I charge $50 an hour for retouching, most pics only need half hour so it’s $25.00 to retouch it and save in various file formats and then I also charge them for the CD ($10-15) and if they want prints.(9×12 on 11×17 is $20.00) I am lucky to have loyal clients, people of good taste who want it good and quality, not cheap and fast.
I give them the option to take the unretouched digital files to any other printer too, so no one is forcing them to order from me. The local laser shops do a quite decent job for a lot less but my clients want me after I show them examples of my work and prints.
We used to sell hand made BW fiber based prints for similar prices with hand etching/scraping silver off retouching which is quite labor intensive, so a lot of my customers were used to paying for custom work. After I realized how much time it takes to make really nice prints and the costs involved, not to mention the knowledge required and resizing and saving for file formats and sizing for print and web, making CD’s, making 2-3 prints to get a nice one, I try to make it worthwhile. I think $3.00 is way too cheap. if clients spend good money for decent well lit photos they should be willing to go the extra cost and get the best prints. If people want cheap proof prints they can get them at any Wal-Mart, but they have to realize that a machine will be deciding what they look like. I cannot compete with prices like that and would not try to. I think at $3.00 you are working for free or worse losing money on it.
"RicSeyler" wrote in message
Dang Kattie…… I’m selling 8×10 for 3 bucks…. (epson premium glossy) arrgh
Gotta see if I can find what the market bears around here… And $20 will get you blemishes and stray hairs, etc fixed.
KatWoman wrote:
"Jim Hargan" wrote in message
On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 10:40:33 -0600, RicSeyler wrote:
Casual printing, yes I agree with that, more economical. But to sell "originals" to customers gotta go with InkJet.
Absolutely. If you are making money off it, pull out all the stops. Best ink, best paper, plus a test print or three. Your fee will cover the costs.
Otherwise use laser jet. In fact, use b&w laserjet. Set up two printer drivers to the same physical printer, one configured to economy mode and the other to high quality, and make the economy mode one your default.
Do this and you won’t have to worry about cheap ink or refilling cartridges. Your expensive inkjet prints will generate income, and your other print jobs will come in around two a penny.
Jh
I agree, the off brand cartridges are too risky in quality and color variation.
I always use Epson, (if you don’t the warranty is voided) I have switched to Ilford paper though and am happy with the results and it is cheaper than the Epson choices for the same sizes.
I always have messups in printing, and allow for it by charging a fair amount for a print, knowing ahead of time I may have to make 1-3 prints before I am satisfied.
It was no different in the old BW darkroom, test strips aside there were always those prints that needed several tries before you got the perfect one.
if you hate printing I recommend out sourcing that part of the job to a commercial lab, they often have better quality printers than you can afford and only charge for "good" ones.
I figure that my costs including wasted paper and ink maybe as much as $5.00 or as little as $1.00. So I charge $15.00 for an 8×10 that more than covers it.
If you have Epson and print rarely ALWAYS use the nozzle clean utility before printing on good paper!! the jets clog up if you don’t print every day.
I also keep the printer covered when not in use due to dust and cat hair, this reduces errors too.
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Ric Seyler
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