New Here! I Have Questions!!

Here are some tips for you that we give people photographing their work. However, even if you scan, some will help

First off, all artwork should be photographed following these simple steps:

1. Use at least a 10-12 MP camera, with a manual focus lens not an auto focus. The higher the MP the camera, the larger the file we have to print from. If you want to offer large prints, you need to use a high MP camera.

2. Mount the camera to a tripod. If you don't have a tripod, use a stack of books, a table, anything. You just have to have the camera sitting on something, not hand held.

3. Shoot outdoors in natural light. Make sure you white balance your camera too, or the colors won't be right.

4. Preview the image to make sure there are no blurry areas, flash problems, etc.

5. Export at the highest possible file size while staying under our less than 25 MB limit.

To preview an image in photo editing software simply use the zoom icon to zoom in on the image until it's viewed at 100% print size. What you will find is that viewing it at 100% you will be able to see if there are any problem areas.

Look all around the image at 100%, the edges included. If the image has no problems, blurry areas, uncropped edges, or areas where there is flash reflecting off the image, then you're on your way to a great image.

Second, you have to determine how large you want your image printed to. Go to the image menu, and click "Resize Image". DO NOT RESIZE THE IMAGE TO BLOW IT UP LARGER IN THIS MENU. That will only result in a blurry, pixelated, problematic image.

We need 100 pixels/inch in order to have a nice image for printing. That makes the math easy as well. Your image menu can be viewed as a pixels/inch ratio, and you can see how many inches wide by tall your image is. You can shrink down the inches in this menu if the image is blurry. THis is shrinking the image to make it a little smaller. You can shrink the image down and it will help the quality of the image, just never blow it up in this menu.

If your image is 1400 pixels by 1000 pixels then the image can be printed up to 14x10. etc.etc.

That's all you need to preview your image. Doing that will help inform you how large your image can be printed to, and whether it's print ready when zooming in at 100% to see it's quality of focus and to see if there are any problem areas.

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Community Manager

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you'll want to scan it in for best results. i think you can get more money for it... however if you only have the one piece it will be hard to sell only one. people like choices. if you can afford hiring a pro to shoot it for you, i would do that. you want a large image (From camera), clean background, nice colors, little compression.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I'm sure there is someone out there that would be happy to pay more than $300 for that painting, the problem is finding him/her. $300 is a very low price for that size of painting.

Selling art is ...well difficult at best. It's not shoes, food, etc. Until you develop a group of collectors (some say 100) which may or may not take some time it will be slow going. Thus the marketing efforts. It's an ongoing thing.

Prices are difficult too. $300. seems low to me for that size painting whether I like it or not doesn't much matter. It's a very personal purchase decision for most. I think you need a number of images as well, a selection. Is this something you wish to make a full time business or just a hobby? For me I want it full time, I don't paint quickly so at $300. per painting it will never get me to the point where I can live on it. This is from my personal experience working in art galleries for many many years. It's a bit different from what we are talking about here but still something to take into account. I have known photographers and painters both who have been frustrated by not selling and what they thought are low and reasonable prices. The assumption being that lower will be more attractive and sell more quickly than more costly pieces in the gallery. That assumption is completely false in most instances. These different artists frustrated and disgusted by the lack of sales doubled the prices on all of their work. An act of defiance, frustration, whatever. Guess what, they started to sell. Why, one might ask? They were undervaluing the work so much that the buying public didn't believe it was of value. You have to realize that your buying public is not the everyday schmo but someone who has the cash to buy but not the education to know what is good or bad regardless of it's price. It has to hurt a little for them to be convinced it has value. They have to understand value in terms of cost. Sad, but a reality. Most folks are not able to trust just their understanding of art. They know that they don't know so they are on very wobbly turf. Their confidence is often shaken in this somewhat unfamiliar territory. Oh sure they know what they like but is that enough to buy your art? Thus the value in a good salesman in my opinion.

I have my paintings scanned with a very high quality machine. Not what the average, predominately photographers, here on FAA are doing or going to recommend. Prints are just a business decision to add a lower price point for those that can not afford an original as well as a long term income stream depending on how much and how well you market. Again this marketing thing. Many more folks will see my images as prints which makes my originals of more value over time. Everyone buying art wants the original but most are only willing or able to afford prints. Nationally known artists can get $200. and more for a high quality Ltd. Edition print and sell many of them. Look at print publishers like Somerset Fine Art, Greenwich Workshop, etc. I should get a commission from promoting this book but I don't. Barney Davey has written a bible of sorts, "How to Profit from the Art Print Market." They should give everyone in FAA a copy as part of the membership. It's a must read. This guy really knows his stuff.