Someone wants to buy my photos

[Moose.]

I've been approached by a company who have seen some of the photos on my blog and have asked me for some further photos so they can select some to purchase (for what, I don't know yet). So far any time anyone's ever asked to use my photos on their blog/website/whatever I've just said no worries, just credit me for them with a link, however those have all been personal requests from individuals for non-commercial use.

This is the fist time a company has contacted me and also offered up front to purchase from me. I have absolutely no idea what to charge as I'm by no means a professional photographer, so was curious what would be a standard going rate?

[covboy]

Try this for a starting point


http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/commercial-phot...

[GetCarter]

You'll have to be careful not to price yourself out, but also not ask for a pittance. I've got a full page pic in a magazine (albeit not a huge circulation - a Triathlon mag) next month and they pay £200. I could either accept this or they would use some other tog's photo.

I generally tailor my fees depending on not only the usage, but how much commercialism is involved. I've often given my photos free to charities for websites etc, but hit the daily newspapers with a hefty bill.

You really need to find out what they are going to use the pics for, how large, how often etc.

[tog]

Rates are usually decided by end use. There's a NUJ guide here that covers mainly editorial / PR uses:

http://www.londonfreelance.org/feesguide/index.php...

[Moose.]

Thanks for that chaps, I'll see if they come up with an offer first and take it from there

[Oystercatcher]

Did anything come of this Moose?

I've just been asked the same thing for some panos on my Flickr page. They want one, maybe more, for a website.

I'd already found that freelance site and some of the prices look interesting, but I can't see someone browsing Flickr wanting to offer that much...

[boyse7en]

We've purchased a few pictures from Flickr for our magazine (9000 circulation, trade mag) of events, shows etc. and we have never paid more than £40 for them. It is more usually £20.
It's just not worth more from our point of view.

[GetCarter]

boyse7en said:

We've purchased a few pictures from Flickr for our magazine (9000 circulation, trade mag) of events, shows etc. and we have never paid more than £40 for them. It is more usually £20.
It's just not worth more from our point of view.

I pity full time togs if this is the way it's going. I never let my images go for this sorta' money.

[GetCarter]

boyse7en said:

We've purchased a few pictures from Flickr for our magazine (9000 circulation, trade mag) of events, shows etc. and we have never paid more than £40 for them. It is more usually £20.
It's just not worth more from our point of view.

I pity full time togs if this is the way it's going. I never let my images go for this sorta' money.

[Simpo Two]

GetCarter said:

boyse7en said:

We've purchased a few pictures from Flickr for our magazine (9000 circulation, trade mag) of events, shows etc. and we have never paid more than £40 for them. It is more usually £20.
It's just not worth more from our point of view.

I pity full time togs if this is the way it's going. I never let my images go for this sorta' money.

I suppose one great advantage of wedding photography is that the couple can't buy stock images of themselves for £20! (That said, my photos work out about £2.50 each including unlimited non-commercial licence).

[RobbieKB]

I don't want to hijack this thread but whilst there's one open...

I did a shoot for the EP of a band who were in talks with a label. They got signed and now the album will be going through them. The label wants to use my image for the album cover and for promotional posters. The posters I can price, but how does one price an album cover? Do I approach it the same as for books?

[dinkel]

I charge Eu 25 for a hires jpg-file - buyer is free to do anything with it as long as the © is respected. A caption will do.

For me the most important thing is my pic makes the buyer happy. But then, I'm an amateur and I don't have to live from selling photos.

[Oystercatcher]

GetCarter said:

boyse7en said:

We've purchased a few pictures from Flickr for our magazine (9000 circulation, trade mag) of events, shows etc. and we have never paid more than £40 for them. It is more usually £20.
It's just not worth more from our point of view.

I pity full time togs if this is the way it's going. I never let my images go for this sorta' money.

Quite. I have my answer...

£20

Best not give up the day job.

[Oystercatcher]

Fast forward to today and I discover they are using my picture in several places on their commercial website. I did not give them permission to use it, or sell any rights...

Has anyone been in this position? How did you proceed?

I'm going to try sending them a take-down notice and see what happens. If that doesn't work I'll invoice them using that freelance site's prices as a guide and see if that gets their attention.

After that, who knows. I suspect lawyers are going to end up costing me money...

[GetCarter]

I've been here before and you are right to contact them and explain that they either have to take down immediately, and apologise, or contact you asap with regards to a fee, or your lawyers will be in touch.

They REALLY dont want layers, and neither do you, so it should play out.

ETA ... And cc the mail to your solicitors (get some if you don't have any, they will cost you nothing unless you use them... Having a cc to solicitors adds the relevant weight)

Edited by GetCarter on Thursday 1st May 19:24

[Simpo Two]

Oystercatcher said:

Fast forward to today and I discover they are using my picture in several places on their commercial website. I did not give them permission to use it, or sell any rights...

Oh that's priceless - they ask permission and then steal them.

And all to save £20?

[crmcatee]

Can you add on costs for flagrancy ?


ETA - Don't forget to grabscreenshots of your images on their site.

Also don't forget to use - https://archive.org to see how long they've been using it.

Edited by crmcatee on Friday 2nd May 12:17

[tog]

There's a step-by-step guide on getting image thieves to pay here:

http://www.epuk.org/Opinion/994/stolen-photographs...

Flagrancy is a criminal offence, described on page 2 of that link:

S.107(2A) Copyright Act: “A person who infringes copyright in a work by communicating the work to the public
(a) in the course of a business, or
(b) otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright, commits an offence if he knows or has reason to believe that, by doing so, he is infringing copyright in that work”

[Oystercatcher]

Thanks chaps

crmcatee said:

ETA - Don't forget to grabscreenshots of your images on their site.

Already done

tog said:

There's a step-by-step guide on getting image thieves to pay here:
http://www.epuk.org/Opinion/994/stolen-photographs...

Thanks for that, very useful. Found this as well: http://www.copyrightservice.co.uk/copyright/p05_co...

I'm going to be in the area (of the photo) in a week or two. It's a local travel company, so I'll pop in to the nearest Tourist Info to see if they have any printed material as well...

[Jame5]

Resurrecting an old thread but I thought my question would be relevant to what's above.

I've had a request to buy digital copies of some of my photos for personal use. I usually refer to the NUJ guide when pricing stuff up but it makes no mention of selling for non commercial use (that I can find).

So, I was wondering if selling digital files for 'personal' use is a good idea (I would of course specify the rules of usage before purchase) and what to charge per image? Any advice would be most welcome.