sell as many prints as you want at any sizes that you want You're never limited well then they're not special as much as a limited edition where you're not going to sell more than a certain amount so I shouldn't have said special that was really the wrong word they're very special either way because it's your image. But they're not as what's the right word give me a word for limited that's not saying rare thank you okay they're not as rare so that's why th...

ey're more affordable. And then the opposite is true of limited edition the more you limit your edition meaning you're limiting the number of prints that will ever be out there in the world it's going to be more expensive for that naturally. So then the number of editions this is a little bit confusing now, so we're moving into the confusing realm of editioning and pricing but the first choice is open edition limited edition and maybe already you guys are like I know what I wanna do I know the direction I'm gonna go in. Do any of you guys feel like you don't know you're just like nah I have no idea which one I want to do and that's okay, that's okay let it digest a little bit, and even I would really suggest going into galleries or spaces where prints are sold and seeing is this artist selling open edition prints or limited edition and what price point are they at and is that sustainable for me because the more you have open edition prints you're probably gonna have to hustle to sell larger quantities of them to make the same amount that you would for a limited edition print. Just something to consider when you're thinking long term about making a living from selling your prints. So the reason why I say this is confusing is because we're not only talking about open versus limited we're talking about the number of editions okay so if you have open editions and you're like I'm doing open edition I don't care I'm going to sell as many as I want in as many sizes as I want then what I have written below here does not matter. Cause you're not doing limited editions but if you want to if that's a consideration for you, then you'll want to think about how the larger number of your edition size I'm gonna make this very clear in just a second the more affordable it will be. So if I have this image right here and this is my one of my ten inch prints and I have this hanging on a gallery wall to sell, this is an edition of 15 meaning that I will print this exact image at this exact size 15 times and no more than that. So that's my edition number here 15 on this size print. So if I have 15 available that might have a lower price point versus the same exact print at the size where you're only selling five of them. So the larger the number of the edition, the more affordable the print is for the art buyer. The smaller the number the more expensive it is. And golly we're gonna talk about this even more. So these are my editions and my sizes and you can see that here. 10 inch print edition of 15, 20 inch print edition of and it keeps going down as the size gets bigger which is really standard here to have the bigger the print the smaller the edition size on that print. And the idea being that if it gets bigger you should be able to put a higher price tag on it and the way that you're helping yourself do that is by having a smaller edition size. This is all very difficult for me to wrap my head around so hopefully it's not difficult for you and you're doing okay there at the end of the day if we go back to this framed print here if I were to sell this image in all of my sizes lets just say I miraculously sold out of every single edition that I have at every single size that would mean that I will have sold 37 prints of this image okay. So it's not only important to think about your sizes of your editions here individually but also what is it add up to to the total size or I'm sorry the size of the edition so that's 37 for me. So for my general works I will sell 37 of this image at various sizes to sell out of that image completely. And that's a really important thing to think about which I completely overlooked when I was setting my editions You know when I was getting my advice everyone just said oh just set it by the sizes and I had four sizes and I chose numbers that seemed reasonable and then I had a portfolio review where I sat down with a gallery and she said do you realize that you offer 37 prints of this image and I was like nope I did not ever think about that even once and I regretted not thinking about that I regretted that I didn't take into account what those numbers add up to because I probably would have lowered my editions slightly but again the good thing is that when you put out a new body of work you can change your editions for that new body of work and that's always something to think about. So for my new series I have the two sizes and my eight inch size is editioned out of three and my 42 inch size is editioned out of two it's a total of five prints in case anyone can't do three plus two five prints total for every single image in that series. And that's very much limited from 37. Which is quite a large number especially if you have a high volume of prints that you offer which is a totally other thing to consider when you're editioning is do you have a small portfolio of images that you offer for print or do you have a huge portfolio of images that you offer for print? And it can be really hard to limit yourself in terms of what you offer for print because if somebody emails you and they say oh I saw this image way in the depths of your social media and I really wanna buy it it's not gonna be easy to say oh I don't offer that one for sale because the only reason why you're not is simply to limit the number of prints that you offer in the long run. So that can be a little bit of a test of willpower I think to say no to people if they want to buy a certain image but it is something to consider in terms of how you're pricing your work is how rare are my images not just with the edition number but how many total images am I offering to print for people? So something to consider.

Creating a great photo for a client is one thing - but turning your passion and ideas into a series that is shared, shown, and sold is a whole different business. If you do it right, you’ll be shooting what you love all the time. Learn how to choose which ideas to create, how to turn your concept into a production, and steps to getting your work seen and even sold in Fine Art Photography: A Complete Guide with Award-Winning Photographer, Brooke Shaden.

This is an all-inclusive workshop that provides the tools you need to run a successful and creative business as a fine art photographer. You’ll learn creative exercises to find and develop your ideas, how to create an original narrative, how to produce your own photo series, post production techniques and skills for compositing and retouching, how to write about your work, ways to pitch to galleries and agents, and how to print your pieces so they look like art.

This workshop will take you on location with Brooke as she creates a photo series from scratch. She’ll walk through every step for her photo shoots including set design and location scouting, she’ll cover techniques in the field for capturing your artistic vision, post-production and compositing techniques, as well as printing and framing essentials.

She’ll round out this experience by discussing all of the details that will help make your career a success like licensing, commissions, artists statements, social media plans, gallery prep, and pricing your work.

This comprehensive course is a powerful look into the world of fine art photography led by one of the world’s most talented photographers, Brooke Shaden. Included with purchase is exclusive access to bonus material that gives exercises and downloads for all of the lessons.

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