Dive Op wants to use my pic, should I charge?

Well Joe you have smitten the nail upon it’s crux.  After a couple emails we settled on 50% off, about a $1300 value.  Anyone have a boilerplate basic agreement?  I did cave and will give them the picture “foreverâ€.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Does this mean that you sold the image or that you have released this image for unlimited perpetual use by these people ?

Never underestimate the value of your work - it's like doing a high dive .

The degree of difficulty multiplied by the uniqueness of the shot equals the dollar value..................

Nice shot by the way.

Peter

And Clay, would YOU make money on it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi Joe. It looks like money in the bank to me. -Clay

Peter good to hear from you, looks like we will be seeing you next yr. The deal is I swap the photo for the discount. I believe it will show up in a brochure that just went to print. In addition if I do a 1000 word report on the next trip and some photos another discount on a future trip. I understand the interest in getting value for the photos; being the first time I have negotiated one of these deals I appreciate all the help.

Good shot, but I think you could have got more for it. The dead space on the right is a dream for laying up text and hence it's ideal for advertising. Advertising pays big time.

Also, any image should be sent with a delivery note stating the licence terms by which the picture can be used. 'Forever' is not really an option and legally speaking it's fairly meaningless.

Next time, define the period and back up the licence terms with terms and conditions more water tight than a mermaid's bra. The problem with not doing so is that a company further down the line might want to buy the image and they might well ask where else it's been sold to and under what terms. This can be the clincher as to whether it sells again or not. Afterall who's going to buy a picture which has already been given away to someone 'forever'...

My terms and conditions are linked to from my site (see the link at the bottom of the page which this link points to): Terms and conditions (sample)

To go with these t&c's I send a delivery not which, for example, would read:

Licence terms: Use of the picture contained herein for five years starting from 1st January 2006 on a non-exclusive basis for reproduction in print media only in the United Kingdom. Subject to attached Terms & Conditions.

Moral Rights Asserted.

Hope this helps.

More great info. Nice to see some legal verbiage that can be used by those of us who have no clue. The value thing seems to be more difficult. One site said $200 for one image in a printing of 200000pcs. I know comparing a trip discount to cash in hand is difficult but in effect I received $1300 for this shot. Would be great to hear some deals some of you pros have worked in similar situations. It would give us amateurs a baseline. I tried to get the trip for free but was told point blank that they don’t do that for anyone.

Well, using my favorite stock agency, Alamy in the UK (my favorite coz I make the most money from them ), I ran the numbers for a pretty ordinary Eagle Ray shot used on the front of a brochure, print run up to 200,000, worldwide one year licence for a travel/tourism company.

You can play with the calculator yourself by clicking here...

The punchline is that they would have charged US $2480 for a licence as described. As the photographer, assuming you are on their standard "Alamy Blue" commission scheme, you would be paid ~60% of that, i.e. $1488. So I think you actually did OK with a $1300 discount, but next time limit the duration of their licence and don't sell all rights...

Alamy is a pretty big agency, they sell images into lots of high end publications (Outside Magazine, for instance, seems to use them a lot), and thus I think that their rates are a fair respresentation of what that sort of market will bear.

I know nothing about US Law but have made my living from a close study of copyright law in the UK. It is my understanding that here you cannot grant a license to reproduce in perpetuity. You must havea time frame (even if it is 99 years?!) as a part of the contract.

You will always own the copyright until 75 years after your death.

So, in agreeing terms quote a time scale, media usage (or where it will be used), exclusivity or not, and price. Make it understood that rights to reproduce do not pass until after payment is made.

Hopefully you will not get shafted.

Good luck.