I am sure many readers will recall a well know advertising phrase that stated that "8 out of 10 cats who expressed a preference...." chose a certain brand of cat food .. how they actually got the feedback from the cats one can image with some degree of humour. However when it comes to customer choice I think I can be a little more certain, this year like other years I have done several pre-school portrait photoshoot in November to allow for these prints to bought in time for Christmas, and like other years I have provided proofs of the same image in both colour and black & white so that the parents can choose which they prefer for their prints. To my eye some portraits work well as either colour or b&w, others work much better in one or the othe especially like in mixed lighting as in the proof here. However a good 7 out of 10 parents choose b&w over colour, whereas grandparents will almost certainly choose colour. I am sure that if both weren't actually shown most would choose colour prints and also possibly less prints, as I often get orders for the same image in both !!! Digital photography has obviously allowed for such a service to be more easily provided but please don't make the mistake of simply greyscaling your colour images, if you also plan to give this service, try to produce as close as possible a match to how an image shot in b&w would look (I always put a little tone to mine to soften them).
And finally don't be afraid to charge more for this service ... few appear to be doing it !!!
Labels: marc byram photography how to increase print sales photo tips black and white colour color offer both proof
