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08/13/2002 03:54:22 PM · #1 |
I am looking to sell prints of some of my work and have been looking at online options. I've searched through the forums to see if people have commented on the quality of prints from daprints.com and haven't really come up with anything so I'm going to ask here. If anyone has bought or sold prints from that site what is the print quality like and, if you have images for sale, have you had luck selling anything?
I have a lot of good shots that I think people would like to buy prints of and had originally just thought of designing a nice gallery site and offering to sell prints that I would have done professionally at my local Cord Camera and then mail them out myself. That may cost more but one of the things I would really want is control over the images aspect ratio. Since a 4x6 print has a different aspect ratio than an 8x10 print I would want to be able to show on my site exactly what part of the photo the user will be getting with any chosen print size. By doing my own site, I would have the creative freedom to crop or resize accordingly to give the best photo instead of leaving it up to another services employee, the services software or even just having the service print the entire image with white borders.
So, I would also like to know if anyone knows of any sites that allow the person buying a print to crop from the full image to get their desired photo or if anyone else has tried the "do-it-yourself" gallery/print option and if that is working for you.
Thanks for putting up with the long-windedness.
Courtenay |
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08/13/2002 04:00:50 PM · #2 |
I am using DAPrints... I have only sold a few prints so far, but it's a new site. You can upload in several different aspect ratios over there... If you go to DeviantArt and set yourself up a free account, you can see the details of how DAPrints works...
I generally upload my images in a 1:1.5 ratio over there... that makes prints available at 4x6, 8x12, 10x15, 16x24, and 20x30. You can use several other ratios such as 1.25:1 and 1.33:1. The 1.5:1 and 1.25:1 ratios offer the widest variety of print sizes for sale.
As far as quality is concerned, I haven't bought any of my own prints... ask Swashbuckler... he bought one and seemed happy with it...
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08/13/2002 04:29:56 PM · #3 |
I have an account at DAprints, but haven't sold any yet. I'm planning to order a set for myself soon, and you can be sure I'll post feedback on that.
I've gotten a lot of prints from Ofoto and been happy with them, but to use a site like that to sell prints you'd might have to place the order yourself and have it drop-shipped to the customer, or buy a stock of prints to have on hand to ship. June 2002 MacWorld has ratings of online printing services. |
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08/13/2002 04:38:52 PM · #4 |
Courtenay, jmsetlzer, generale and I all belong to DAPrints. Both jm and genE have some really great examples of GREAT art. I am mostly a nature shooter. I ordered 4 of my own shots at 24x18 and one of John's at 20x30? (I think). John's shot Queen's Gambit printed up VERY nicely! I don't know if John put the black border or if they did it, but it included a credit byline to John Setlzer Jr. in the border, like I'd ever forget. I think John placed the border, but he'd have to confirm that. GenE has some that are oval matted, if memory serves me, so you have pretty much complete control of what the audience sees. You do HAVE to submit shots that are against a single ratio, like 1:1.5, etc. If you want to offer multiple ratios, you have to submit multiple versions. What ever you offer is what the buyer can pick from. They don't have "complete control" or cropping on demand. The good side is, once you submit your shots, they do everything from printing and mailing services, to sending your "profits" check quarterly, not that I've seen one of those!
Your thought about doing your own web site will give you the greatest amount of control, but the most amount of work, too. Plus, even though I LOVE inkjet prints, they use a photographic process on Kodak paper, so the results are long lasting and fab to the nth degree. The other, probably biggest advantage is: this site is dedicated to ART and will hopefully be known one day as a source of art. Your website will need a lot of expensive advertising to match their draw.
Anything more? PM or e-mail me! I'm loney and want to talk....(just kidding!) Swash
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08/13/2002 04:46:08 PM · #5 |
I have been using dotphoto.com and have been pretty happy but I am definitely going to check out DAprints. It sounds like a great site. Thanks for the info.
T
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08/13/2002 04:49:17 PM · #6 |
Swashbuckler,
Would it be too much to ask if you could shoot and post a 1:1 ratio shot (just a portion of the overall) of the biggest print you purchased -- and if it's John's -- would Setzler please post the specs of the file he sent to them?
In other words, trying to get a feel for the size of the file and its final print quality. (Is it really grainy, or pixellated or....)
Hope that all makes sense...
* This message has been edited by the author on 8/13/2002 4:48:43 PM.
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08/13/2002 05:23:33 PM · #7 |
Patella,
The Queen's Gambit shot that I sent up to DAPrints was formatted as an 8x12" file at 227dpi. I did put the border and info on it myself. That particular JPG file I sent up there was about 3mb in size...
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08/13/2002 05:31:43 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Swashbuckler:
...Anything more? PM or e-mail me! I'm loney and want to talk....(just kidding!) Swash
Besides having complete control of the printing/cropping of the print (I just adjust the canvas size to the correct ratio and create borders), they allow you to submit the file from which the prints will be made in TIFF format, so there's 0% compression artifacts (Photoshop's LZW option should be lossless).
They are also the only place I've seen so far offering matte paper. I made an oval vignette of Mt. Rainier and applied a canvas filter to it -- I'm hoping it will resemble a watercolor painting if printed on matte paper. |
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08/13/2002 05:35:00 PM · #9 |
Well I just checked out the daprints site and it looks very overwhelming. I couldn't believe the amount of legal information there is. It looks like you need to be a lawer to understand all of it. I had a very hard time understanding all of it but it appears that the site can use your work for any purpose they want and if I am understanding it correctly I think that is a very bad thing. I don't like the idea of someone else getting rich off of my and other's work. I guess I'll have to try to read the legal information again to see if I misunderstood it. Does anyone else understand it? I need some more input before I upload images to their site.
