licensing

Reselling Editorial Photos

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This is another view-from-my-office photo.

The Toronto Raptors mascot was born 27 years ago on November 3, 1995. He wears jersey number 95.

Ryan Bonne, the guy inside the costume, got the job with the Raptors just a few months after graduating from university in 1995. You won’t be surprised that he majored in theatre with a minor in sports studies.

It’s not uncommon for the subject of an editorial photo to ask the photographer for a copy of the picture that was published. Usually the person just wants a souvenir photo of themselves.

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Credit Where Credit’s Due

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Four weeks ago, Google made a small but potentially good change to Google Images.

When someone searches images on Google, there is now a tiny, barely noticeable, new link below the larger version of some images that reads, “Image credits”:

The tiny link to show the image credits appears only if the appropriate IPTC data is embedded in the image.

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Taking stock of your photography

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Everything old is new again. Maybe it’s because a new audience is always being born or maybe it’s because some folks fail to learn from history.

Around the year 2000, a Canadian web developer started his own online stock picture agency. Back then, existing stock agencies usually screened prospective photographers and they refused his photos as not being good enough.

His new stock agency accepted everyone and initially gave pictures away for free. But he soon realized that free wasn’t sustainable and he began to charge a few dollars per picture. His stock site was aimed at amateur photographers who were happy to give away their pictures:

The monetary rewards are an added bonus, but I don’t think they’re everything for everyone,” he said. “I think our core group of photographers, our 2000 exclusives” — photographers with portfolios exclusive to iStockphoto — are motivated by the reward of being part of an elite club that engages in creative discussion nonstop.

– Bruce Livingstone

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Licensing Terms for Photography

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A long post about some general licensing terms a professional photographer needs to know.

Although licensing affects pricing, this post has little to do with pricing photography.

These terms are mostly for corporate photographers. Licensing terms for retail photography may be different. Advertising photography will often have more exact terms concerning specific types of usage. Book publishing usually has terms that deal with edition and revision rights, language rights, electronic rights and location rights.

 

The obligatory but important disclaimer: I am not a lawyer but I have photographed many lawyers. The following is intended for your general information. It is foolish to think that any of the following is absolutely true or totally accurate.

The use of any of the following terms does not form a complete contract. There is much more that needs to be included. The devil is always in the details.
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Perpetually Yours

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When a photo usage license expires, you expect the customer to stop using the image. This means that, for example, a photo licensed for one annual report can’t be reused in any other annual reports. Of course, already-printed copies of that one annual report can still be distributed.

But what about photos licensed for online use?

You can licence a photo for a specific time period online and then have it removed after the license has ended. This is common for photos used on a company’s home page and for pictures used for advertising.

But often a corporate or editorial customer will want to leave a photo online after the licence has expired rather than deleting the blog post, news story or Tweet that contained the photo.
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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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Budgeting for an investment

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Earlier today, I received a call from a company asking for a quote to produce seven business portraits. After I sent my quote ($1,640 plus tax), the person said they had received quotes from three other photographers.

All four photographers, including myself, had quoted prices around $1,500. Unfortunately, the person continued, the company’s budget was “well under $500.”

 

Everyone has a camera built into their cell phone. Push a button and the picture appears instantly. Photography is seemingly free. This is the downside to digital cameras.
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