I want to sell my photography but how?

Question

i love to take pictures and everyone one says they are nice...so how do i sell them? do they have to be a certain size to sell..how much...how do i sell them...where.....with frame without....does my name have to be one them.. can it be on them?

some one point me in the right direction...help?

Answer 1

well theres two ways i know of and thats through istockphoto.com, where you get payed per sold photo and the amount you get payed is how large the picture downloaded is(the sizes vary). Or if your more of a artist and you dont want to sell your art work off for nothing then make a bunch of prints in 5x7s, 8x10, etc. and show them at a flea market or somewhere like that. But if your in it for the money, income, then you can take clean, simple pictures of ordinary objects, kids, people, and sell them at bulk for the general public to use for what they want and hope the pictures are popular enough to sell in hundreds. And that is when you start making money.  

Answer 2

Why don't you try attending a few art fairs or flea markets. If you want to sell your work as art, you need to see what the competition is doing and how they are doing it. You will need to be able to produce high resolution images for high quality work. Your average digital these days just isn't enough. Things may look great on screen, but they may not print so hot when blown up to a functional art size.

Answer 3

This is a question I have seen here a lot, and I tend to ignore. (truth be told, I ignore them because the question bothers me, but we'll get to that in a minute.)

The question you are asking is frustrating and complex. I am a photojournalism student right now, and this very problem gets brought up a lot. Obviously my view leans towards the editorial and newsworthy side of photography, but most of my advice applies to fine art photography as well.

Basically, thanks to developments in technology, anybody with enough money to spend can make professional quality prints. The images themselves won't be professional, but that's not the point.

As a result of this trend, now people of independent wealth (when I say independent, I generally mean they can afford the photography equipment doing something other than photography) can go out to the same event the professionals are shooting and get similar, if more amateur results. Then when a newspaper or magazine wants an image of that event, they can get a low quality image of it free of charge, or pay what suddenly seems like a hefty charge for an image that, given the price comparison, seems only slightly higher quality.

Long story short, prosumers are driving photography as a business into the ground.

However, if you are truly interested in being a professional photographer all is not lost. Bachelors degrees in photography or photojournalism are available in most universities and will get you very far indeed, though in the end it is the all-important portfolio that will save you. Work on your vision, your lighting and compositional skills, but most importantly work on your story-telling skills as a visual artist. Every shot you take should tell a story. You know the saying about a picture being worth a thousand words? They underestimated.

Another good idea for furthering a career is internships with magazines, newspapers, whoever will take you under their wing. This teaches you the importance of deadlines, editing for success, and what shots to get. If you don't think you want to go down that route then that's fine, find a magazine you like and analyze the images. Heck, analyze every image.

Try to figure out what lighting they used, what lens, where the photographer stood in relation to the subject, what aperture, shutter speed, etc. etc. Then try to imitate the image. Don't try to sell an exact imitation of course, but by recreating images you like, you learn how good images are made, and can use those tricks later on.

Then, once you think you have a collection of images you can be really proud of, call a local newspaper (or magazine, or art gallery) and ask them if they would be kind enough to review your portfolio. Then you will be getting advice from the very people looking to hire people like you. If they like it, who knows, if they don't, take their advice and grow more. It's truly a win-win situation.

Look at everything, and analyze every photo you see. Above all, if you want to be a professional photographer, be a professional. Please don't be another one of those guys out ruining it for the rest of us.