Just got a studio space, outsource prints or buy own printer?

[lolage]

Hi

Just got my own studio, and I'm soon going to be offering baby/family/pet photography. Just doing a bit of research, is it worthwhile making the investment in a good printer - or is it best to outsource the printing and put the costings into my pricing?

Thanks

 

[gremlin16]

Im no expert in this field, but I think that at present, outsourcing is a very cost effective way to get brilliant results. I looked into getting a decent printer, but for the volumes I am *currently producing it is not cost effective at all. A lot of print labs will sort you a business deal out, so if you can establish a relationship with one, I would highly suggest you go down that route.

Once you get to the volumes of prints where you seem to be spending more time ordering, collecting, and posting your prints that it becomes a huge inconvenience then I would start to think about setting up your own printer.

Congrats on setting up your studio, its something i can only dream of at present.

 

[lolage]

Im no expert in this field, but I think that at present, outsourcing is a very cost effective way to get brilliant results. I looked into getting a decent printer, but for the volumes I am *currently producing it is not cost effective at all. A lot of print labs will sort you a business deal out, so if you can establish a relationship with one, I would highly suggest you go down that route.

Once you get to the volumes of prints where you seem to be spending more time ordering, collecting, and posting your prints that it becomes a huge inconvenience then I would start to think about setting up your own printer.

Congrats on setting up your studio, its something i can only dream of at present.

Thanks dude, very helpful - I'll contact some local companies.

 

[connersz]

This question has been asked many times on here. The problem is, people only seem to be able to compare on price, which, depending on how your prices work, probably means nothing.

There are other benefits to printing yourself:

1) Quicker turnaround times - no waiting for orders to arrive.
2) You remove the ordering process.
3) Better quality control- if there are any issues you can correct and reprint, no waiting for the lab.
4) More paper options- choose any paper from any supplier.

When I say price means nothing. What I mean is it's probably going to cost about 30p for a small print, whichever way you do it. If this is accounted for in your prices then you won't have a problem. The average price to produce my prints is 35p but the prices start at £80. At this point, the price of producing it, whichever way, doesn't mean much to my decision. The other thing worth looking out for is postage fees from labs, which is likely to be at least £3 which could increase the prices considerably if you're making lots of small orders.

If however, you do choose to get a printer, you will need to be able to profile your paper/ink combinations and the kit to do this will be around £400+. The inkjet prints can also be quite slow and you will likely need to trim them as well. If I was starting again right now, I would consider something like the Fujifilm Frontier which produces Inkjet quality prints in a couple of seconds, fully trimmed. It does, however, limit paper options.