# fine art america for selling prints.



## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

any one using this site to sell their photos.  i know i wold need to get the word out there,  same as if i had my own website so i am not expecting them to sell photos for me.   i expect to do the work to get sales but they will do the printing and shipping and all of that and what ever i decide to charge for a print is how much i get when one sells.   they make the money when people choose to have the prints framed and what not and i guess i would still get a very small commission on the frames, metal prints ECT plus what i decided to charge for the print its self..

the thing that concerns me about them is every image i click on seems to be available up to very large sizes,  and from what i read you can only up load a 10mb photo file to the website.   

some of my images are cropped kind of heavy since they are bird photos,  allot of my photos according to the print lab i usually use are going to be good  quality prints around 5x7 or 8x12 ,  and allot of them can be printed larger.    i am worried there may be bad quality prints going out if people buy them and choose a large size print.   allot of the prints you can buy there go up to 60 inches 

maybe the determine the biggest size print the photo can be printed or maybe they just post any old size and print it..     anyone know how this works.. if i do sign up i just want to make sure no lousy quality prints are going to go out. ??    i tried looking threw the website but cant really find any info on how the determine print sizes.      so that is really all i am trying to figure out about them.


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## tirediron (Nov 10, 2015)

This just sounds like a bad idea to me.  Even with the lab I use, and have used for many years, and whose work I trust implicitly, I never drop ship.  EVERY print/product comes to me and gets checked before the client sees it, even if it means I lose a little of profit.


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## 480sparky (Nov 10, 2015)

25mb is the limit, not 10.

The maximum size they will print of any given file depends on the size of the image.  If you upload a heavily cropped shot from a 10mp camera, they may only offer sizes up to 12".  But toss out a file made with a 24mp+ camera with little or no editing, and they'll make larger sizes available.

Some of my panos I've uploaded can be printed up to 8 feet through FAA.  Yet some of my most cropped images are offered up to 20" at most.

The maximum size available is automatic.  FAA sets the standard here, not you.

Very narrow pano:






9600 dpi Kodachrome film scan, reduced to meet 25mb max:





Digital file, heavily cropped:


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

tirediron said:


> This just sounds like a bad idea to me.  Even with the lab I use, and have used for many years, and whose work I trust implicitly, I never drop ship.  EVERY print/product comes to me and gets checked before the client sees it, even if it means I lose a little of profit.





480sparky said:


> 25mb is the limit, not 10.
> 
> The maximum size they will print of any given file depends on the size of the image.  If you upload a heavily cropped shot from a 10mp camera, they may only offer sizes up to 12".  But toss out a file made with a 24mp+ camera with little or no editing, and they'll make larger sizes available.
> 
> ...



i personally would rather see the prints before the customer gets them,  but it roughly cost me 6 or 7 bucks to have them shipped to my house,  than 6 or 7 bucks to have them shipped to the buyer, this really raise up the cost to more than i want to charge for the prints.   i am trying to find a way to keep the price on my prints affordable for anyone and make a few extra bucks here or there and it would also be easier for me if they are doing all the work.   

so far selling a print here or there, to people who have asked to buy one from me has been quite time consuming,  asking them exactly what they want and how they want it according to the options available from the print lab.   figuring out what sizes the print lab can do on that image, getting it ordered from the print lab, waiting about a week to get them plus the time it takes to get to the customer after i ship it to them plus having to charge them more than i would like to charge them for the print because of all the shipping cost and what not.


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## 480sparky (Nov 10, 2015)

The biggest issue I have with FAA is they don't allow buyers to change the aspect ratio of the image before printing.  I doubt any of the images I've uploaded would print out exactly 8" x 10".  They'll more likely get sent a 7.25 x 10, or 9.325 x 10, or 6.725 x 10.

Yea, I'd prefer to sell it myself, but that will cost the customer.  First, I'll work with the image to adjust the aspect ratio so it will print out perfectly to the size they're ordering.  I can also take into account the frame, and how much of the image it will cover.

I can then send the file off to the lab through the innerwebs.  Instead of shipping the print back to me, I just go pick it up.  Yeah, I guess I AM lucky that way.... they're not too far away, and I'm there at least once a week anyway buying new toys, film, chemicals, other assorted sundries like that.

I keep a few large envelopes (up to 9x11) around, and a variety of mailing tubes for unmounted prints.  I also have some large flat boxes for anything mounted and/or framed.

Sure, you can buy one of my images from FAA for less, but you'll pay more to frame it because you'll either need a matte cut, or get a custom frame made.  If they can't figure that out, well, that's their problem.


