How important is large format to your sales?

[Bruce Watson]

Very important indeed. Without LF, I don't have any photographs to sell. My 5x4 camera is the only one I own.

[eric black]

I also got the same glazed over looks when I tried to explain what I do so Ive pretty much quit on that- when I do show my work there is always at least one big print on the wall, maybe a 40x50 inch piece of work that gets the idea across of what it is that Im trying to do with the format- make big prints with so much detail that you feel like you could dive into them.

[Archphoto]

I got one customer left that wants to pay for 4x5 inch, the rest wants D.
Terrible but true. The largest they want for prints is 8x10 inch.......

Peter Morisson
Architectural Photographer

[Toyon]

Hi All.

Aside from the technical and quality issues just wondering if others market their work with an empahsis on that it was created using large format or not?

This question came to mind after I attended a mini art fair last week. This was the first time I had tried to sell any of my work, and contrary to what I expected I did very well. I sold several mounted and one framed print with a lot of favourable comments on the quality of the work.

However nobody seemed very interested that it was created using film and large format, I think most people assumed it was good digital work and when I talked to them about the process they just glazed over and didnt seem interested. I guess it makes no odds, if they like the work fantastic, just that I expected the fact that it was large format to add a dimension to the sales.

So just wondering what do others do? do you push the large format thing or just not bother mentioning it?

Thanks

Julian

http://www.photohome.uku.co.uk/

Congratulations!!

What kind of information was provided with each print? Type of camera used? Print medium?

What were your direct costs compared to selling prices?

[Glenn Thoreson]

I think to the average guy on the street these days, it doesn't matter what you did, and most don't seem to know what you're talking about anyway. I think if someone is interested, they would ask. You might set up a nice small display that explains what you do and how you do it. Maybe include a few snapshots of yourself with a "big camera". Now, if it was an art gallery, people might be more interested in the details. Those kind of folks buy art as an investment and usually want to know exactly what they're getting. For Joe Lunchbox, it's probably just a pretty picture to hang on the wall. Hope you can sell more. Good luck!

[Gene McCluney]

4x5 is vitally important to me as a commercial phtographer. Fortunately I work directly for manufacturers in-house graphic design departments who realize the long-term benefits of a 4x5 transparency on each project. If I were to have to give up 4x5, I might as well go out of business.

[John Voss]

In the last days of the Edward Carter Gallery in NYC, he had positioned a Toyo field camera on a tripod in the gallery entrance. At the time I visited there it never failed to get folk's attention who would then ask the gallery representatives about the connection of the camera to what was on exhibit. I thought that was a good idea, and used it at a show I was in some years later. In conversing with a curious attendee, I showed her the upside down backward image which I then teasingly began to "rectify" by turning the rotating back upside down. Well....she bought into that so utterly that I was embarrassed to have to quickly explain that I was kidding and the image wasn't going to change. So much for trying to foist the equipment on an uninitiated guest. I'll never do that again! (though I might try to convince someone that I used a really high end cell phone....yeah!....that's the ticket!...)

[Wallace_Billingham]

from my experience the only people that really care about the type of film/camera you use are other photogs and most of them won't buy anyway

[Kuzano]

Sell the work... not the process. Describing how you achieve your art is TMI for most consumers. Simply "Too Much Information". Why boggle people to the point of having to make a technical decision instead of an emotional decision. Baffle them with too much bull and they cease to be in the market.

40 years of Marketing. It all boils down to "Don't give the prospective buyer any more information than it takes to make the sale". Always test for the close, don't oversell.

Let me add one more comment here. I truly believe the only reason most of us shoot large format is for ourselves, not for clients. I seriously doubt that the majority of clients have the same quality standards that we require of ourselves.

[Drew Bedo]

I find that , for the most part, the only peple who are impredded by my large format work are Pro photographers working digitally. Large Format is my chosen medium due to really bad vision. I have gotten a few nice images with digi-cams...but they were pretty much hapenstance or serendipity...the painter's happy accident".

Outside of that, buyers don't seem to understand. I have alwayse felt that an image should stand alone; no contextual explaination should be required to fully appreciate any image.