This is a long post, so I’m starting with the short story! Some people are upset about the terms of trade for our new web-based lab service, Queensberry Print.

We want to clarify that, yes, Queensberry Print products are available to both professional photographers and end-consumers. Certainly, “consumer” means “everyone”, but in reality we believe these products will only be of real interest to professionals, serious amateur photographers, and people who received digital files from a professional and who really care how their photos are printed.

Our existing range of books and albums is still 100% exclusive to professional photographers.

As we’ll explain in detail below, the new service is driven by changes in our industry. They allow us to respond to those changes, including the increasing frustration (even resentment) of some consumers at the fact that many photographers, for whatever reason, have themselves stopped selling “professional” albums.

As a professional yourself, when you log in to Queensberry you can see pricing and place orders for our entire range of products, but the general public certainly can’t. No one can see any prices, or order any products, until they register with us. When they do, they will only be able to see pricing and place orders for Queensberry Print products UNLESS they claim to be a professional, AND we accept their bona fides and approve their account.

The Long Version

Queensberry Print will offer silver halide, inkjet and digital offset printing, plus its own range of presentation products - frames, boxes and photo books. Anyone will be able to buy who cares enough to pay for high quality printing, products and hands-on service - not just professionals.

That's what's disappointed some of our clients. They like the new products but want exclusive access to them, like our existing books and albums.

But why change at all?

Because what's driving change is not us but the industry we operate in.

When we started attending trade shows in the States and UK twelve years ago, there might have been a dozen album makers at an event. At the last one we attended there were about sixty. Labs have gone into book publishing, or struggled to survive. Huge photo book operations like Blurb and Crewe have grown, and even developed their own "pro" services. Almost none of them is committed to "professional photographers only", but all are eating away at the markets of traditional album makers like us.

Into that mix you need to stir revolutionary technological change, at every stage from camera to final product, plus the internet, which changes everything.

On the other side of the equation, professional photographers are under incredible pressure too, struggling for a sustainable business model, when everyone has a camera and we're up to our eyebrows in images.

So, like all album makers we’ve been asking ourselves what happens when...

1. Our competitors don't play by the same rules as us.

2. Photo books are everywhere, and accessible to all, just like a packet of prints from the minilab.

3. Many photographers have abandoned the idea of selling albums in favour of shoot-and-burn or digital downloads.

Does this mean Queensberry is in trouble, as we've seen people say? No, it means we'd be silly to sit back and do nothing about it!

Over the last few years our business has been transformed: PJ Remix, Duo, Musée, Press Books, Workspace and the rest. The only thing that's remained the same until now is our single-channel policy.

But does Queensberry Print really mean we're disloyal to professional photography?

Canon, Epson, Kodak and Nikon have professional products and services. They don't go out of their way to market them to amateurs, but they don't ask to see your licence either… Leica would go broke if their market was photographers instead of people with money… And a friend recently shot a portrait session for a client with far more Hasselblad kit than he has.

What professionals can get, often, is a better price, and that's what we intend to do with Queensberry Print (more on that below).

Given what I've said, maybe a better question is, why continue to restrict our books and albums to professionals?

Partly it's simple loyalty, but there's more to it than that, as I'll explain.

A few years ago we went through a "design audit" process with a team of brand and marketing specialists who were intrigued by the fact that, unlike any other "design-led" company they could name, we don't have full creative control of our products. The photographer's picture-making and design skills make or break them. It's no wonder we love beautiful work, because it adds so much value to what we do! Image quality, design skills, technology skills, and of course, access to "the people in the viewfinder".

In short, we believe professional photographers help us make a better product.

But what do Queensberry continue to offer in return?

1. Exclusive access to our professional books and albums (no change there).

2. On Queensberry Print products, 15% trade discount to approved professionals for an initial 12 months, which we will renew thereafter subject to qualifying minimum purchases across the entire Queensberry range (coming soon).

3. Additional tier discount to regular clients, calculated based on all your purchases, including Queensberry Print.

4. An expectation of quality to match the images you've created. The saddest thing about shoot-and-burn is that so many photographers are abandoning their images, which they're presumably proud of, to any random print, frame, or canvas shop the customer chooses. Or to oblivion in a drawer somewhere.

5. You will soon be able to sell these products online in your own shopping cart in Workspace.

With these new products you will have a choice: Make the sale yourself, and place the order at "trade prices", or offer Queensberry Print products in your own shopping cart (coming soon), reasonably marked up, and with your profit on the images themselves added on.

If you're committed to shoot-and-burn, you might also simply recommend Queensberry Print because you care what your customers do with your files! Even though shoot-and-burn may be a reality we have to live with, if anyone cares enough about your carefully crafted images to get them beautifully printed and presented, surely they're doing everyone a favour.

Obviously we believe that beautiful presentation adds value to your photography. It differentiates you and your work in the market, and it’s an essential part of high-end brand-building. But that doesn’t mean you can easily charge prices for those products that consumers believe are "unreasonable”. High-end products like our Duo may be one thing, but frames, canvases and photo books, available all over the place, are quite another. If the internet has done nothing else, it’s made it really easy to compare prices on consumer goods.

What does that mean?

If you’re going to charge separately for the image and the product, the product price really needs to be “reasonable” in the eyes of the public.

Your art, what you get paid for, is your photographic and design skill. From a business point of view the products your imagery is displayed in add value two ways – directly by way of the mark-up you put on the products, indirectly by way of the value they add to the images themselves.

Mid- to high-end photographic studios are the foundation of our business. Helping them prosper is in our DNA. So is our belief in the importance of what you do for “the people in the viewfinder” by way of your photographic, storytelling and design skills.

It’s our intention to continue to ramp up our marketing and support of professional photography. It starts with an update of our directory, coming in a day or two, with more initiatives coming soon.

As we said when we launched, Queensberry Print is the start of something new, and as always with our new projects you’ll doubtless see the site and the products evolve over the months ahead. Please do tell us what you think by commenting below.

All the best from everyone at Queensberry

Ian

NB. This information is now out of date. We sell exclusively to professional photographers only