But one of the nice things is once you upload the image and set your price, you really don't have much more to do.


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

i usually try crop my prints to the original crop just scaled down,  which is perfect for 8 x 12 prints which i think is a nice size and seems to work well with most other normal sizes, it just cuts a little off of each side. which so far seem to work out just fine.  i am not sure how that would work on on FAA.   but really i just want to find the easiest way to do it where i can keep the cost down for the customer.

someone recently told me about a local print lab, probably about a 30 min drive from where i live,  i looked up their website, i guess they do wet prints instead of ink jet prints, it also says they adjust the exposure and sharpness of the prints to make sure you get the best prints possible so they sound pretty good..   

 i am not sure what they charge per print yet  or if they offer metal prints and what not but i may make a trip out there this weekend and find out the details.


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## 480sparky (Nov 10, 2015)

FAA will simply print one side an even number, such as 10", 12", 16" etc.  Whatever the other size ends up depends on the aspect ratio of the image uploaded.


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

480sparky said:


> FAA will simply print one side an even number, such as 10", 12", 16" etc.  Whatever the other size ends up depends on the aspect ratio of the image uploaded.



i did notice they offer some very strange size prints.    if i decide to try them out would i be better off cropping my images to something like the preset 4 x 6/ 8 x 10  ratio that light room offers.


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## 480sparky (Nov 10, 2015)

dannylightning said:


> i did notice they offer some very strange size prints.    if i decide to try them out would i be better off cropping my images to something like the preset 4 x 6/ 8 x 10  ratio that light room offers.



That will work................... until someone wants an 11x14 or 5x7.


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

480sparky said:


> dannylightning said:
> 
> 
> > i did notice they offer some very strange size prints.    if i decide to try them out would i be better off cropping my images to something like the preset 4 x 6/ 8 x 10  ratio that light room offers.
> ...



what would be the best crop ratio to use for this type of thing to get the most options for print size.     would i be better off doing the 8x10, 5x7  or something else.


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## 480sparky (Nov 10, 2015)

dannylightning said:


> what would be the best crop ratio to use for this type of thing to get the most options for print size.     would i be better off doing the 8x10, 5x7  or something else.



There will be no one single aspect ratio that will produce 5x7, 8x10, AND 11x14 sized images there.  You will always have odd sizes.  So I just started cropping to fit the subject, and let the chips fall where they may.


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

cool,  thank you,  i think that pretty much answers the questions i had..

it sounds like a descent way to get a start.  i might try than and also state that they can get the prints right from me if the local print ship seems good.   

i am gonna start deciding which prints i want to try to sell and maybe at the end of the month stat trying to get some sales.

the last few weeks i have had a few people asking to buy prints from me.  i am hoping that if i let people know that prints are available for purchase ill get some sales.


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

if i have a photo with the pixel count of  3360 x 2240  is the first number the height or the width of the photo...  ??


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## 480sparky (Nov 10, 2015)

FAA bases their print sizes off the longer side of the image.  So if your image is taken in portrait orientation (and using a 1.5:1 aspect ratio based on the pixel count), it will offer sizes such as 6.67 x 10, 10.67 x 16, 16 x 24 etc.

If it's taken in landscape orientation, the numbers will be reversed.... 10 x 6.67, 10.67 x 16, 24 x 16 etc.


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

480sparky said:


> FAA bases their print sizes off the longer side of the image.  So if your image is taken in portrait orientation (and using a 1.5:1 aspect ratio based on the pixel count), it will offer sizes such as 6.67 x 10, 10.67 x 16, 16 x 24 etc.
> 
> If it's taken in landscape orientation, the numbers will be reversed.... 10 x 6.67, 10.67 x 16, 24 x 16 etc.



well its not really for FAA  i am looking at a few photos to determine what 300 PPI would be.   mine are all pretty much landscape cropping,   

the photo i am currently viewing gives me a 13x9 print at 300 ppi  so i am guessing since its landscape that would really be a 9x13 print max for best quality,  that may not be a normal size but it still give me a idea of what size i could print the image at if i do it with my regular print shop...       so i am figuring that the longest side is going to be the width of the photo for landscape crops..


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## 480sparky (Nov 10, 2015)

Visual orientation of the image really makes no difference.  Landscape or portrait.... you can change the orientation to better fit the paper.  Once printed, you simply turn the print 90°.


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## dannylightning (Nov 10, 2015)

ok,  thank you.


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## Mr. Innuendo (Jan 9, 2016)

I use FAA a lot, and I've never had an issue. 

Ever.

I'm a big fan of them.


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