T
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08/13/2002 05:37:17 PM · #10 |
dotphoto will print on matte paper but their largest print size is 12 x 18 inches.
T
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08/13/2002 05:37:49 PM · #11 |
You definitely won't make much money percentage wise, but you won't finde a place to sell your stuff with an overhead that low either...
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08/13/2002 05:53:16 PM · #12 |
From DeviantArt's submission agreement:
5. Payment. Unless otherwise agreed between Artist and deviantART in a writing signed by both parties, the license granted to deviantART pursuant to this Agreement shall be royalty-free.
SO... From this, I'm reading that no money changes hands. How does the selling part work?? I also went to DAPrints.com and couldn't find how you submit stuff and set prices, etc.???
* This message has been edited by the author on 8/13/2002 5:58:34 PM. |
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08/13/2002 05:59:36 PM · #13 |
You have to do it through deviantart.com... daprints is just a front facing site for deviantart...
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08/13/2002 06:02:12 PM · #14 |
I've sold a couple of prints through Dot Photo and the people raved about the prints. Dot Photo
I have also entered some prints I got from them in my camera club monthly and annual competition. Judges come from the community and sometimes beyond. Mark Muench, son of world renowned David Muench, and an accomplished photographer himself, picked mine as first place in the black and white category. It was a print I had made at Dot Photo.
Muench Prints
Mark Muench presenting award to me
Has anyone else had experience with Dot Photo?
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08/13/2002 06:11:02 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by timj351:
Well I just checked out the daprints site and it looks very overwhelming. I couldn't believe the amount of legal information there is. It looks like you need to be a lawer to understand all of it. I had a very hard time understanding all of it but it appears that the site can use your work for any purpose they want and if I am understanding it correctly I think that is a very bad thing. I don't like the idea of someone else getting rich off of my and other's work. I guess I'll have to try to read the legal information again to see if I misunderstood it. Does anyone else understand it? I need some more input before I upload images to their site.
T
I read it all pretty carefully. They can use your artwork royalty-free for promotional purposes -- e.g. putting your image on a "pick-of-the-day page or something. I don't think they can make promotional Tshirts or coffee mugs with your image, but maybe; but if so they are giving you publicity you'd pay a lot for (if you could).
They cannot resell the right for someone else to reproduce or use your image. I create prints with borders and info and usually a title, so I just print the copyright notice on there.
One trick is to upload a small, low-resolution JPEG to the DeviantArt site (step 1) so when folks download it to send to their friends they can't get a vary big print. Then upload the high-res version in TIFF or JPEG to the DApints FTP site (step 2), and link the large file to the preview in your Print Administration area (step 3) -- that will keep your large file secure.
Most of the rest of the legal stuff has to do with pricing and payments (fair as anything) and a disclaimer which I think says if someone sues you for copyright infringement they will "disavow any knowledge of your actions." It works in almost an identical model as MP3.COM does for independent musicians. The artist controls the content and the pricing. The site takes a flat rate for overhead, manufacturing, order fulfillment, and customer billing, an half of whatever the set price above that. Depending on how you price your goods, you can expect to net about 20-30% of the sale price. Under the circumstances, since I have no time for marketing or order fulfillment it sems like a good deal to me; I've sent up some files, and I now do nothing but wait to sell $25 worth of stuff...
You are MORE than welcome to sell prints through your own gallery site too. Just make your "Buy This Print" button/link go to the photo's order page at DAprints (they have some linking guidelines/code posted somewhere in that morass).
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08/13/2002 06:17:35 PM · #16 |
The way you get paid from DAPrints is as follows:
You must charge at least the DAPrints minimum price for the print. You can mark it up however much you want above the minimum price. Your cut is 50% of the markup.
I have sold 6 prints so far and my cut of the combined sales is $15.41.
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08/19/2002 08:41:39 PM · #17 |
Originally posted by Patella:
Swashbuckler,
Would it be too much to ask if you could shoot and post a 1:1 ratio shot (just a portion of the overall) of the biggest print you purchased -- and if it's John's -- would Setzler please post the specs of the file he sent to them?
In other words, trying to get a feel for the size of the file and its final print quality. (Is it really grainy, or pixellated or....)
Hope that all makes sense...
So daprints.com use ezprints.com as their backend photofinisher. I've had
several prints done now by ezprints and I'm really impressed with the
results. Their web site isn't the most easy to navigate, but the prices
are resonable and the results are really good. They'll even send you a free
calibration shot before you order anything ensure you get good colour matching.
I've had okay 4x6s from images that I've posted here (I.e., 150k jpegs)
not the sharpest ever but good colour. I'd typically use a higher resolution
than that though.
At the other end I've had fantastic 20x30 inch shots from approx 2000x1000
resolution images with very little post processing/ work. The detail
and colour quality is fantastic from something that size.
I can't scan the big print because it won't fit on my scanner! but I've
been more impressed by these results than other sites I've tried.
Obdisclosure: the nice people at ezprints gave me 6 free prints as a sample
to show me the quality to find out my opinion. I am impressed and haven't
been paid for this opinion! :)
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