Licensing fees for photography

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There are usually three components to a commercial or corporate photographer’s price: production expenses, photo fee (or creative fee) and licensing fee (or usage fee).

The first item, production expenses, refers to all expenses directly related to the job at hand. It doesn’t include your cost of doing business. It should be straightforward as to how to determine and charge for production expenses.

Photographers often charge a markup on some of these expenses but some clients ask for receipts and will refuse to pay any markup.

One important expense is your own equipment. Some photographers charge each client a rental fee for using their own photo equipment. Other photographers put the cost of their own equipment into their cost of doing business and wrap that into their photo fee. I’m not sure which method is better but remember that the cost of your own equipment must be recouped.
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Creating memorable photos for marketing

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Researchers at MIT recently published a study and online demo about trying to understand and predict image memorability. The study used 60,000 images and a few thousand participants.

A goal of this research was “[u]nderstanding why certain things are memorable…” so that it might someday be possible to create better images thereby “allowing people to consume information more efficiently.” (If you’re a photographer, please stop laughing at this.)

Researchers found that the most memorable pictures usually included – wait for it – faces or other human body parts. The least memorable pictures were those of generic scenes, especially landscapes and other types of nature. The researchers called their results a “trend.” Most photographers know that this “trend” has been around for almost 180 years.
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Yet another Toronto photo rights grab

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The City of Toronto is desperate for free pictures. The city is running yet another photo-rights grab disguised as a photo contest.

The city is asking people to send in winter pictures taken in city parks, ravines and recreation centres. The latter case, taking pictures inside recreation centres, violates the city’s own code of conduct for recreation centres.

In public parks, the city’s parks people are known for harassing photographers who have “big cameras” but no photo permit. Toronto even says that news photographers need prior city permission before shooting in a public park. Yet now, Toronto has a contest asking people to do what the city tries to ban.

Just like all previous Toronto photo contests, the rules say that Toronto gets:
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Optimism Bias

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Almost everyone exhibits some degree of “optimism bias.” This means we tend to underestimate the time, cost and effort needed to complete a certain task and we overestimate our chances of success.

 

Optimism is great, it helps us move forward. But optimism doesn’t wait for all the facts to come in. So sometimes you need to be aware of possible optimism bias.
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A Timely Reminder for Photographers

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1) How much would you pay me to take a photo of you?

2) How much would I have to pay you to model for a photo?

Are your two answers the same? Shouldn’t they be the same since the outcome – a photo of you – is the same?

I bet your answer to the second question is much higher than the first.

The first question was about me, the second question was about you. Everyone values their own time more than someone else’s. This applies not only to individuals but also to businesses.

A photographer has to understand that many corporate clients tend to value their time more than their money. These clients know that any money spent on photography will be earned back but any time that might be wasted (on a photo project) is gone forever.

This means that marketing low price is the wrong approach for a corporate photographer. Instead the photographer should be showing that they value the client’s time as much as the client does. How will the photographer save the client time and effort?

For many corporate clients, it’s about the results. This means that a photographer gets paid for bringing value, not low price, to the client. It’s not usually about price unless the photographer makes it about price.

And when a photographer makes it about price, they shoot themselves in the wallet.

 

Diluting Your Photography

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A jack of all trades, a master of none.

When a photographer tries to be a jack of all trades, they may actually harm their business.

The Dilution Model [link to PDF] suggests that when a business tries to do too much, customers will have a lower opinion of that business. Or to reverse that, when a business specializes, that business will be considered to be an expert.

Which is the better inkjet printer: a machine that’s only a printer or one that’s a printer, a scanner, a copier and a fax machine?

Which has the best pastry: a bakery that sells only pastry or a store that sells coffee, soup, sandwiches and pastry?

Which is more knowledgeable about bicycles: a department store, a sporting goods store or a bicycle shop?

As a photographer, you have to do multiple types of photography to stay in business. But if you spread yourself too wide or if you’re just vague about what you do, you will reduce the perceived value of your photography.

A customer’s perception of your business directly affects how much they’re willing to pay for your services.

 

Working on Spec

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Working or shooting on spec (speculation) means the photographer does all the work first, and pays all expenses themselves, in the hope that the client will like the finished work and will then pay some sort of fee. Even then, there’s rarely any contract covering the work.

Why would any photographer agree to be exploited like this?

When a potential client asks a photographer to work on spec, it shows that the client doesn’t value the photographer’s time or expertise.

Toronto ad agency Zulu Alpha Kilo (which phonetically spells out its CEO’s first name) this week published a video about working on spec. While not aimed at photographers, it certainly still applies.

 

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