Hello!
I need your advice on two issues.
1- Selling my work overseas:
Fine-art photo paper is not available in my local market and overseas shipping costs are ridiculously expensive because of the BAD economic conditions in my country. Is it possible to arrange with a printing service overseas, in Europe or USA, to print my work and ship to the shipping address of the client? Has anyone here been through a similar experience?
2- Someone from the Gulf offered to buy an entire project of mine (RAW files included). Has anyone been through a similar experience?
Thanks!
Money up front, no negotiations , no money, no photos. seems very scammy to me.
I will definitely ask for money upfront. He wanted to commission me for a similar project on his horses. He said he will provide all the hardware/software I need to produce similar work of art. I guess in this case he has the right to own the project.
To answer your first question, yes. You can even make it easier for yourself and use an online print house and have them white label ship to your customer. I use Nations in the US and Saal-Digital in the EU, but there are multiple options.
I am sure they will have all sorts of fine-art photo paper to select from. How did you decide online which type of photo paper is best for a a given fine-art photo? Or did you already know this in advance?
I’m not clondon.
Some offer sample sheets of their paper and significantly reduced test prints.
Great! Thank you!
That’s great news to me. Thank you :-)
When Russia attacked Ukraine, our postal services did not work for several months. Then I started sending prints to clients using online print services such as Prodigi and White Wall. Everything worked great.
Great! How did you decide online which type of photo paper is best for a a given fine-art photo? Or did you already know this in advance?
It might be hard to decide online only, but you can read on different papers, what sort of whitepoints they have, how glossy they are and so on, and what looks best in what type of papers. But ofc its best if you can try them yourself.
I have been testing different papers at home, and have decided that i will use Hähnemuehle Photorag for matte stuff and Photograg Baryta for more glossy. I think that combo will satisfy all. Basically matte for more subdued and pastel like colors, that are not high contrast and high saturation, and Baryta or other bit glossier for other stuff. But ofc if something looks good on metallic (paper by hähnemuehle) and a print shop offer it, that could also be included for some works. If something is like super high contrast with super deep colors and blacks, then some even more glossy paper would work instead of Baryta, but it would work very nicely for almost all that dont like matte.
There are tons of different papers, some of them have more differences than others. If in doubt or you dont want to make your offerings simple, yet effective, i think the photorag + photorag baryta combo works well. Super glossy papers also have stronger reflections, so even if a photo would look tiny bit better on super glossy paper, it could be that bit less glossy, but still glossy Baryta paper actually looks better on the wall of the customer.
Also keep in mind that customers wont know about different papers, they only know if it looks good on their hands and wall or not. Your customers are not photographers who obsess over papers!
I have googled different photopapers and I believe the kinds that fit my work are the matte and textured papers. I love to create that vintage effect even when I post-process a photo on any software.
Thanks a lot for your advice! Although this online experience is out of my comfort zone but this discussion with all of you contributing made me feel more confident to put a plan into action.
Photorag and Photorag Baryta has a little bit of texture, its not nearly as strong as some of the “textured” papers from Hahnemuehle. Do keep in mind that those heavily textured papers are matte papers.
Thank you!
I know that textured papers are matte, which is a preference of mine. I try to avoid any papers that are glossy because glossy paper is not textured and I don’t know what lighting conditions will be where the photo will be hanged. Better be on the safe side.
I have another question: do consultants and representatives accept to work with an artist who is not based in the same country as they are? I need more exposure overseas.
Whitewall (Germany) ships in a neutral package for resellers; directly to your customers. They offer ICC profiles for all of their prints. I haven’t tried them yet, but they are said to have a good reputation.
Again great news! Thank you :-)