The business side of photography
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) has a few dozen videos to help professional photographers improve their business practices. Topics include negotiating, marketing, pricing, paperwork, licensing and copyright.
These videos were produced for American photographers and so there are a few legal and business issues that either don’t apply or are different here in Canada. However many of the concepts and principles are equally applicable to Canadian photographers.
When licensing pictures, corporate photographers and commercial photographers must remember that there’s no such thing as “web use.” The Web is a medium, not a use. Photos used online can be editorial, advertising or anything in-between.
Many business clients use photographs not only on their web site but also on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. A photographer has to decide whether such use is no longer editorial or public relations but rather a form of advertising. The common definition that only a “paid placement” is advertising may no longer apply.
For a corporate client, its own web site is usually considered marketing collateral and not advertising. All advertising is marketing but not all marketing is advertising.
But for a business client such as a retailer, is its web site a form of advertising? What about that company’s Facebook or Twitter account?
Perhaps every use on the Web should be priced higher than similar use in print. This is not just for the larger and longer-lasting “circulation” of a web site but also for the increased shift towards advertising use.
Most companies use photography on their web sites, social media sites, corporate blogs, printed brochures and marketing materials, in-house publications, trade show displays and probably in several other ways. As such, it’s very important that companies have a policy regarding the handling and storage of these photographs.
• By law, almost every picture is copyrighted. Permission to reproduce such photos needs to be in writing. Does a business have written permission for every picture it uses? Where are these written permissions kept?
• Professional photography is licensed for use and rarely, if ever, sold outright. Where does a company keep copies of these licenses and how are they tracked?
At my favourite buffet restaurant, people under 12-years-old pay only half-price. Kids get the same quality of food and the same service but pay only half the price.
People under 12-years-old pay half-price for movie theatre admission. They sit in the same seats and watch the same movie but pay half the price.
At a hair salon, people under 12 years of age pay half-price for a haircut. They sit in the same stylist chair and get the same service but for half the price.
On Toronto public transit, people under 12 years of age pay one-quarter the price. They ride the same bus and travel to the same destination but pay a quarter of the price.
What’s going on here? Are the rest of us being over-charged?
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The British Photographic Council released their 56-page 2010 photographers’ survey based on information collected from 1,698 professional photographers. The 2010 survey uses data from the photographers’ 2009 business year.
The survey confirms that photographers who keep the copyright to their work earn more than those who don’t license their work. Enough said?
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When photography is licensed for editorial use, public relations or certain other uses, there will often be a licensing clause that states that the picture(s) may not be used for “paid placements”. A few folks have asked what this means.
“Paid placement” is simply any use that requires the company to pay a fee to have the photo(s) published. Paid placement includes, but is not limited to, advertising.
One could argue that all business communication is a form of advertising but here are three general types of photography usage:
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Got a phone call from a business, here in Toronto, looking to hire a photographer. The caller said that they’ve never hired a photographer before and admitted they weren’t sure “how it works.”
The company wanted executive portraits for its web site. Business portraits are the most common request that a corporate photographer gets. There are many uses for such pictures and smart businesses like to update their photos every couple of years or so.
I suggested the best way to do the photography, how the pictures could be delivered and then gave an approximate cost for the required usage. That last bit, about the price depending on the usage, caught the caller by surprise.
Aha! Licensing.
Here’s the deal about licensing:
