Pricing advice please from the pros?

[Blue_In_AK]

One of my Iditarod mushers wants me to e-mail him several of the shots I took of him in full resolution so he can give some to his sponsors, parents, etc. How much do you think I should charge him?

[flamin lib]

1. Print and sell him the photos.

There are several rights that can be assigned to photos. In descending order of value:

Sole rights where the buyer owns the image. Nobody else can ever use the photo unless they buy it from the owner (who purchased it from you).

First time rights where nobody else has ever seen the image but you can sell it agian.

One time rights where others may have seen the photo but the buyer only has permission to use it once.

Stock rights where the image is available to anyone who wants to use it for any purpose as many times as they want. Usually limited in some way by date or usage.

To give someone the full rez images without limit is giving away a lot. However, it depends on what the market will bear (how much money has the buyer got?) and what other venues you have to sell your photos. Will selling this photo enhance your sales of other images? If so make damn sure the buyer doesn't divulge your selling price 'cause future images can be worth much more with exposure.

At the very least you should get some agreement in writing as to the use and rights you are granting. That way if your image shows up in Palin's campaign literature you can make a stink.

[CC]

2. I don't see a problem with selling him

a couple high res files with personal use & copyright info attached to the file in the exif data. Maybe limit the size and number of prints in there too. Might not stop him from printing lots of them at home but it will stop even Walmart from printing more than allowed. Also a copyright on the front of the photo. Kind of like Olan Mills and Lifetouch do on their photos.

As for the sponsor I would tell him to tell them to contact me directly though they are more than welcome to view them on the website. If the sponsor wanted to use them they need to negotiate a contract with you.

I would suggest you hit the local library if possible or bookstore and find Best Business Practices for Photographers by John Harrington. At least read part 3 legal issues. He has sample contracts and real life stories of businesses trying to get a whole lot for nothing and this from someone they know and want to hire.


Pricing I would say at least 4 times the price they would pay for the biggest print you offer because you won't make any sales to him from your site. Truthfully I don't see why he can't just purchase prints from your web page. Same for the sponsor. Then you have some control over what the final print looks like. They could home print on a crappy printer and make your work look like shit. I have seen that done way too many times and have gotten to where I can see the difference between printer and photo pretty quickly. Smuggy has both a high res and low res download price place. At the minimum set you price there and have him buy it from there.


Not much help on price itself and kind of scattered since I typed as I thought of the things others have told me or helped me with. The only time I was ask about full res. files I quoted them a price of 1 thousand per file. No they didn't buy the files but they did go back and buy prints as did family and friends. (Helped that it was special event photos.)

[Blue_In_AK]

3. The photos weren't all on the website.

I had gotten cards from him and a few of the other mushers while I was in Nome, and so I sent each of them small versions of the best personal pictures I had of them (several of which weren't posted because I didn't want to overload the website), just as PR more than anything. Mostly I was looking for "strokes," which were very gratifyingly provided. :) I was pleased by that because, since everyone has a camera, I know the mushers must see lots of pictures of themselves. (Have I said recently how much I love my 70-200 L lens?)

How do you put the personal use and copyright info in the exif data?

[CC]

4. Well hell put them on the site.

You are paying for a pro account and I don't see where they limit the amount of space you are allowed. You could set up a private (password protected even) area for the mushers that are interested in purchasing without over loading all your visitors. Though I do not see how anyone could complain about seeing more of your photos. That may be all this guy really needs, a way to get prints of the pictures you sent him. Maybe try setting up the full res. photos on a link just for him with all the options to buy that you offer elsewhere. That would be the easiest way for you and I bet for him too. BTW how could any of them not love your photos? You got great captures in all of them I saw.


I am not sure how to add the data in Paint Shop. They should have a way to do it though. In Photo Shop you go to file, file info and can add and save the info to the file. I am adding example below off a picture I stole from online just so you have an idea of what I am talking about.






I did them big so you could read what I wrote. lol And tell Blue_In_CA yes we love seeing pictures of Aiman but the story she adds is just as interesting and important. Where is part 3 btw?

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Nice!

She'll be getting to part 3, I'm sure. :) Speaking of Aiman, I've been meaning to get some more photos of him posted, but I've been pretty sick since I got back from CA -- I think I picked up a norovirus of some kind on one of the planes or in a terminal somewhere and have been wiped out since Saturday. The kids haven't gotten it so I must have caught it somewhere in my travels, but now HullBoss has come down with it, too. Not swine flu, though, of that I'm sure.

Anyway, thanks for the info, and I'll see what I can work up.

[CC]

6. Terry had something like that Saturday.

He was sick enough to want to be left alone. Usually he whines and wants babied so I know he was pretty sick. I am hoping I stayed far enough away and washed my hands enough that I somehow skip catching it. Hope you get to feeling better soon, it seems to be a wicked bad virus. Hullboss too.


I have been remembering to check out her blog once I realize Aiman is letting her keep up with it. Her writing is entertaining and she should take pride in it. I am jealous. Aiman of course is still the cutest little guy. Right up there with his cousins.



I really wish DU would stop trying to change his name to Airman though. :rofl:

[Blue_In_AK]

7. Riaz, who is pretty funny,

goes around saying, "Can I get an AI-MAN?" which kind of cracks me up given his religion. :rofl:

[dbmk]

12. The word exists, in a slightly different spelling, in Islamic prayers too

Just to throw in some trivia. :)

[dbmk]

11. If you love it half as much as I love mine

..we are already way beyond indecent. :)

[Blue_In_AK]

8. CC, I found where to add all that stuff in Paint Shop

and I did it to this picture. Can you check the data and see if I did this right?

[CC]

9. You got it!

I could read it even after just downloading from the page. He is so cute.

Now not sure how to do it in paint shop but in photo shop you can save the file info and then add it in a batch to your photos to save time. Only works if want them all to say the same thing but is a real time saver when you do. Paint shop should have something like it.

[ConsAreLiars]

10. This may just be a bug in the Firefox Add-on called "Exif Viewer" but

I see double entries like "City = Anchorage / Anchorage" in the info you added. Apart from that, in the Copyright section you may want to add "by "Your Name, All Rights Reserved" as well as the year.

Also be aware that the EXIF data offers no protection, since it is easily stripped out and likely to be ignored by print-makers even if present.

As a further note, the sponsors are likely to want to use the images in advertising copy. The prices you should charge for commercial use of your images is substantially higher than for personal use, and alghough your highest res versions are best for making large (full page, calendar, and such) images, there is much software out there for up-sizing that is very effective, so even a 5x7 file at 300 dpi (a 1500x2100 pixel image) cane easily be reproduced as an 8x10 or 11x14 print with a bit of cropping withot a lot of loss in quality, so your data files are more valuable than you might think. Reading the marketing book recommended above is a good idea.