how much for use of photo?
Discussion
Hello, I should be grateful for your help please.
My 16 year old son has a sports photography and vid "business". He makes small beer ie when he needs a new part for his mountain bike or a new camera/lens, he does a race shoot and might make £200-£250. It beats doing a paper round. Mainly, he is building his portfolio for uni applications and for work experience with film companies.
He has just been approached by a large online retailer, who would like to use one of his images for an advert in a publication with circulation of 330,000. We have no idea what he should charge. Is it £200 or £1,000? Alternatively, might it be reasonable to suggest no charge as long as credit is given in the advert for the photography.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. He has to reply tomorrow.
My 16 year old son has a sports photography and vid "business". He makes small beer ie when he needs a new part for his mountain bike or a new camera/lens, he does a race shoot and might make £200-£250. It beats doing a paper round. Mainly, he is building his portfolio for uni applications and for work experience with film companies.
He has just been approached by a large online retailer, who would like to use one of his images for an advert in a publication with circulation of 330,000. We have no idea what he should charge. Is it £200 or £1,000? Alternatively, might it be reasonable to suggest no charge as long as credit is given in the advert for the photography.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. He has to reply tomorrow.
simonpieman said:
Hello, I should be grateful for your help please.
My 16 year old son has a sports photography and vid "business". He makes small beer ie when he needs a new part for his mountain bike or a new camera/lens, he does a race shoot and might make £200-£250. It beats doing a paper round. Mainly, he is building his portfolio for uni applications and for work experience with film companies.
He has just been approached by a large online retailer, who would like to use one of his images for an advert in a publication with circulation of 330,000. We have no idea what he should charge. Is it £200 or £1,000? Alternatively, might it be reasonable to suggest no charge as long as credit is given in the advert for the photography.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. He has to reply tomorrow.
Sorry I cannot help with you how much your son should charge. However, from being good friends with a number of creative types, not charging is a big no no. They already struggle with everyone trying to take them for a ride / not pay them / want things for free. So fellow creatives offering their content for free sets further precedents and makes things increasingly difficult. I understand your son is young and getting his name out there is more important than maximising how much money he can extract. My 16 year old son has a sports photography and vid "business". He makes small beer ie when he needs a new part for his mountain bike or a new camera/lens, he does a race shoot and might make £200-£250. It beats doing a paper round. Mainly, he is building his portfolio for uni applications and for work experience with film companies.
He has just been approached by a large online retailer, who would like to use one of his images for an advert in a publication with circulation of 330,000. We have no idea what he should charge. Is it £200 or £1,000? Alternatively, might it be reasonable to suggest no charge as long as credit is given in the advert for the photography.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. He has to reply tomorrow.
I'm not a pro photographer and have no intentions to be, but I am a keen amateur and have had a few bits published. It's difficult to gauge prices, and don't be led by the format or volume of sharing. Most places offered me £50 ish for a particular photo, I'd generally haggle for more valuable free stuff or further work, for example, an architectural firm used one of my photos in a book they printed. The book cost £60. I asked for a copy of the book and got an invite to the launch party at a nice hotel With free wine. A photo that was used by a racing team for their promo banners, I asked for VIP tickets to a race session.
That said, if your son is looking at doing this as a job, he needs to identify his value, be prepared to haggle and get a feel for the market.
That said, if your son is looking at doing this as a job, he needs to identify his value, be prepared to haggle and get a feel for the market.
One of the main factors is how replaceable is the photo for the company?
We'll pay about £20 for a decent quality generic shot of racers, landscape or cityscapes etc.
We would pay more if the photographer was the only source of shot we needed.
So if (for example) your son's shot is of an interesting but non-specific car racing around a track wanted for the cover of a catalogue then the price would be lower than if the retailer has to have a shot of a Sierra Cosworth going around Silverstone in the rain...
We'll pay about £20 for a decent quality generic shot of racers, landscape or cityscapes etc.
We would pay more if the photographer was the only source of shot we needed.
