Here is One Example of Why You Always Negotiate Price First

I received a call a few weeks ago from a photographer friend who was my assistant 20 years ago. He is an outdoor adventure photographer and has a successful business these days.

He needed advice and my opinion.

He had just wrapped up an assignment for a major beer company, one you all know and if you drink beer, you probably have drunk theirs.

They had contacted him at the last minute to shoot some outdoor imagery with people at a location in the mountains where the beer company was involved in an ‘outdoor promotional program’ at an event. … Continue Reading

Read This If You Sell Limited Edition Prints

Many fine art and landscape photographers sell limited edition prints that are signed and numbered. I have not done this but have always assumed that if I purchased a print form a photographer and my copy was for example, number 88 of 250, that there would never be anymore prints ever printed after 250.

Apparently the William Eggleston Trust might have seen it differently. One of their collectors says they have ‘repackaged’ the same images in a new format and new framing and are selling those as a new product.

From Photo District News:

A major collector of William Eggleston’s work filed suit against the photographer yesterday in a U.S. District Court in New York City, accusing Eggleston of devaluing his vintage dye-transfer prints by selling new, large-scale pigment prints of those same images. The suit by Jonathan Sobel, a collector who owns more than 190 of Eggleston’s works, was prompted by a March 12, 2012, auction at Christie’s of 36 new digital pigment prints of Eggleston’s work. The sale brought in more than $5.9 million.

It seems to me that the image is whats in limited edition not the ‘package’ that includes the image. What do you think?

Source: Photo District News … Continue Reading

How To Quote The Photography Assignment

A stock photo client calls you with an assignment. The photo buyer likes your photography and enjoys working with you and now wants you to shoot a project.

Commercial clients who purchase your stock images are likely to assume you shoot assignments. If, up to now, you’ve only shot for stock, consider this article a primer to prepare you for taking the step into assignment photography.

Unlike shooting stock, assignments are not speculative and have specific client requirements. Often these requirements are unavailable in a stock photo. For example, the client may want a photo of its product–with the logo prominent in the image–being used on a backpacking trip.

Assignments require planning, estimating/budgeting and production. Most often you are required to prepare an estimate for the client that will pull all of the elements together. … Continue Reading

Why You Should Always Get Paid Up Front

Have you ever had a client buy something from you and then not pay? If you have not then you are very lucky.

I got a call a two years ago from a small ‘one-person’ calendar publishing company who had seen my work around and needed some pictures for next years calendar.  We talked briefly about what he needed and he threw out some names of other photographers he had worked with, names I knew.

I sent him thumbnails and he picked two shots for the calendar and we settled on price.

I next sent him the two high resolution versions by ftp and followed two days later with an invoice.

A year and a half later I FINALLY got paid. Was I stupid by trusting a total stranger? Yep! These situations make me want to quit trusting the client and instead ask them to trust me. So I’ve changed my strategy, demanding as much as I can to get paid up front and here is how I handle it now. … Continue Reading

Selling Images Online Has More Than Monetary Drawbacks

When the internet emerged the stock photo industry was one of the first large industries to embrace the technology and its advantage sales and distribution of digital imagery.

Photographers benefited as well from the global reach an online stock agency could have and that equaled more sales.

The best known and most widely discussed drawback to online sales was the emergence of the one price model based on resolution size over the value of the images usage. It was widely believed that photographers might make less per sale but earn more sales. But there are other drawbacks as well.

10 years ago I tired of ‘pulling’ photo requests and all the labor that went into that task.

Book and calendar submissions felt more like giant photo contests so when my stock agent said they were building a website and heading to online image sales I saw it as a wonderful opportunity.

More reach across the globe, more sales, more income, and less office work for me!  But like everything, there is always a downside.

… Continue Reading

10 Tips on Selling At Art Fairs

by Drake Fleege

I have been considering selling prints at art fairs, and am wondering if making both a financial and time commitment to this venue would provide a good income stream.

The one variable that is most difficult to quantify is the potential sales that might be generated from each show.

Though my research is still a work-in-progress, I am having difficulty finding a justifiable first year return on the initial investment.

Here is my market research thus far. … Continue Reading

What Would You Charge For This Photo Usage?

Editors Note: One of the most challenging tasks for photographers is determining what to charge. I received this email from a reader asking for help in determining just what to charge for a specific use. I offered my advice and then suggested we post this to see how other photographers would handle this and what they would quote for the usage. We plan to post these requests as they come in, so if you have suggestions please mention them in a Comment. If you need help determining a price, please email us and we’ll open it to the readers to offer advice. And all names; photographer and client will be withheld and remain confidential!

Hello Charlie,

I couldn’t think of anyone else to turn to on this that didn’t have an affiliation with them and I need a professional opinion. I have been approached by XXXXXXXXXX to use two of my images in one of their up-coming books. They want to use my images for photo credit (no money). I don’t normally give away images and was hoping to get some professional feedback… Any thoughts?

John Doe (photographer) … Continue Reading

5 Reasons Your Photography Isn’t Selling

For those in the business of licensing their stock photography, times are challenging if not difficult. The market for stock imagery is competitive and saturated and making sales is difficult.

More photographers than ever are in the business sharing the same dream to succeed at their passion. And with the job market in the ditch even more shooters are entering the business looking to make any money to offset their job loss.

The poor market, lousy economy, and competition may not be the only reasons your work may not be selling. As co-founder of online agency, Fogstock, I have looked at countless images submitted by photographers for consideration and we see a mix of the same old places as well as some new and unique imagery.

Here are 5 reasons photography doesn’t sell and some thoughts on what to do about it. … Continue Reading

Not Sure What to Charge? Ask The Client For Their Budget

A client wants to use one of your photos and requests a price or they have asked to bid an assignment. This can be a difficult position to be in a tight and competitive market.

You may be wondering “what is a fair price?”

The struggle over what to charge comes from not wanting to charge too much and lose the sale but also not wanting to charge too little and later regret it.

A good approach is to find out what the clients budget is. This can save you time and make this tough process easier.

Having the client disclose their budget also allows you to decide if it is enough to license the image or in the case of an assignment, it tells you if you can afford to take on the assignment at that price. … Continue Reading

The Role of Negotiations

by Drake Fleege

It’s a great day – the photo buyer has made contact to license your image.  To facilitate this transaction it is necessary to ask a few questions.  The generic questions are of importance.  These include: the image selected, intended utilization, (cover, inside, image size), publication, distribution, and frequency of use.  These questions are easily handled with most photo licensing calculators.  If this is all that is needed, the image can be licensed and sale made, assuming the calculator returned a figure within the licensee’s budget.  The transaction becomes essentially a commodity purchase, regardless of the price of the license fee or the quality of the image. … Continue Reading