8 Tips to Help Photographers Sell Fine Art Images

by Gary Detonnancourt

For photographers, selling fine art images is a tough challenge considering the intimidating competition in the industry. So should you give up?  Absolutely, not!  Don’t despair because you can pull off a successful fine art business with the help of the following tips.

1.      Put your best images in an online gallery that has an e-store option.

1.      There are lots of options that you can choose from such as Fine Art America and Smugmug. By doing so, you are able to reveal your expertise in fine art images.  Click here to see an example of how I added my Fine Art America galleries to my website.

2.      Print business cards along with your complete information.

Let the public know about your business so make sure to include gallery and website links. This is a great way to get in touch with your prospects and at the same time opens an avenue to reach a wide range of audiences.  I think the Moo cards are great for showing off your images.  If you want to go hitech and make a digital business card, check out Haystack.

3.      Have a printed copy of 5 of your images in a large format and frame them.

If you don’t want to deal with the hassle of framing, you might want to order quality canvas. It would be a great idea to pay a visit to local shops or restaurants and ask if they are willing to display your work for a couple of weeks. Be sure that you have readily available business cards so they can easily get in touch with you if they are interested to buy your fine art photography on the spot.

4.      Think locally. 

While you may not have an impressive image of scenes in Italy, photograph local places that people in your area will be familiar with. Take pictures of interesting and familiar places from a unique point of view.  Local people will have a personal connection to these places and will buy these images.

5.      Sell your fine art images at art fairs.

If you consider this option for selling your work, make sure that you have lots of inexpensive items such as small printed cards, greeting cards, etc. However, you have to be prepared to sit in your booth for awhile before any sales happen.  Anyway, patience would surely reward you for this type of sales.

6.      Do your own art show at your house.

Another tip to sell images is to collaborate with other artists such as painters and jewelry artists for an evening. You can also join a camera club or art association.  It is great to share the costs of the snacks and beverages, have your contact lists combined and then come up with your own art show.  The best thing about having these shows is that there is minimal competition and people are willing to shop and have a good time. You can generate hundreds of dollars in a short time while everyone is having fun.

7.      Use greeting cards.

A beautiful greeting card about different occasions may also do well, because they are very useful for the buyer and relatively inexpensive.  To do this you may want to check out Photographers Edge to purchase cards in which you can add your images or Red River Paper for cards you can print with your ink jet printer.

8.      Offer framed-prints of your images to an auction.

By doing so, you will get exposure from the public and you will also feel good about your contribution.  Plus if it's for a non-profit organization you can take it as a tax deduction.

Whether you want to sell images through art galleries, festival booths or any other creative outlet, make sure that you put all of your effort into marketing your event.  Great images that are professionally presented along with fantastic marketing is the way to pull off a successful fine art photography business.