So if (for example) your son's shot is of an interesting but non-specific car racing around a track wanted for the cover of a catalogue then the price would be lower than if the retailer has to have a shot of a Sierra Cosworth going around Silverstone in the rain...
It's negotiable, unfortunately. It's a natural tendency for the amateur to curl his tail between his legs and offer it for free or £50. However the prospect has gone to the trouble to find the tog and make enquiries.They have a budget, not least because they're paying to get 330,000 brochures/magazines printed. The question is - how important is THAT photo to the company? If your son - let's rephrase that - if The Photographer - asks £500 will they simply find something similar for £10 elsewhere? Copyright is strange, it's worth everything and also nothing, depending on the need to buy and the need to sell.
But defo not free!
But defo not free!
For that sort of thing - it depends whether it's the cover - full page etc - but generally I charge £360 + VAT with a reduction if they use more than one image.
I know many charge more than that, but it's not my primary business, so I'm a cheap flash
Make sure he 'grants a non exclusive licence' in the invoice - so they fully understand that he can sell it to others.
I know many charge more than that, but it's not my primary business, so I'm a cheap flash
Make sure he 'grants a non exclusive licence' in the invoice - so they fully understand that he can sell it to others.
GetCarter said:
Make sure he 'grants a non exclusive licence' in the invoice - so they fully understand that he can sell it to others.
And - it's important to note that they will not be buying copyright, only a licence to use the image for that purpose. Transfer of money does NOT constitute transfer of copyright.Of course they might say 'Well if you're going to rook us for £500 we want the copyright too' - at which point it's back to negotiation!
I've been through something very similar last year. I'm a downhill mountain bike photographer and was approached by a very large uk importer of bike parts. I had taken a photo of one of their riders and it was perfect for them showing the new wheels and race kit.
They wanted to use it in the the best selling bike magazine, mountain biking UK and wanted a full page advert to run for 6 months. I spent a while getting the photo just right for the page dimensions etc and then sent it to them requesting £400.
They offered £50 for all six issues and to be able to use it elsewhere.
Needless to say I didn't see my photo in the magazines!!
They wanted to use it in the the best selling bike magazine, mountain biking UK and wanted a full page advert to run for 6 months. I spent a while getting the photo just right for the page dimensions etc and then sent it to them requesting £400.
They offered £50 for all six issues and to be able to use it elsewhere.
Needless to say I didn't see my photo in the magazines!!
simonpieman said:
By way of update, company chose not to use the image. Suspect we might have over egged it. Good lesson for my son. The company were very polite, saying they would continue to follow his work.
Thank you for the helpful responses. Some good info here for the future.
Probably (sadly) over egged. It's tough out there! There are always others that will do it for free or little money.Thank you for the helpful responses. Some good info here for the future.
The company suggested it was a change in direction of the advert story and that the image wasn't right for the new story that they wanted to tell ie it wasn't the price. Who knows whether to believe that. The lesson for my son is that he is not easily going to make a living from flogging photographs. Film is a better option.
simonpieman said:
The company suggested it was a change in direction of the advert story and that the image wasn't right for the new story that they wanted to tell ie it wasn't the price. Who knows whether to believe that. The lesson for my son is that he is not easily going to make a living from flogging photographs. Film is a better option.
To be honest, anything other than still photography.Good luck to him.
https://nfts.co.uk Is the place to aim for. (I was invited, but never went)
simonpieman said:
The company suggested it was a change in direction of the advert story and that the image wasn't right for the new story that they wanted to tell ie it wasn't the price. Who knows whether to believe that. The lesson for my son is that he is not easily going to make a living from flogging photographs. Film is a better option.
It's nice that he got an answer. In my experience companies are increasingly disorganised and unable to follow through plans. It started about the time the internet got hold. You have to be pretty shrewd to work in the corporate game, and accept that only a small proportion of enquiries lead to work. If he wants to get into bue chips, he has to chip away - and not waste time with small fry. Resillience and 'naus' are arguably more important than being able to take a good photo!Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff